Oklahoma Thunderballs

The Thunder are sadly out of the playoffs, but like Kevin Durant's commercial says, basketball never stops. We have some great gear that we're going to be giving away over the next few weeks as the playoffs continue, so stay tuned as we look to put some great prizes in your hands. CONTEST #1 PREDICT THE FINAL SCORE OF WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS GAME #1 In the comments below, guess what you think the final score will be between the Spurs and Grizzlies in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. The game starts at 2:30CDT tomorrow, May 19th. The person who guesses the closest will receive a copy of: Let's see those predictions!

Good Saturday. Thank you for your support of Daily Thunder. 160 days. That Russell Westbrook, he’s pretty good. Here are his top 10 plays of the 2012-13 season. My five favorite things about them: 1. That strut after the dunk against Charlotte. 2. Him leaving Ibaka hanging on a high-five and instead choosing to flex after the dunk against the Warriors. 3. The dunk against Dallas in general, because he goes with one hand, gathers it, and then crushes the rim. 4. On the behind-the-back-crossover play against the Mavs, the person that goes “WOOOOOOOO!” right as he starts making the move. 5. The look after the long snap to Martin for a dunk. Russ is like, “Yeah, I know.”

Scott Halleran/NBAE/Getty Images Most interesting thing from today: Reggie Jackson said he was up until 3 a.m. last night dribbling a basketball. Said it’s something he always does. It was kind of his jumping off point to talk about how much he loves the game and how much he’s always looking to improve. Jackson said he hopes to be part of OKC’s summer league team, because he’s itching to play. Jackson has quickly become one of the more exciting and intriguing things about this Thunder team. His emergence in place of Russell Westbrook was incredibly impressive as he showed real signs and potential of blossoming into the Thunder’s bench stud of the future. The question is if Scott Brooks is willing to free his mind and not think of Jackson as exclusively a point guard. Jackson is a great combo player and needs to play alongside Russell Westbrook. And in a lot of ways, he needs to be the Thunder’s new sixth man. “If that’s the number that’s called, I’m doing my best to be ready for whatever situation I’m thrown into next year,” Jackson said. It was obvious in the postseason how good Jackson already is, and how good he can still be. He’s the type of player that can get to the rim almost at will, and he’s a splendid finisher. Where he needs to improve is with his jumper, specifically in the pull-up game. If that comes, along with a little playmaking, the Thunder have a serious bench piece and a potential secret weapon to use next to Westbrook. For now, Jackson isn’t focused on any of that. He’s not thinking about role or playing time. He said he still feels like he should be getting ready to play Game 6 tonight, but as he transitions into the summer and starts focusing on improving his game, you can be sure he’s going to tirelessly work at it. And because of it, he’s given Thunder fans something else to be really excited about. “I’m ready to flash forward to camp right now,” he said. Me too, Reggie. Me too. The rest of the exit interviews: REGGIE JACKSON HASHEEM THABEET JEREMY LAMB DANIEL ORTON RONNIE BREWER PERRY JONES III DEANDRE LIGGINS SERGE IBAKA

The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2nd round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs, 4-1. In a series that was hair-splittingly close until it wasn't, we are left to enter the long off-season with a series of what-if's on our minds. Before we get to those questions, we take a final look at how each player performed in these 5 grit-grind-games. Individual Game Grades Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5 Rockets Round 1 Series Grades *** (All statistics are series averages) KEVIN DURANT 28.8 PPG, 10.4 REB, 6.6 AST, 1.2 ST, 1.2 BL, 4.4 TO Grade Comments Zorgon I've said my piece about Durant in another article, and it pretty much echoes what J.A. say below. Kevin Durant blew a lot of opportunities in the fourth quarter after some amazing games because he was asked to do too much. Still, he did the best job that he could. However, this series did do an effective job of proving that Kevin Durant would make an excellent point guard. His court vision is almost as good as James Harden's, and his ballhandling and passing have definitely improved over the years. So I'll give him a B+ for showing off new skills, but I can't go any higher than that because of his bad clutch performance. Is this unfair? Totally. Sherman It is all but impossible to give Kevin Durant any sort of meaningful grade for this series. If you look at his game-by-game statistics, you see a steady decline in efficiency and production. After game 1, an ending that featured Durant hitting a dagger and reminding everyone how great he can be, the wear and tear of dealing with a Grizzly defense that was exclusively designed to shut down KD and no other for upwards of 45 minutes a game (including all 48 in Game 5) took its toll. Durant may not have played great in games 2-5, but I honestly don't know how he could have played any better. REGGIE JACKSON 13.8 PPG, 6.2 REB, 3.8 AST, 0.4 ST, 0.4 BL, 1.8 TO Grade Comments Zorgon C+ Reggie Jackson didn't exactly have a break out performance in this series. He's shown us all that he's an effective combo guard that's adept at creating his own shot within the mid-range, which is something that we already knew. But I can't help feeling like he didn't take enough of a role handling the ball in this series. Not being able to knock down threes or guard Mike Conley is forgiveable, but he really needed to take a bigger role with the offense and setting up other players. It would have given KD more time to relax, given the Thunder better shots, and gotten him away from that cursed three point line. He's an effective player and I look forward to seeing what he has next season, but as for now, I feel like he could have been so much more. Sherman For Reggie Jackson, this series will be remembered for two reasons: 1) he made us forget about Eric Maynor forever; and 2) he may have just written his ticket right out of OKC because there's little chance he's going to spend his career as a backup. Jackson's game is still by and large limited to drives to the rim and 10 foot jump shots, but he proved throughout the series that he is now very comfortable attacking a top-flight defense. While he did make some potentially costly mistakes (fouling the 3-point shooter at the end of Game 1), Jackson never made those mistakes a habit, but improved as the series went along. Next year, put him in the backcourt along side Westbrook and you've got a scary looking duo that can attack on both offense and defense. SERGE IBAKA 12.6 PPG, 8.4 REB, 0.4 AST, 3.2 BL, 0.8 TO Grade Comments Zorgon I'm neither here nor there on Serge Ibaka. For a while, it looked like he was going to have a really terrible series, missing the routine mid-range jumpers that he so often makes. But he recovered to his normal mode of production, and did a hell of a job on defense. I know a lot of us were expecting more from him, but the harsh reality is that Serge I

NBAE/Getty Images When the Thunder’s season ended in Oklahoma City on Wednesday night, fans chanted “O-K-C! O-K-C!” as players walked off the floor. But as one clever person tweeted at me, he thought they were chanting “Am-ne-sty! Am-ne-sty!” The Thunder’s big offseason question, other than what happens with Kevin Martin, is if they should use their amnesty provision on Kendrick Perkins. Perk was asked yesterday about his future with the Thunder and he said it this way: “I’m pretty sure I’ll be back next year.” And I agree with him. Here’s why, and it has less to do with Perk as a player and more about the simple economics: It doesn’t make sense. When has the Thunder done anything that didn’t at least make some rational sense? (Don’t say say drafting Byron Mullens and don’t say signing Perk to an extension sight-unseen.) But it doesn’t make sense because of the money, and because it doesn’t really fix anything. (A refresh for those that don’t know what exactly the amnesty clause is than that thing your boyfriend is always yelling at the TV when Perk sets an illegal screen. It’s a one-time get-out-of-jail-not-free-at-all device that allows a team to cut a player, while still having to pay out his remaining contract. The reason you do it though is because the player’s contract comes off your cap number, thus freeing you to sign someone else or avoid the luxury tax. For a player to be eligible, he has to have been on your roster when the new CBA was signed.) I already linked it in today’s Bolts but a reader sent an email to Berry Tramel giving a pretty ideal explanation as to why it doesn’t make a lot of sense. To the blockquote: But the Thunder would not create any room under the cap by waiving Perkins. And Perkins is far from a questionable character (he’s welcome at my dinner table anytime). And while overcompensated for his skill at this point, he’s nowhere near the stage of a Baron Davis or Darko Milicic. So that leaves the question of tax savings. Let’s assume (though we can never know, can we?) that the Thunder don’t do anything wild between now and after the draft. They could find themselves mildly in tax territory just by drafting with the picks they will have. Even if they wound up, say, $4 million over the tax line (a very high estimate), that would be a tax of $6 million. Does it make sense to spend $9 million (in Year 1 and over $18 million overall) to save $6 million? I’d have a hard time justifying that. Only they wouldn’t really save that. It stands to reason that OKC would need to sign someone to replace him. The Thunder could always adopt a smaller starting lineup next season by moving Ibaka to the 5 (center) and KD to the 4 (power forward), but that’s going to require either a new coach or a major philosophical programming change in Scott Brooks. So who’s going to be available this summer in terms of a true center? Let’s logically eliminate Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum and Nik Pekovic. That leaves folks like Zaza Pachulia. Old friend Byron Mullins. Chris Kaman. Timofey Mozgov (an admittedly intriguing idea a year ago). Tiago Splitter. That’s about it before you start moving from questionable ideas to very questionable ideas. Do any of those ideas move the needle at all? And if you do that, now you’re spending $13-$15 million on the center position next season with little to no improvement over what you would have had. So that’s really well put. One little addendum though: If you amnesty a player, he goes on waivers. If someone were stupid enough to fully claim him, then that team would be on the hook for that $18 million Perk is owed, and the Thunder would no longer be. The likely thing is someone puts in a partial claim, basically a bid. Say it was for $4 million for one year. The Thunder would still be on the hook for about $15 million. Basically, the Thunder would have to o

Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images For the first time, the Oklahoma City Thunder have ended a season by taking a step back instead of a leap forward. And that, for now, is OK. It’s not OK that Russell Westbrook got hurt. It’s not OK that the Thunder were unable to come up with a competent plan (on the fly) without him. It wasn’t OK to watch Kevin Durant struggle to 5-of-21 shooting and miss free throws in a closeout game — that felt worse than watching an endless YouTube video of defenseless puppies being kicked with steel-toed boots. It’s not OK that Derek Fisher went from white-hot to ice-cold, that Kendrick Perkins was only able to summon his trademark defense for a few possessions per game, that Serge Ibaka stayed in a slump for far too long, that Nick Collison couldn’t buy a favorable call or that we have no idea if Jeremy Lamb or Perry Jones are going to be useful. What makes it OK is that the Thunder will still have all they need to be a legitimate contender next season, no matter what happens during the offseason: Durant, Westbrook and work ethic. Lame platitudes? Overly optimistic? Not really. Even without one of those three components against Memphis, OKC had a chance to win every one of the four games it lost, only to be doomed by preventable mistakes and untimely missed buckets. The Thunder never gave up, fighting until KD’s potentially game-tying shot bounced off the rim in the waning moments, and that kind of mentality doesn’t evaporate in one summer. The preventable mistakes portion of the Grizzlies series will grate for five months — or maybe 11, until the Thunder have a chance to prove they can overcome them in a new round of postseason basketball. But though 2012-13 will go down in Thunder history as a lost season because of the Westbrook injury, absolutely nothing has happened to change the fact the Thunder will be a contender for another 10-15 years as long as Westbrook and Durant are playing in downtown Oklahoma City. Offseason questions This offseason will be the most interesting in the Thunder’s short history … since the last one, anyway, with Ibaka and James Harden in their extension-eligible summers. But with Kevin Martin’s impending free agency, a critical summer for Lamb and Jones, the (probably faint, knowing the Thunder brain trust) possibility that Kendrick Perkins will be amnestied, two first-round draft picks (and thus some room for draft day maneuvering as well) and the first remote chance (probably about 2 percent) that the Thunder make an offseason coaching change, a lot can happen between now and October. Martin said all the right things about possibly willing to take a discount to return to Oklahoma City, which would be the only way he actually does return. But, then again, so did Harden, and we know how that turned out. Lamb and Jones didn’t have the opportunity to show if they have a chance to be impact players on this level, but how hard they work this summer, and the results of that hard work, will be telling — just look at Reggie Jackson’s superb summer in 2012, and the definitive statement during the playoffs that he’s a player worth having around. I would be very surprised, but not shocked, if Perk and Brooks are anywhere but in OKC next season, but that would be a huge departure from the Thunder ethos so far. But the answers to those questions, to me, seem less relevant than answers to questions facing other players and teams in the Western Conference. I fully expect the Thunder to be a top-two seed in the West almost no matter what happens in Oklahoma City, barring another devastating injury at the worst possible time. Does Dallas or Houston make good use of all that cap space? In a related question, what happens to Chris Paul this summer? Dwight Howard? Will Kobe Bryant be able to return the court in any form resembling the still-deadly player he was for much of this season? Will Mem

2012-13 Exit Interviews - Day Two

Ben Golliver for CSNNW: “Watching the Memphis Grizzlies close out the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 on Wednesday night left me with two Portland Trail Blazers-related thoughts. First, even the most carefully laid plans are subject to ruin by even the slightest knee injury. Russell Westbrook’s early exit from the playoffs left the remaining Thunder players struggling to cobble together lineups and responsibilities much like Brandon Roy’s ongoing issues kept juggling things in Portland for multiple seasons. Sam Presti put together arguably the league’s deepest and most balanced roster, one that withstood a blockbuster trade of James Harden just fine all season long, only to have all that hard work go poof when Westbrook went down. Basketball can be cruel, as Portlanders have known for years (decades).” Berry Tramel: “Absolutely the Thunder got better this season. The Heat was and is a big favorite to repeat. But the Thunder was favored over the Heat last June in the Finals. The Thunder certainly could have made a run at the championship this season. But then Westbrook went down, and opportunity was lost. The Thunder will have many more chances. But the number of years is not infinite. The clock is ticking.” Eric Freeman of BDL: “Given the circumstances of Westbrook’s injury, it’s fair to wonder how things may have been different if he had not been lost for the playoffs. Yet it’s clear that the Thunder would have faced a considerable challenge in the Grizzlies no matter their luck. Memphis is a uniquely talented squad with a clear sense of their own identity. Although they’re not the highest seed left in the West, they could be the conference’s scariest team at this juncture of the postseason.” Some Twitter people are still going after Patrick Beverley. Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com: “The Thunder likely will be favored to win the Western Conference again next season with a healthy Westbrook and Durant. But the team does face some important offseason questions. Sixth man Martin is an unrestricted free agent. Center Kendrick Perkins is a potential amnesty candidate. Martin said he was looking forward to the process of being an unrestricted free agent, but it was too soon to focus on it yet, with the season having ended so abruptly.” Rudy Gobert, a player that Sam Presti has personally scouted, measured impressively at the combine yesterday. Rudy Gobert 7’0.5″ in socks and 7’2″ in shoes with a 7’8.5″ wingspan and 9’7″ standing reach. Fantastic reader email to Berry Tramel: “Let’s assume (though we can never know, can we?) that the Thunder don’t do anything wild between now and after the draft. They could find themselves mildly in tax territory just by drafting with the picks they will have. Even if they wound up, say, $4 million over the tax line (a very high estimate), that would be a tax of $6 million. Does it make sense to spend $9 million (in Year 1 and over $18 million overall) to save $6 million? I’d have a hard time justifying that. Only they wouldn’t really save that. It stands to reason that OKC would need to sign someone to replace him. The Thunder could always adopt a smaller starting lineup next season by moving Ibaka to the 5 (center) and KD to the 4 (power forward), but that’s going to require either a new coach or a major philosophical programming change in Scott Brooks. So who’s going to be available this summer in terms of a true center? Let’s logically eliminate Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum and Nik Pekovic. That leaves folks like Zaza Pachulia. Old friend Byron Mullins. Chris Kaman. Timofey Mozgov (an admittedly intriguing idea a year ago). Tiago Splitter. That’s about it before you start moving from questionable ideas to very questionable ideas. Do any of those ideas move the needle at all? And if you do that, now you’re spending $13-$15 million on the center positio

This week's issue of Sports Illustrated highlights the pitching of New York Met Matt Harvey in what I'm sure is a lovely article by Tom Verducci. I'm a Cubs fan myself, so I hate baseball with the blazing passion of one million dying suns. If I think about it for more than a few minutes I start to think about the 2003 NLCS and then I speak in nothing but 1990's Ice Cube lyrics for the rest of the day. But good for Matt Harvey, I'm sure his family is proud of him. Be that as it may, it's not even June yet and we're seeing baseball on the cover. Not acceptable. Being thorough as we are wont to do here at WTLC, let's take a look at some alternate covers. Alternate #1: Schadenfreude as inspired by Francisco Goya. If you can't win, then everyone else gets eaten. Alternate #2: Kevin Durant's brave fight to end dolphin rabies. Alternate #3: Le Morte d'Pizza Rolls Alternate #4: Serge Ibaka on dealing with loss after finishing season 3 of Parks and Recreation on Netflix. Bye-bye Li'l Sebastian. You're 5000 candles in the wind.

If you've read my articles over the course of the playoffs or watched my Twitter, you'll know that my main criticism of Scott Brooks has centered around his unwillingness to sit Kevin Durant. It was probably the biggest strategy shift he made when Russell Westbrook went out with injury, and it was one of the most disastrous. At this point, I'd like to let the stats speak. Here's Kevin Durant's fourth quarter shooting performances in every game after Russell Westbrook's injury. He played at least 42 minutes in every single appearance, and only sat during the second half three times. Game Minutes FG Result Game 3, HOU 47:16 3-7 WIN Game 4, HOU 42:00 2-3 LOSS Game 5, HOU 44:42 0-5 LOSS Game 6, HOU 43:13 4-7 WIN Game 1, MEM 43:42 6-9 WIN Game 2, MEM 42:34 4-7 LOSS Game 3, MEM 45:44 1-4 LOSS Game 4, MEM 48:19 2-8 LOSS Game 5, MEM 48:00 1-5 LOSS Obviously these stats don't tell the whole story, but from the table, you can glean two general trends. For one, a solid offensive performance from Kevin Durant is absolutely essential if the Thunder are going to win without Westbrook. For two, you can see that as the minutes increased, his stats only got worse. Critics might point to the fact that Durant was playing similarly long stretches during the 2011 and 2012 playoffs, where he averaged 43 minutes and 42 minutes, respectively. But in those situations, he was playing his normal role, which is basically scoring and rebounding. This year, after Westbrook injury, he was forced to be a 6'10" point guard, setting up plays and creating all of his own looks. Furthermore, he was looked to as a defensive stopper, grabbing tough assignments. During the Houston series he had his hands full with Chandler Parsons, and during the Memphis series he occasionally had to bang in the post with Marc Gasol. His presence as a post defender only increased over the course of the Memphis series, and as a result, his performance suffered. Critics might also point to LeBron James, who successfully played under a similarly grueling pace in the 2012 playoffs. In fact, his stats from that year are almost an exact mirror of Kevin Durant's stats from this year's playoffs, except for the fact that he was more successful and efficient. What made LeBron a better clutch player, despite playing the same amount of minutes? For one, he always took a rest in the second half. The rest would usually go no more than two or three minutes, but it's something that was absolutely essential to his success. It gives him a time to mentally relax and prepare for the final minutes of action. Yes, I know that timeouts are longer in the playoffs, but sitting out is different than resting during a timeout. Don't believe me? Go up in the article and look at the three times Kevin Durant happened to sit during the second half. Those came during Games 3 and 4 against Houston, and Game 2 against Memphis. They were three of Durant's f best offensive performances. Secondly, LeBron didn't handle the ball nearly as much. He has similar assist numbers, but most of his passes come with him standing still on the perimeter, merely passing it to the open man. This works effectively because he draws pressure and the Heat have an array of shooters that love to space the floor. The Thunder are structured differently, with not nearly as many shooters. As a result, Durant has to work more for his assists, drawing pressure so that somebody can get open in the post or mid-range. This is by no means an insult to LeBron, who would get his assists in the same way should the Heat call for it. But he wasn't always in such an advantageous ball handling situation. While playing for the Cavaliers in the playoffs, he was part of a much more traditional attack, one that basically forced him to be part-time PG, like Durant is now. His minutes were similarly high, but his shooting numbers were noticeably lower. He did see his s