It's not just me

People, I know I've been boring you with the FIBA tourney and the roles played by OKC Thunder players Durant and Westbrook and the non-roles played by Billups and Rose.

Turns out that Bill Simmons agrees with me:

First Chauncey:

(The most frustrating thing about Team USA in 2010: Every moment involving Billups. His "Mr. Big Shot" name might be the most misleading nickname of the new millennium. It's like calling M. Night Shyamalan "Mr. Box Office.")

Next Rose and Westbrook:

We went into this tournament thinking Rose and Rondo were the two best under-24 point guards in some order. Rondo got sent home, then Westbrook outplayed Rose so convincingly in the tournament that, at some point, everyone who loves basketball glanced around in confusion and said, "Hold on, does Oklahoma City now have the best young guard AND the best young player in the league?"

And finally, KD:

Kevin Durant, last three USA games: 100 points, 35-for-59 shooting (59 percent), 15 3-pointers.

Everyone else on Team USA, last three games: 159 points, 57-for-146 shooting (39 percent), 14 3-pointers.

And he doesn't turn 22 until later this month.

And I never thought we'd get here this soon.

And I will never wager against him again.

There's something happening here...

....but what it is not at all unclear; it's the emergence of the Thunder as a viable (on the court at least) NBA team. Last night they beat the Grizz for their 11th win, putting them three rungs out of the bottom of the Association. Scottie Brooks moved Durant to small forward from shooting guard and somehow made it clear to everyone that Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook were going to be getting the shots and leading the team. They are all responding. KD is averaging 24.8 on 47% shooting (42% on 3s) along with 6.6 boards. Last year he shot 42% overall, 29% on 3s and pulled down 4.4 boards. Jeff Green's numbers are similar to KD's and after a very shaky start, Westbrook was named Rookie of the Month in December. Durant is 20, Green 22, and Westbrook is 20 as well.

The Thunder also have 3 first round picks in the upcoming draft and 2 in the following one. The only trouble is they are now losing ping pong balls at an alarming rate (They are 6-4 in their last 10 games).

Here's a paen to Durant from Bill Simmons (hat tip to Tyler Cowen, the LeBron James of bloggers).

Way too early instant analysis of the Thunder

One game against a bad team (yes Orlando is a quite bad team) isn't much to go on, but here goes!

The Thunder had (at least) 4 questions going into the season.

1. Would Russell Westbrook take another step forward to becoming an efficient point guard?

2. Could Kendrick Perkins return to his pre-injury level of play?

3. Is James Harden the real deal?

4. Is Serge Ibaka the real deal?

Well, 50% fails most tests, but it does get you into the hall of fame in baseball.

Perkins was awesome. After a bit of a slow start, he did the job on Dwight Howard, ran around like a crazy man, and just generally was a badass. My favorite thing about Perk is how mad he gets when a TEAMMATE gets a rebound away from him.

Harden showed a lot more calmness and confidence. He knows what he can do and he looked ready to be a star.

Westbrook had 7 turnovers and shot 6-17. I have to say though that I am a huge Westbrook fan and I'm hoping for big improvements here. He probably needed training camp more than any other Thunder player.

Ibaka was a no-show. I don't know if he'd rather still be playing in Spain, but he was lost and totally ineffective out there. He was scary bad.


To switch gears, the Magic stink!

Hedo is done. He can't move. He and Anderson can hit wide open 3's when they don't have to move, but little else. If it wasn't for Ibaka's hideous defensive effort and the Thunders perverse penchant for fouling J.J. Redick, Orlando wouldn't have gotten 75 points!

The Magic have both Jason AND Quentin Richardson on their team! In the NBA we call that "two Richardsons too many".

I don't think they were both on the floor at the same time, but if that happens, basketball will never be the same.

What the fudge?

Mrs. Angus took a picture of me last night after I heard about the Harden trade:

I have since calmed down a bit, and am actually OK with the deal.

Durant, Westbrook, Perkins & Ibaka all left money on the table to sign contract extensions with the Thunder. OKC was offering James $54 million over 4 years and asking him to take about a $4.5 million discount over the life of the contract.

He wouldn't.

The Thunder got a lot in return. A high lottery pick either this year or next, another first round pick, a proven scorer to come off the bench in Kevin Martin, and a potentially solid rookie in Jeremy Lamb.

I would like to think that if I was going to be making $13 million a year, I would give up an extra $1.2 million per year to stay on a championship caliber team instead of being tossed into a bare cupboard and getting "coached" by Kevin McHale.

But James Harden wouldn't and who knows, maybe I wouldn't either.

I know the team could have kept Harden this year and seen what developed, but that is apparently just not the Thunder way (see Jeff Green), and it is not clear how Harden would have reacted to being in limbo for the season.

The funniest reaction I've seen to the trade is this bit of genius from Matt Yglesias. Russell Westbrook  was second team all NBA for the second year in a row, and is just getting better and better overall and at playing the point. James Harden is a shooting guard, the easiest thing to find in the NBA.

USA Bas-ket-ball

Well, thanks to the OKC Thunder duo of Durant & Westbrook, the USA are in the title game of the FIBA World Championships against homestanding Turkey.

I said earlier it would be hard for Team USA to win this with only 4 players contributing, but I guess I might have been wrong. Coach K gave an early hook to the sublimely knuckle-headed Derrick Rose (12 minutes of pt only) giving Westbrook 24 minutes and Andre Iguadala stepped up with great defense to help Durant and Odom who are the mainstays of the team.

Did any of y'all see them Lithuanian point guards zipping around? Neither did Chauncey Billups. Mr. Big shot was 1/8 and unable to stay in front of his man in any way, shape or form.

I just hope Kevin and Russell don't get too full of themselves and get out of what they need to do to help the Thunder improve on last year's performance.

All Hail Scotty Brooks

Kudos, sir, you are now the winningest coach in OKC Thunder history.

Yes, the other shoe finally dropped and Scotty "why yes, this is my father's suit" Brooks has 2 W's, fully doubling the total of his predecessor.

The great part of this game was the ball was in the hands of Durant, Green and Westbrook down the stretch. They all made plays and they won a very tight game. No Damien Wilkens, no Desmond Mason, no Chris Wilcox. Durant Green & Westbrook are the future of this franchise and they should be in the fire as much as possible.

Kudos also to Nick Collison, my personal favorite Thunder for a gritty all around performance.

Here's some Scotty eye candy for y'all:

Moving on up

As we wait on the Finals to begin, I thought I'd write a bit about the Thunder's playoff run so far.

As is well known, the team committed the most turnovers in the Association and got the fewest assists in the regular season. However, I want to compare last year's playoff stats to this year's. I think this is a better comparison rather than regular season to playoffs as the bad teams are not in the playoffs.

In the 2010-11 playoffs (17 games) the Thunder has the most turnovers (14.9),  were 10th in assists (17.6), shot 44% (31.6% on 3s).  Russell shot 39% and averaged 4.6 turnovers. KD shot 45%.

In the 2011-12 playoffs (15 games so far) the Thunder are 14th in turnovers (11.2), and 6th in assists (18.7). Russell is shooting 43.6% (35% on 3s) and averaging only 2.3 turnovers.  KD is shooting 50.5 %.

So compared to last year's playoff run which ended in the Conference Finals, the Thunder are passing the ball and taking care of the ball much better. There is much less of KD trying to "post up" while Russell dribbles out the shot clock. The offense is much more efficient.

They are also playing much better defense. In the 2010-11 playoffs, they gave up 100.6 points per game. In the 2011-12 playoffs they are only giving up 95.7.

It sounds like a dumb cliche, but Durant has really calmed down, matured, "grown up", and Westbrook is making progress in those areas as well. San Antonio really contained Harden when he drove to the basket so he's going to have to make some adjustments there, but I think the Thunder will beat either Boston or Miami and win the championship this year.

Guilt by association

OK, so my idea of song title book reviews is gonna be slow to catch on.

Well, what about this: If NBA players were musicians?

Let's start with two of my favorite players

James Harden -- Isaac Hayes.  Always cool, never in a hurry. Hot buttered soul.

Russell Westbrook -- Lil Wayne.  Incredible highs, huge variance. always wondering what he'll do next.

Get the idea? Here's a few more:

Rajon Rondo -- Soulja Boy
Kevin Love -- Justin Timberlake
Derrick Rose -- Tupac
Kobe -- Miles Davis
Ricky Rubio -- Bieber (duh!)
Josh Smith -- Chamilionaire
Lebron, Wade & Bosh -- Wu Tang!!

and finally,

Kevin Garnett -- Kenny G.

Got any good ones?

Hey Coach K: go EZ on Kevin Durant!

Dude, we need him next month. I know you are somehow stuck with losers like Derrick Rose, Andre Iguadala, and Rudy (so) Gay, but 37 out of 40 minutes for KD ain't cool with us Thunderheads.

Nice to see him drop 33 on the Russkies though (on only 19 shots).

The USA is thin thin thin. Mike K ain't playin' Granger, Curry, Love, Gay or Chandler (23 total minutes for those 5) and Rose is out there but not doing anything (6 points, 2 assists and 3 boards in 35 minutes).

Gonna be tough to win it all with just Billups, Durant, Odom and Westbrook contributing.

Kevin Durant just keeps getting better

The Thunder got its 12th win last night, beating Greg Oden and the Blazers. KD had 31. Here are his month by month shooting percentages and scoring averages:

November: 22.9 points on 46% shooting
December: 25.1 points on 47% shooting
January: 27.8 points on 49% shooting
February: 31.7 points on 52% shooting

OK, February is based on 3 games and may not be sustainable, but Wow!

The biggest thing hindering further Thunder progress is taking care of the ball. They commit more turnovers than any other team in the Association (16) and offset that with only 20 assists.

For comparison, consider elite teams like the Lakers (23.2 assists vs. 13.4 turnovers) or the Spurs (21.9 assists to 11.8 turnovers).

Rookie PG Russell Westbrook has yet to demonstrate that he can play the point with an acceptable assist to turnover ratio. Last night he had 3 assists and 6 turnovers in 25 minutes!

If it walks like a duck....

....and you are in an NBA arena, it must be LeBron James. Last night was the first time I'd seen him play in person (8th row, behind Thunder bench) and people, he really truly walks like a duck. Like a 6'8" version of Andre Agassi. It was fun watching him in pregame casual swishing 4 straight bombs from almost half court with basically just a flick of the wrist.

Mrs. Angus pointed out his duckwalk to me right away. Now I am trying to walk like that too!!

LBJ also treated us to some monster dunks, a couple of 3balls, and amazingly tough on ball defense against either Jeff Green or Kevin Durant.

Scottie Brooks, who has purchased some clothes that fit him (only appropriate for the winningest coach in Thunder history), needs to further work on his rotation (more Collison who was 5-5 with 6 boards and +5 in his 27 minutes), but has gotten the team to embrace the concept that Durant, Green and Westbrook need to be taking the bulk of the shots (they collectively were 23-48). However, the Thunder badly need another playa. Joe Smith 3-12 and -22. Earl Watson 2-5 and -17, Desmond Mason and Damien Wilkens both worked hard guarding LBJ, but they are both comically inept on the offensive end.

Sam Presti apparently knows more about basketball than I do

I know, I know it's hard to believe. But I think it's true.

Presti picked Russell Westbrook very high in the draft and projected him to be a point guard. Throughout Russ's rookie season, I would occasionally gripe about his (a) taking too many shots and (b) not taking care of the ball.

But wow, look at him now. He should be the Western Conference player of the month for February.

Over 11 games, he has averaged 18.8 points on 46% shooting, 6.6 rebounds, 10 assists and only 2.3 turnovers while playing about 36 minutes.

That is big time point guarding my friends.

Observations from the Thunder's opening night

Derrick Rose really likes to shoot the basketball (31 shots in 31 minutes).

Thabo Sefolosha is a ferocious defender.

The Thunder really miss Nick Collison. He's their "glue" guy, especially on interior defense.

"DJ Boom" is not actually a DJ at all!

Thunder still are not good at halftime entertainment.

Wayne Coyne is extremely skinny.

I am ready for the Daequan Cook era to be over.

Kyle Korver's new teammates don't seem to like him very much.


Thunder won the game by finally playing some good D in the last half of the fourth quarter, which featured some spectacular dunks by Durant and Westbrook. Right now though, they don't look like a better team than last year.

I'll take "Things that are not compliments" for $800 Alex....

From a Non-Putin Portion of the NYT:

 Jill Demling, entertainment editor of Vogue,...has pronounced Mr. Westbrook the “Kate Moss of the N.B.A.” 

Um..... Because he's promiscuous?

Or because he has an eating disorder?

Perhaps a coke habit?

 Jeez Jill, don't throw my boy under the bus like that!

Or did Kate Moss wear lensless glasses, make commercials with JVG, and not pass to KD enough?

Hat tip to LeBron.

How many is enough?

Now I know Coach K is a genius, and I know that a lot of the big stars opted out, I know that it's only the FIBA World Championships, and I know about the trapezoid.

But, according to Julian Benbow of the Boston Globe, there are 6 point guards on the roster?

"After a six-day training camp in Las Vegas last week, USA Basketball trimmed its roster yesterday afternoon, and Celtics All-Star Rajon Rondo is one of the 15 players (including six point guards) remaining."

Let's see. There's Rondo, Billups, Westbrook, Rose, Gordon. That's 5. Does Steph Curry play the point? Really? If so, that's an awesome (and typical) Don Nelson misallocation of talent.

Even 5 is a lot though, innit?

Don't we need a bunch of bangers to soak up fouls and try to compensate for us not having dominant big men?

Wouldn't Nick Collison be a much better 3rd Thunder player on the team that Jeff Green?

I never thought I'd say anything like this and Tyler will likely hurt himself laughing, but where's Brendan Hayward? (OMG, I hate myself so much right now).

Can KD and the midgets win this thing?

Pwnd

There is just no other term for what happened to the Thunder Tuesday night. Mrs Angus and I were in attendance, looking forward to seeing my favorite player of all time, the Big Cactus. However, he was in civvies sitting out the first game of a back to back to be fully rested for the Suns' big game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Ouch.

I guess that's what happens when you have one W for the season. You aren't anyone's priority.

The game itself was by turns exciting and infuriating. New coach Scottie Brooks is somehow sickly in love with Damian Wilkens. I created a fair stir in the stands reaching out to Scottie, telling him if he didn't really want the job he should just quit rather than torture all of us.

The rotation finally worked it's way around to Durant (who had a great game), Green, Westbrook, Watson, and either Wilcox or Collison (it really helped that Shaq wasn't dressed out) and the Thunder opened up consistent 10 - 15 point lead.

Then Steve Nash woke up and took over.

Oh, the Suns with a rested Shaq also did manage to post the W over the vaunted Timberwolves on Wednesday as well.

Well hello Thunder...

it's so nice to have you back where you belong.

People I've been sweating out a lackluster start of the season here in the OKC, but last night Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook both reported for duty big time. It was really the first game of the season where Durant was really the Durant everyone is expecting.

Just a great game. When the Thunder went on a 10-0 run late to take a 5 point lead, Durant totally took over the game and the arena went nuts. It is really cool to see how hard OKC has fallen for this team and this game (i.e. the NBA).

Thunder still really need a reliable 3rd scoring option though. Krstic & Harden have started to contribute, but they need a strong spot up shooter badly.

The right way and the wrong way.....

.....to score a lot of points.

The right way: Shaq! (1) be a center, (2) get 45 points on 25 shots, (3) throw in 11 boards, (4) have a +17 rating for the game, (5) get the W.

The wrong way: Russell Westbrook! (1) be a point guard, (2) get 33 points on 32 shots, (3) have 4 turnovers to go with your 5 assists, (4) have a -6 rating (tied for worst on the team) for the game, (5) lose.

Thunder >> Jazz ??

In a battle of ridiculous team names, the OKC Thunder routed the Utah Jazz last night with Mrs. Angus and I in attendance. There was a lot of good news. First, Chris Wilcox and Damien Wilkens both got DNP-CD'd! Second, Thunder scoring was very balanced with the big 3 (Durant, Green & Westbrook) each getting 20+ and 3 additional players also in double figures. Third, after an initial brain freeze by coach Scottie Brooks, Nenad Krstic spaced the floor, hit the open jumper and pounded the boards in the best performance by a Thunder 7 footer this year (low bar, I know).

When Krstic first entered the game, Brooks called plays to get him isolated in the low post. Those were painful. Two TOs and a blocked shot. I wondered aloud if Brooks had ever seen Nenad play before, but after that they used him in pick and pops and drive and dishes to great effect.

The other extremely encouraging thing about the game was the Thunder only took 6 threes while shooting 38 free throws. The big 3 all took the ball to the rim aggresively. This is a lot easier to do when Wilcox and Wilkens are not on the floor clogging the lanes and calling for the ball all the time.

So now the Thunder are 7-33 and have recorded their first win against an opponent with a winning record. They are 4-4 in their last 8. They are actually in danger of not having the most ping pong balls this spring.

Same song, second verse

Mrs. Angus & I ventured out to see the Thunder again. Last time they blew a 17 point lead and lost to Phoenix. This time they blew a 21 point lead and lost to the Grizz.

Some observations:

Thunder don't know how to use Durant. At this point, he's a catch and shoot guy and is good in transition. They keep running isolation plays and post ups for him. He is no good with his back to the basket. Since they have absolutely no inside presence (take THAT Chris Wilcox), they can't go inside out at all and it hurts them.

Thunder are hurting at point guard. Earl Watkins just cannot stop himself from driving the lane, jumping into the air and then trying to decide what to do with the ball. Russell Westbrook takes way too long to get the offense started and seems uncomfortable running the show.

OJ Mayo is GOOD. Mrs. Angus commented that he had a super smooth shot and that the ball always seemed like it was going to go in. He's not flashy but he is the real deal. I really like his game.

Mayo and Rudy Gay appear to hate each other. They were fussin' at each other during the game, after which Gay appeared unwilling to pass the ball to Mayo and we could see him grimacing and rolling his eyes when Mayo got the ball in the half court set.

Marc Iavaroni has a strange rotation. He played down the stretch (last 8 or 9 minutes) with one starter, Gay, in the lineup. Kyle Lowery started at the point but Mike Conley finished there and absolutely destroyed the Thunder in the fourth quarter, just like Steve Nash did in the forth quarter of the Phoenix loss.

It's gonna be a long year but we have tickets to see the Cavs, Jazz, Spurs, Lakers (twice) and Wizards, so that should be fun!