Month: February 2019

Sam Presti didn’t make a move at the deadline and I agree with him. He did shed $7 million of payroll and tax when he traded TLC last week to the Bulls for a second round draft choice…which brings the luxury tax ‘down’ to $66 million or so for this season. To me, I see the Thunder much like I see Boston. Presti did enough this summer as did Danny Ainge. He dotted every i and crossed every t. It seems obvious we don’t know all of what is the Alex Abrines situation and I would think a roster spot is being held open for Andre Roberson in the event he gets healthy. So–that will require patience on both fronts.

I hate to be on Billy Donovan and Russell Westbrook’s collective asses, but the best thing Presti could acquire at the deadline would be a union of sorts between Westbrook and Donovan to become a smarter team as the season rolls into March.

Dumb teams which chronically make low reward decisions rarely if ever advance. And to be blunt, I’m pretty happy with the Thunder except for the dumb decision making which still haunts this team at times.

This isn’t on Presti, this is on his head coach and his peacock point guard Wild Thing.

Does even the trekkiest of the Daily Thunder Trekkies really think Wayne Ellington or some other buyout player like last year’s Corey Brewer puts OKC over the hump? I think not. Oh…the Trekkies and the tradeline… it’s like watching The March of the Penguins every February. What gets the Thunder on the hump and maybe over it is for Russell Westbrook to exorcise his worst inner demons in the last four minutes of games against good teams in pressure situations. Can you use a mid level exception for something like this? It seems apparent to me Billy Donovan isn’t going to step out of the part playing the role of a submissive enabling NBA head coach and wring this out of his point guard. So this is on Westbrook and possibly some form of a Bricktown voodoo exorcist.

The Rockets got better by acquiring Iman Schumpert from the Kings and are now clearly my pick as Golden State’s primary hurdle in the West. Add Schumpert with Kenneth Faried and Austin Rivers along with a healthy Eric Gordon, a healthy Chris Paul, and a healthy Clint Capela and all the sudden you could possibly make the argument this Houston roster now is every bit as good the one which pushed the Warriors to seven games last season.

The Sacramento Kings made themselves even more of a playoff contender as they acquired Harrison Barnes from Dallas. Dave Joerger is currently third on my list for NBA Coach of the Year and the Kings have truly been one of the positive stories this season in the league. Good for them and for the good fans in Sacramento. They deserve some loving kindness from the basketball gods.

The Clippers to me were the big story in the West as they unloaded Tobias Harris to the Sixers along with some other payroll and now look ready to sign two starfree agents this summer. One would think Jerry West would covet Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant at the head of that list. It will be time for West to call Durant again this summer and explain to him why he was really only kidding about winning all those rings with Steph and Klay for the rest of his career.

Watching the Clippers this summer reloading their ball club should be fun. They picked up the nice rookie point guard from the Sixers and they still have Jerry West lurking in the shadows.

Dallas picked up Porzingis and he’ll be back in good health by next season as the Mavs once again become respectable in the West.

In the East the Sixers picked up Harris. The Raptors picked up Marc Gasol. The Bucks picked up Mirotic… and the Boston Celtics still have the best roster in the East by standing pat.

So…isn’t it odd…in the West we have OKC’s Thunder with the third best roster in the West underachieving with the college coach from Florida, while we have the Boston Celtics underachieving with the college coach from Butler in the East. Is it just me or is it odd that Sam Presti and Danny Ainge neither one made a move today. In my view the only move both of these GMs need to make is to get their two college coaches to get more out of two of the best four rosters in the NBA currently. At some point in OKC and Boston… we in the basketball world need to see something in return for the leap of faith both GMs made in hiring college coaches.

Maybe Little Nick Gallo could actually do something useful and do this with Westbrook. Why not? This is so Oklahoma.

Tonight the Thunder play the Memphis Grizzlies at home on the night of the NBA’s trade deadline and for the second straight season I have the Thunder circled in red as the league’s most underachieving team at this juncture in an NBA season.

The Thunder stand at 34-19 with one of the league’s highest payrolls and should easily with any focus whatsoever be 40-13 and tied with the Milwaukee Bucks for the most wins in the NBA.

Again, I’m tired and bored with the local college media which attempts to cover the Thunder. The two brief paragraphs above aren’t all that radical, but you never read or hear any of this except from maybe Jim Traber. The level of coverage on the Thunder is appallingly weak if you’re a real NBA fan and you’ve been watching the league for five decades or so.

The Thunder are never challenged or taken to task for every season since 2012 for basically underachieving. Maybe in 2017 when they won 47 games following Durant’s departure I might give them a break. But not a huge one.

This Thunder in 2018-19 should be a strong contender. They should be at the 40 win plateau already if Billy Donovan had the coaching personality to ‘somewhat’ drive a team. This team has been relatively healthy unless you ever considered Alex Abrines an integral part of the team. This isn’t a team which has missed a lot of man games due to injury. Both Westbrook and Paul George have been healthy since the 0-4 start without Westbrook.

But it goes deeper because if you really look at this team everyone in the rotation has gotten better and performed at a high level individually. Steven Adams is having a career year and is now a borderline all-star type of player. Jerami Grant has evolved into one of the league’s most versatile players. Terrance Ferguson proved us all wrong and is the best two way player the Thunder has had at the shooting guard position since probably Thabo’s 2012 season or maybe Kevin Martin in 2013.

Paul George is having the best season in his NBA career and is a legitimate top four MVP candidate.

Dennis Schroder in my view is in the top three contenders for Sixth Man of the Year.

Nerlens Noel is one of the league’s best defensive specialists coming off the bench.

Patrick Patterson has been solid after getting off to a slow start and Abdel Nader has been fine taking over the Abrines minutes and Hamidou Diallo has been a pleasant surprise as a second round rookie making his way through his first NBA season.

So why the underachievement for this team with Carmelo Anthony gone and Billy Donovan already given his option year despite the fact the Thunder haven’t done anything of any note whatsoever these past two seasons so far.

I guess it’s just Sam Presti’s way is all I can assume at this point. If you’re an objective person you have to take notice that since Durant’s departure this franchise hasn’t done anything from a team standpoint except help Russell Westbrook pad his triple double numbers.

That’s it as far as I can see. They’ve finished no higher than fourth in the West in the regular season since Durant joined the Warriors. They haven’t sniffed winning a first round playoff series. They’re a collective 3-8 versus the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz in those post season games.

So what is it a fan should take away from all of this?

To me, it says either one of two things:

1 Russell Westbrook as a high usage point guard doesn’t have an overall game which can advance in NBA post season play when the competition is good every game and the opposing coach doesn’t miss obvious things.

2 Or Billy Donovan is in a bit over his head. Or maybe it’s calibrated combination of both of these factors rolled into one.

I don’t know, but I know this is a roster which should be headed for a 52-54 win regular season and at the minimum a team which should advance to the semi-final round in the West. To me, if I were Sam Presti these would have been my minimum benchmark requirements for this team.

But I guess I’m to assume in little college market Oklahoma City no one at the top thinks that way or rolls that way. I guess just having a team which is good enough to sell tickets is the line of achievement threshold.

So at the trade deadline for the second straight season the Thunder are one of the league’s underachievers from my point of view.

If you were paying attention to the speech and watching the room last night—you would have noticed the GOP senators were not nearly as enthused by Donald Trump as the GOP house members. That of course is because quite a few Republican senators are up for re-election in 2020 and they know those who aren’t Trump zombies are watching them closely right now. Put Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell at the head of that list. Oh, to be a GOP patrician in the age of the Orange Puffer Fish Prez.

It was a speech which had some Nixon. It had some Reagan in his second term trying to survive Iran-Contra. Not much George Wallace. But at its core it was Nixonian. Two presidents who never could come to terms with their own insecurities.

Think back to last night…did you ever see McConnell or Graham display outward joy at Caligula’s eighty minutes of Trump trying to appear as a somewhat normal POTUS? I didn’t notice any joy from any of the GOP senators. I did notice Mitt Romney and Melania had the best tans in the room. The beach must be a calming balm for Trump survivors.

Think about what you just witnessed last night. It was Trump extolling the virtue of American courage on the beaches of France at D-Day and then in the next breath boasting about his collection margins with NATO members. We assume or at least hope Trump 45 and his followers understand what would have happened if D Day had gone the wrong way for FDR and Churchill on that fateful day. You Trump followers do know who FDR and Churchill were, right? Hannity doesn’t have you believing that all that was fake news to keep the top marginal tax rate in place.

One thing Trump didn’t mention was the December jobs report when the new jobs tally was around 130,000 jobs, which of course was far less than the 200,000 or so new jobs Obama’s last year in the White House was producing with regularity.

Hopefully, you noticed he never once took on the NRA or mentioned the students at Parkland or students anywhere in America who’ve been massacred under his watch. Or mention that his new Doctrine in the Middle East is eerily similar to Obama’s Doctrine in that he wants to bring Americans home and compared to everyone else in his own party seem like a pacifist.

You also noticed he never did a price comparison of health care for the average family in America under his watch despite boasting about ending the Obamacare mandates. I wouldn’t be holding my breath either for a cut on drug prices…given in what we saw from his first Sec of Health Tom Price. We probably would need to know what was in his cabinet members’ various portfolios before crossing that bridge.

He never mentioned climate change. He never mentioned General Mattis or General Kelly. He never mentioned that Carrier plant in Indiana where he was going to save all those jobs. He never mentioned Harley Davidson and how his approval rating in Wisconsin is now 42% in a state where Scott Walker used to be governor.

He also never patted himself on the back for anything accomplished in the realm of infrastructure because the Great Orange Builder hasn’t in twenty-three months in office built anything.

It was heartwarming to see Trump greet Neil Gorsuch and Brett Cavanaugh since both of their votes on the Supreme Court may be needed at some juncture in the next two years for the Orange Glow President. That was a touching moment which I’m sure made Merritt Garland ill if he was watching last night by chance.

Trump of course never talked about the national debt in relation to his tax cut. But how could he? Under his watch the debt of course hits a new high with Trump every year he stays in office. Do you think perhaps this is why Reagan secretly enacted gas taxes and subtle business taxes…which Reagan called ‘revenue enchancers’? Bush 41 to his credit basically sealed his own political fate to being a one termer by going back on his ‘no new taxes pledge’ because he knew it was the right thing to do for the country at the time. Does anyone really think at any point Mike Pence would describe Trump’s fiscal policies as voodoo economics or stand up and do the right thing? Really? Does anyone see that Republican on the horizon?

And, of course, you never heard anything with an adult twist to it address the Russians tampering with the Election of 2016.

Nope.

Most of this SOTU speech was a recital of Trump using his wall promise to his Birther base to leverage the Dems to keep the White House open beyond February 15th.

As far as the Dems reply via Stacy Abrams…it was polite and to the point. It was okay. But why would you have someone who just lost their bid to become governor in Georgia address the nation to respond to Trump? Why not select someone who actually won their own race? Because at the end of the day, virtue probably isn’t going to unseat Donald Trump in 2020 if he survives whatever Robert Mueller finally reveals with his report. And by the same token, the same candidate who couldn’t even beat Ted Cruz in Texas might find beating Donald Trump in the Electoral College tougher than it looks at first glance.

Politics are a rough and tumble occupation in these times, but in reality politics have always been somewhat unseemly. It’s just that not until Trump was it so overt and repetitive on a daily basis.

Another reason I started a blog is that other than OU football coverage the Daily Oklahoman is a completely worthless piece of trash which I do believe in some fashion has contributed to the low literacy and educational rates in our state. Just me thinking out loud, but I’m going to guess the states with the better newspapers over the years have the higher levels of educational achievement. The First Amendment is kind of funny in how that works and all.

Of course, the internet has changed everything with newspapers, but still that’s no excuse for the dismal record of the Daily Oklahoman as a newspaper which should have been the beacon of smart thought instead of the other way around.

So… what is the State of Our Union heading into Caligula’s big night tonight given the government is still open at least until February 15th?

The Dow is around the 25,000 mark. Unemployment is around 4%. On most months this ‘new’ economy is creating around 200,000 new jobs….although 303,000 jobs were created in January. The national debt has expanded with the tax cuts regardless of some modest GDP growth. Health care reform never happened. Coming into tonight immigration reform hasn’t happened. No one, including Trump, has an idea how some of the new trade agreements will effect GDP long term. No one to date has witnessed an infrastructure bill from the Infrastructure President to date.

No one, again including Trump, has any idea what the Trump Doctrine is in relation to the U.S. role as pertaining to the world. No surprise U.S allies are confused with their relationships with what used to be the world leader since WWII. America has pulled out of the Paris Climate Change Accord. Same thing with the Iranian Nuclear Treaty.

We still have the NFL in spite of Trump and Kaepernick. The Supreme Court is now slanted the conservative way with Chief Justice John Roberts looming even larger in the days ahead. Our ten or so dumbest states, Oklahoma included, still adore Caligula despite what he does on his Twitter account. North Korea, Turkey, and Russia have become our closest allies in the new Trump World Order.

The Dems have control of the House, yet have not been able to do much other than restrain Caligula’s worst impulses to a limited degree. Every political hack alive has a written a Donald Trump book. Put Chris Christie and Cliff Sims at the head of that current class. George Will and most other conservative columnists spend more time now on MSNBC than Fox. The First Amendment is still intact despite being assaulted by this White House. Donald Trump dismisses the very intelligence chiefs he personally appointed.

The Republic breathlessly awaits Robert Mueller’s findings with suspended breath. And, in closing, our country has never been more divided and unable to govern itself in my lifetime.

This is the state of our union heading into night.

So…what will Trump 45’s tone be tonight?

My guess is when your approval rating is still around 81% within the realm of GOP voters….nothing much changes with the tone and the tenor. I would guess tonight is another dose of Steven Miller dogma laced with George Wallace and Richard Nixon nuance which will leave a smile on the face of Steve Bannon.

Why would these guys change course now given the fact the state of Virginia has shown the rest of the country it’s not just a GOP thing with old, rich, white guys?

One would think most Americans, at least the ones who can read, aren’t worn out just yet from all this winning from Day 1.

This is the state of our union.

Okay. I’ve intentionally not written about this for two days because I wanted to enjoy the Boston Bruins win over the Washington Capitals and of course it was Super Bowl week-end.

I have no deadlines on here. I write for my own pleasure since the sports writing in the Oklahoma City market is so predictably weak.

I went to the trouble of creating my own Thunder blog for this reason, plus of course, I’m using the blog to archive the outline to the book I want to write about this entire Oklahoma City Thunder experience. The problem with the book is that the outline seems to change every year from Durant’s free agency year to the present. I’m totally confident in my abilities to write this book if I can ever figure out how it should end. I so much want it to have a happy ending in my hometown.

Now before I start on here brutalizing Russell Westbrook, please go to the bottom and watch the video before you read this post.

I assume you’ve now watched the video. I’ll wait for you. I’m a Libra and we’re patient in that way.

This is why Kevin Durant did the absolute right thing in listening to Jerry West and joining the Warriors.

Replay the video and then tell me why Kevin Durant would come back to Oklahoma City to seriously pursue an NBA championship instead of leaving as he did.

Tell me why.

I think Nick Collison knows. He’s a smart basketball dude. But I also think Nick Collison invested his career into staying with one franchise from beginning to end. That’s just Nick Collison’s way. He’s not a superstar diva like Durant and Westbrook. If I could have one off the record source for my book I’d choose Collison.

I look at this video and it makes me want to vomit. This OKC team on the national game of the week leading into the Super Bowl had a chance to extend their win streak to eight games and make an endorsement as to why Paul George should be a viable MVP candidate.

But instead … Russell Westbrook opted to put his Wild Thing cape on and torch both of those options on ABC even drawing a ‘cataclysmic’ from Mike Breen and Hubie Brown in the process.

There’s the basketball part of me which wants to say…trade Russell Westbrook because you’re never getting back to the NBA Finals no matter how much payroll and tax the OKC ownership group pays.

But then there’s the human part of me which wants Russell Westbrook to stay here and win that one championship like Dirk did in Dallas or like Bill Walton did Portland.

Or maybe the adult take is the ending will be more like Reggie Miller’s career ended in Indiana.

I watched Kobe’s segment on ESPN last night and I agree with him. I don’t think in this era of basketball any team with either Harden or Westbrook’s high usage rates are going to win an NBA championship.

The Warriors move the ball. The Celtics move the ball. Sure—you need two go to guys, but you have to be smart about it.

I wonder if Sam Presti is ever tempted with the thought of what he could bring to his Oklahoma City team back in return for trading Russell Westbrook.

Think about this…what if you didn’t have Russell Westbrook and you did have Kevin Durant alongside Paul George, Steven Adams, Dennis Schroder, Terrance Ferguson, Jerami Grant, and Nerlens Noel. Talk about defense and length with two finishers.

I wonder if Sam Presti ever thinks like this.

Russell Westbrook, please don’t make Sam Presti think this way and smarten the f–k up.

I didn’t really have an MVP per se this game unless you were going to give it to Bill Belichick for his outstanding game planning from a defensive standpoint. Keep in mind, in these playoffs this New England defense stoned the high octane LA Chargers offense. Then shutdown Patrick Mahomes in the first half on the road in Arrowhead before the league’s MVP finally broke loose in the second half. Then of course, yesterday’s complete shutdown of the LA Rams for both halves.

So, in essence, in five out of six halves of play in post season, the Patriots were stellar on the defensive side of the ball. Absolutely stellar with a group of players who don’t have high name recognition.

Bill Belichick did something even Saben couldn’t do this season in the age of ping pong spread football…namely, he put a defense on the field which could deal with the spread. Maybe every Big 12 coach should study what Belichick and did see if this can be transferred to the college game. Note to Lincoln Riley, start studying what Belichick did against Kansas City and Los Angeles.

There is no longer a question as to whom is the best professional coach in all of professional sports in the collective bargaining agreement era. It is Bill Belichick whether you hate him or not.

And if Brady comes back I will have the Patriots as my odds on favorite to reach the Super Bowl again next season even if Gronk does retire.

Belichick isn’t only an X’s and O’s guru, but more than any other coach I’ve seen he understands how to evaluate and integrate players into his system of football.

He was my MVP in this Super Bowl. Tony Romo was second. And Jeff Bridges third.

Jared Goff, Sean McVay, Phil Sims, and Adam Levine not so much.

I hate that football season is over, but unlike so many in this part of the uneducated redneck bubba country… I’m passionate about hockey so I will seamlessly pivot to the goal achieving portion of the NHL season while of course following the Thunder as well. Color me a multi-tasker. Tramel…not as much.

You’ll notice the NFL has tried to implement the Stanley Cup feel into their trophy prestation yesterday with Woolfolk, Emmitt Smith, and Broadway Joe Namath…but they should stop that. There’s only one Stanley Cup.

Look at Emmitt Smith with the white gloves. Gary Bettman should sign him to assist with Lord Stanley’s Cup presentation later this spring. Emmitt gets it. You don’t want to risk scratching the cup with a ring. Joe Namath is still clueless. That must be from him going to Alabama for his schooling. I’m guessing Emmitt is a Dallas Stars fan.

When I saw this coupled with the Bruins 1-0 shutout over Ovechkin yesterday–it got me now totally psyched for hockey. Boston netminder Tuuka Rask notched his 253rd career win yesterday it puts him as the winningest goalie in Boston Bruin history… and given that he was a career 1-15-2 against the Caps before yesterday the shutout was huge. So there is hope for Westbrook even though he once choked on the big stage in Boston in the last fifteen seconds. Billy Donovan should have of course called the timeout and put the ball into Schroder and PG’s hands for that last play, but some people are so stupid they can’t even be helped by the basketball gods for more than seven games. Damn.

This was easy for me. Jeff Bridges is my favorite actor. He had me even before he ordered the Stella. Adam Levine is a different matter. They have two songs I like…She Will Be Loved and Moves Like Jagger. They would have been smart to only play three of their songs. And what’s with Adam Levine taking off his shirt and giving us all that dancing. He’s no Michael Jackson and he should have kept this performance within his wheelhouse. I enjoyed the Harrison Ford ad as well. Oh, yeah.. trust me, if won’t be long before the diva lab Pauli is using Uber and Grub Hub so we immediately had a talk about this ad.

Given what we saw in the AFC Championship Game’s second half from Patrick Mahomes, I don’t think we’ll see a permanent return to throwback football in the NFL, but for a night it was old school football for those of us who still remember when teams used to play defense.

What a great game!

3-0. 3-3. 10-3. And then the final at 13-3.

Both teams tackled. Both teams covered receivers. Both teams got after the other team’s quarterback. Tom Brady was even thrown to the ground like a rookie by the Aaron Donald on one occasion. It was old school and for a night it was beautiful.

Every yard and every point came grudgingly by both teams.

It was an offensive nightmare for the Rams and yet if Branden Cooks had held on to a pass on the goal line late in the game it would have been tied 10-10 and we’d have been headed for another Tom Brady signature closing on the last possession of the game.

But Cooks dropped the ball and on the next play the Pats intercepted Goff and in reality you knew it was over if you’ve watched the Patriots these last two decades. A late clinching field goal gave us a final of 13-3. But in reality it was Brady willing his team to the game’s only touchdown and the Pats’ for a night giving us a glimpse of how football used to be like before the rules were changed to make the game less physical and more safe for the players.

It was a classic and it very well could have been Gronk’s last game in his storied NFL career which if he does retire will come to an end at the tender age of twenty-nine. Meanwhile, Tom Brady is forty-one years of age and by all indications would like to keep playing a few more years.

A great day for Boston sports which is rightfully dubbed the city of champions. The Boston Bruins beat Ovechkin and the Washington Caps 1-0, Kyrie Irving and the Celtics halted the OKC Thunder’s seven game winning streak… and then Brady and Belichick won another ring to start filling their second hands.

Maybe that’s the secret pledge these two have between them…to win ten rings.

Who would doubt them at this point.

Until Tom Brady shows me he can’t do this there’s no way I can pick the Rams even though I love their physicality on both sides of the football. New England is -3 or so last time I looked and that’s probably about right. In the last two Super Bowls both Matt Ryan and Nick Foles played well against the Patriots so I would expect the same tonight from Jared Goff. But again, as long as No. 12 is out there throwing for 400 hundred yards or so…I have to go with the Patriots.

I like Maroon 5 so the halftime show and the commercials should be solid. A Budweiser horse commercial would be nice. Possibly we can get through the game without any politics. Wouldn’t that be nice?

I hope he can dance…that’s all I’ll say at this point. Those of us who are actually Michael Jackson don’twant feeble white southern boys throwing our name around if they can’t sing and dance. This is what it looks like when the real Michael Jacksons are in shape and on top of their games.