NBA Summer League Rocks!!!

My wife is on a ten day beach trip at Emerald Beach in North Carolina. So this worked out perfectly as the diva lab Pauli and I have taken in at least two Summer League games every night.

These NBA kids and these games have been superb. The NBA may suck currently in Oklahoma, but elsewhere in the league where other teams haven’t foolishly pissed away their first round picks on physically weak and feeble whites from overseas—the league is on fire.

Can you imagine being a fan in Atlanta where you now have Trey Young nnd Sharife Cooper (War Eagle) on the same club?

Can you imagine being a Houston Rocket fan with Jalen Green and the Big Turk on the same team?

Not much from either of Sam Presti’s two first round picks as Giddy can’t play through a mild ankle sprain and Tre Mann has gone home for an undisclosed reason. Didn’t we just do this with both Terrance Ferguson and Alex Abrines?

This is not what Oklahoma City needed after the disgrace which the Thunder were in 2021. Those two wins against Boston and LA grate at me every time I blog anything about this NBA venture in Oklahoma City.

Apparently…Nick Collison’s role with the Thunder is being expanded this season and he will become the special assistant of Sam Presti moving forward. My suggestion to Clay Bennett is this move should occur immediately and that Nick’s role expands before the Thunder make anymore stupid personnel decisions.

I haven’t gone off yet on Presti passing on the Turkish center with our No. 16 pick. I’m trying to compose myself without even thinking of that piece of fiduciary malpractice. I’ll feature the Big Turk before the Summer League winds up. Once again the Houston Rockets take advantage of Sam Presti.

I’m just loving the games. I stayed up late last night to watch Austin Reaves and Jericho Sims. Then of course the night before I watched the game with Cade and Jaylen Green. Plus…I caught some of Jalen Suggs’ debut with Orlando.

But of course we in Oklahoma City don’t have Davion Mitchell, Cory Kispert, or the Big, Agile, Skilled Turk even though OKC could have had two of the three with the 6-16-18 pick configuration the Thunder had on draft night.

I wonder if Clay Bennett is concerned. His team seems to lack a plan. Their flagship blog the Daily Thunder is worse than listening to Michael. Cage. Homer pissant Little Nick Gallo’s hot takes aren’t much if they ever were.

There wouldn’t be much for Sam Anderson to write about this time around given the state of the Thunder halfway through this Summer League.

But for the rest of NBA fans in other cities this is some very lit stuff basketball wise.

Nick Collison…please save Sam Presti from himself and start putting a team together soon.

Davion Mitchell Shines in NBA Debut

So then after you win the late season games against Boston and LA and drop out of the top five you pass on national champion Davion Mitchell who runs like the wind and made Jalen Suggs his bitch on Championship Monday.

Tonight…in Davion’s NBA debut he went for 10 points, 11 assists, and a floor best +16 in a Sacramento win. Best player on the floor.

Another brilliant decision by Sam Presti.

So as I sit here thinking to myself…what is it precisely something Sam Presti has done in Oklahoma City other than being the guy who had the pick after Portland took Greg Oden?

Sam Presti has never won a playoff series in Oklahoma City without Kevin Durant carrying his lunch sack. In the time since Durant left Oklahoma to be on a team with a shooting guard who can shoot—the Thunder are a winless post season team who aren’t even relevant currently in the Oklahoma sports landscape.

You would even have to rank O State football and easily O State basketball as more fan relevant than the Thunder currently.

If I were doing my sports relevancy poll right now in Oklahoma I would have the Thunder sitting in the sixth slot. I would go 1 OU football, 2 O State football, 3 O State basketball, 4 OU womens’ softball, 5 OU mens’ basketball, 6 the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Unbelievable.

Maybe these guys already have another ownership group in another city waiting for this franchise.

Let me edit myself immediately. I owe Sam Presti an apology. When he traded Serge Ibaka to Orlando he got Victor Oladipo, the draft pick which conveyed into Domas Sabonis, and Ersan Illyasova who who was traded to acquire Jerami Grant.

But then of course he traded away all those young pieces to have the Thunder where they are today as a G League team with a ringer on a max contract who in reality will have only three years left on his window in Oklahoma if the Thunder become relevant two years from now down the road.

7th…I’m moving the Thunder down to 7th behind Tulsa Golden Hurricane football. I try to be fair on here. Tulsa went to bowl game last season and had a player drafted in the first round.

I need a music video and a Coors Light to go to sleep. The fact we didn’t take Davion Mitchell will bother me for at least two months.

I love this song. This will put me to sleep immediately. One of my favorite songs by Sting. Have a nice Tuesday night watching Cade vs. Jalen Green.

NBA Summer League Gets Going

Here we are in the dog days of August. The NBA’s G-League is underway. I won’t watch all that much of the Thunder’s games since they won those two late season games versus Boston and the LA Clippers and foolishly won two games and missed out on a top five pick.

Josh Giddey’s first game as Thunder lasted five minutes before he fell down and sprained his ankle and was a DNP the rest of the game in what is a developmental league.

OKC behind a very crisp performance by guard Theo Maledon beat Cade Cunningham’s Pistons’ by a 76-72 count.

Cade struggled and was not stellar in this game.

The Pistons play Jalen Green’s Houston Rocket club tomorrow night in what will give us a game featuring the top two picks in the draft. This will be a game I make sure and watch.

I see no reason to watch all that much of the Thunder in the summer G-League because in fact they’re primarily going to be a G-League level team this season for 82 games. The questions in Oklahoma City will be how many games Sam Presti allows Shai to participate in this season and will Lu Dort become a small forward like PJ Tucker?

Shai on this Thunder team will make OKC a G-League team on steroids with a ringer.

The next question in Oklahoma City is if Presti has his overall roster bad enough at this point to stay in the 22-25 win range this season in a non-tanking NBA season.

If I recall..Vegas had OKC at 22.5 wins over/under last season on a roster which started with Big Al Horford and George Hill alongside Shai.

I feel for Shai, but he just reupped on his contract so I’m to assume being relevant in the legue isn’t a thing for him right now. Trey Young reupped, but he’s on a team which just made the Eastern Conference Finals.

Hopefully…in the next Thunder G Laegue game this summer Josh Giddey can keep from falling down and give Thunder ticket buyers a reason to buy some tickets if in fact the Thunder allow fans inside of PayCom Arena this season.

OKC along with Portland and Chicago never allowed fans last season inside of their arenas with their team Covid protocol.

Cade vs. Jalen…I can’t wait.

Moral of the story…when you’re tanking don’t beat the Celtics and Clippers in late season games you needed to lose.

I bet Sam Anderson of NY Times fame like me…thought to himself Operation Bongo never ends in Oklahoma City….does it.

Big 12 Football Picks

Amidst everything which has transpired the past two weeks…the Big 12 teams are in their camps and training for what could be the last season of play for the conference.

It’s been since 2005 in which a Big 12 team won the national championship. In that period of time… OU with Sam Bradford in 2008 made it to the finals against Urban Myers’ Florida Gators. In 2009– the Texas Longhorns with Colt McCoy made it to national championship night before losing to the Alabama Crimson Tide.

OU has made it to the national semi-final game four times since then and gone a collective 0-4 against Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, and LSU. Only in the Georgia game could it be said the Sooners had a chance to win in the second half. OU actually should have won that game. Lincoln Riley needs to ring that bell.

In that same period of time no other Big 12 team has dinged the semi-finals with an appearance. It has been a one team league with one team in essence carrying the only real hope for any team in the conference of appearing in the College Football National Championship Playoff.

Quite the opposite has been the case in basketball as the Big 12 has emerged as the best basketball league in college hoops with Baylor recently winning the national championship over Gonzaga. The season before Kansas and Baylor were the respective one and two seeds in the entire bracket before Covid wiped out the tournament. The season before that Chris Beard’s Texas Tech team came within seconds of winning the national champuonship versus Virginia.

It’s ironic how hoops has thrived in the Big 12 while football other than for one team hasn’t been much.

The Big 12 is a finesse league in which QB play is paramount to a team’s success. I will say this though…OU, Iowa State, and O State have all improved on the defensive side of the ball in the past two seasons.

I would also add that in my view Spencer Rattler, Brock Purdy, and Spencer Sanders enter this season as the three best QBs returning in the league.

Texas under first year coach Steve Sarkisian is an unknown at this point so I can’t have them any higher than fourth. Texas has been the biggest problem in the league the past ten years as in they don’t pull their link on the chain. We’ll see if the former USC offensive savant can turn Texas back into a football program versus just being the Federal Reserve of the league.

I would go 1 OU, 2 Iowa State, and 3 O State. Texas..4. I would think among these top four teams.

If you went went purely on objective data based on the last three years …Iowa State with Matt Campbell is the Big 12 Team which should be heading to the SEC with OU. But as we know the world is for sale every day and Texas is the Federal Reserve of college athletics…like it or not. But I am proud a former John Marshall Bear is running that Federal Reserve… that’s pretty cool. It shows the American Dream is still a thing.

Spencer Sanders is the player I have circled. The former high school national player of the year is now a fourth year junior redshirt. His resume hasn’t matched up to the expectations yet. But this could be the time if he would simply run the football more and create space for his receivers by putting pressure on the other team’s corners. Watch the above video…Spencer. Running the football is your best skill.

Vince Young was horrible until in 2004 in the Rose Bowl versus Michigan … then the light switch went on and Mack Brown became a good coach. Player makes the coach—don’t ever forget that. Just ask Greg Poppovich… Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant…simple game.

If I’m O State prez Kayse Schrum I have November 27th circled. If my Mullet King five million plus dollar coach can’t get it done I’d be looking to be making a change heading into the future regardless of where O State lands.

I mean if you as a coach can’t have your team team jacked to win this game on this stage then it’s time to become a television analyst.

Win the game and make the Big 12 Championship Game. It’s that simple.

PJ Tucker Signs With Miami Heat

Amidst the signings by various free agents and the NBA draft itself this caught my attention as PJ Tucker signed a two year contract with the Miami Heat for two years for $15 million dollars with a player option in the second year.

A very nice move by the Heat as they straighten up their team after being swept by the Bucks 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Playoffs in the first round.

PJ Tucker isn’t a star by any means, but he’s certainly one of those players who does all the little things which make a team better.

A tough minded versatile defensive player who can hit the three from the corner as well.

It’s the kind of move which doesn’t draw star attention from the media, but still a nice move by the Miami Heat.

His best game of the Finals on the road in Game 5 versus the Phoenix Suns was a key to the Bucks winning in six games.

If I were Lu Dort this is the player I would immulate my game around moving forward with my career.

Surely…the Thunder don’t plan on trading Lu Dort anytime soon.

This move by the Heat is one I’m circling in my Beat Vegas notebook for the upcoming NBA season

PJ Tucker, good luck in Miami. They need you.

I guess unless I missed it Tyler Herro is still on the Heat. Tyler…PJ Tucker needs to rub off on your game. I love the smirk, but you need some PJ Tucker in your game even if the Heat trade you.

Did Texas Wreck The Big 12?

UT Ptesident Jay Hartzell grew up in Oklahoma and is a John Marshall High School alum just like me. Small world.

He took some grilling on Monday from the Texas state legislature on the Longhorns’ decision to leave the Big 12.

Texas was compared to Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation and scorned for the Horns being 3-7 versus the TCU Horned Frogs these past ten seasons. See former TCU grad Dan Jenkins up in Frog heaven smiling.

But are the Longhorns responsible for the ever rapidly changing face of the college football landscape?

I would say no.

UT is like a bank or the federal reserve. They have so much money it is ridiculous. Their presence in a conference gives that conference immediate financial cache so to speak.

Texas in football the past decade in my mind along with UCLA, USC, and Michigan has been a major underacheiver on the field. I’d love to put these four in a Final Four and see who would emerge as the champion right now.

Throw out Colorado leaving the Big 12 to join the PAC 12. Re-insert Texas A&M, Nebraska, and Missouri back into the Big 12 and slide Texas over to the SEC these past ten years in your mind.

What would be different about the current face of the college football landscape except the best league in the country would have even more financial clout?

Texas A&M and Missouri were not strong enough when in the Big 12 to take out OU. Nebraska was allowed to play in the league’s weaker North division and didn’t do all that much and was in decline. Tell me how many combined Big 12 championships A&M, Missouri and Nebraska won in football in that Big 12. What would be different?

Not much except OU wouldn’t be as strong because they would have lost the Red River Rivalry as a critical recruiting tool. BY going to the SEC there will be no more 11:00am kickoffs for the Red River War. It will be a 2:30pm kickoff. Every high school football player in Texas will be watching. So while the world is for sale every day and money rules there were other cosiderations for Joe C.

The SEC is run like a very effective business with a methodical plan to in essence rule college football in totality at some point if not already.

Simply observe how the SEC manages Covid issues and getting thru a season versus the Big 12. There would not have been a college football season if not for the SEC last season and I would say with surging Covid numbers once again this season might be a repeat in that regard.

Did Texas wreck the Big 12?

I don’t think so. What happened in my mind is that the SEC and the Big Ten adapted to the doctrine that Money and Marketing Rule and have emerged as the power brokers.

OU would have loved to have been accepted to the Big Ten. What OU did in effect by joining the SEC was hookup it’s remarkable football brand with a bank and join the best run, best marketed football conference in the country.

And that is exactly what Joe C and the OU new president should have done as fiduciaries of the university and the state.

Jay Hartzell a John Marshall Bear running the Texas National Bank…that’s cool. It just goes to show how having some diversity in your unbringing isn’t a bad thing. It socializes you and makes you an adaptable human who sees the world from multiple prisms.

O State President Kayse Schrum Says No To Future Bedlam

In between work stops today I heard Mark Rodgers say O State’s new president in a sequence of recent tweets has said no to future Bedlam competition.

How sad. But not sad for OU, but sad for the fact the enabling in regards to Mike Gundy and his football program apparently will continue in Stillwater.

Only this time it won’t come from T Boone Pickens or Mike Holder or the O State Board of Regents.

Here’s the brutal truth about Oklahoma State football the previous decade…they appear to be afraid of competing at an elite national level yet want to be compensated as if they were Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida, Georgia and Clemson.

To be elite in any sport or any human endeavor for that manner you can’t cower from playing the best. You have to realize that to get better there are times you have to lose or even some times get your ass kicked to get better.

Oklahoma State won’t play anybody and that’s been the truth since 2011 when after the season Holder and Pickens scheduled Gundy’s team to play Florida State in a kick-off classic, which btw was a very entertaining game in which O State lost.

Then came the Gundy theatrics. The ultimatums he would do the scheduling or do his coaching at Tennessee or Arkansas or some other locale which would woo the Mullet King.

And this is where Oklahoma State in my view made the bed in which they find themelves today…namely on the outside looking in at the elites in college football. Instead of parting ways with Gundy… they paid him at an elite level.

In that same period of time Joe C’s program has played Notre Dame home and away, Ohio State home and away, Tennessee home and away minus a covid game, Army home and away minus a covid game, and scheduled LSU for a home and away.

In that same period of time in bowl games and/or playoff games Joe C’s program has played Alabama twice, Clemson, Auburn, LSU, Florida, and Georgia.

OU won some of those games, yet got their ass kicked off the field in the LSU game. That was a beat down loss as was the USC game back in the 2004 national championship game under Bob Stoops.

But you know what Joe C didn’t do? He didn’t recoil from those setbacks and schedule his program as if they were a collective bunch of entitled pussies who’s mommies and daddies couldn’t handle those tough losses to USC and LSU.

Here’s another truth about O State football they are one of four programs in this Big 12 and the previous Big 12 who have never made it to the Big 12 Championship Game. The other three are Kansas, Texas Tech, and West Virginia.

What Joe C said to Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley after the tough losses is basically…get better. Recruit better. Coach better. Compete your ass off and earn your salary. Let me know as your AD what I can do to help you make us an elite national program again. I’ll do the scheduling.

Truth be known, neither O State or Texas have been the second best team in this Big 12 the past two years. That team would be Matt Campbell’s Iowa State Cyclones who have my complete and total respect for what they’ve done with their program of late.

Iowa State has beaten OU twice so far in Campbell’s tenure and almost beat them in the Big 12 Championship Game last December at Jerry’s World.

Let’s assume for a second I’m Joe C and I just lost Lincoln Riley to the NFL.

Let’s assume I need to hire a new head coach. Would I take Matt Campbell, Alex Grinch, or Mike Gundy?

Not even close who wouldn’t be in the top two on that list.

And that’s the problem in Stillwater. That being, an honest and introspective look at why they’re not going to the SEC might prove helpful looking towards the future. The admission it’s not OU’s fault.. but O State’s own doing and they’re not big enough to admit it publicly.

Truth hurts.

I could use a music video after that. Have a nice Tuesday. Enjoy the fall-like weather. To be young again, eh.

Cade Cunningham Ends Up In Detroit As The No. 1 Pick

It was an honor for me on my little blog to cover Cade’s one college season. From the first game at Marquette to the second round versus Cinderella Oregon State… I made a point of watching every one of Cade’s college games and jotting something down in my Cade Cunningham Journal.

What an irony it is that Troy Weaver the former assistant to Sam Presti ends up with Cade and the Thunder end up with Josh Giddy.

Cade is the first player in Oklahoma State hoops history to be the No. 1 player taken in the NBA Draft.

With Jerami Grant already in Detroit the Pistons will immediately become a team I follow on here from time to time.

Look at Cade’s body sometime and then scrutinize the bodies of Sam Presti’s two first round picks in Poku and Josh Giddy.

In fact…I would say with the exception of perhaps Rondel Walker at O State every player on both OU and O State’s rosters looked more physically prepared to play in the NBA than what Sam Presti selected with a No. 17 and a No. 6 pick in the last two drafts.

Here’s what I would say about this season…I think he’ll actually make the transition to the NBA easier than he made to the college level last season because his game is tailor made for pick and roll and pick and pop. Plus, with his size and skill set he can isolate any time he wants and back a defender down and get whatever shot he wants.

Even when O State swept OU in the back to back Bedlam games…I have to admit it didn’t bother me like it normally might have because I knew I was watching something special…kind of like when Barry Sanders went off for over 200 yards against the Sooners in 1988 in a game O State should have won.

Barry Sanders and Cade both end up in Detroit. Who would have thought?

He’s a classy young man and I hope he realizes every goal he has made for himself and his team in the NBA.



Thoughts On Bedlam

I would say go ahead and continue the series if new O State President Kayse Shrum feels inclined to do so. Both Joe C and President Harroz are on record saying they want to continue Bedlam.

Bedlam started in 1910 and OU at this point holds a 90-18-7 advantage in the football series. In basketball it’s been more competitive with OU only holding a 140-102 edge.

You could schedule the football game in November and then maybe have a double dip of Bedlam hoops in Oklahoma City in December with a womens/men doubleheader of Bedlam basketball. Kind of like the old All College Holiday Classic. That would be cool.

By all means…OU leaving to join the SEC which BTW…OU should have done ten years ago should have no bearing on Bedlam regardless of what conference O State lands when all the realignment is complete.

Keep Bedlam for certain.

If you’re an O State Trump evangelical you probably shouldn’t click the music video above. It will be too much for you. Don’t do it. Pussy control and pussy grabbing are two different things.

Ronnie Perkins is now a New England Patriot. One of the big questions for OU’s defense is if Nik Bonitto can fill the shoes of RP this coming season. I would think Nik will respond in a very positive manner. Since it looks like another season of rebuild in store for Thunder fans the OU season can’t get here soon enough.