Tag Archives: Oklahoma City Thunder

OKC Pulls the String on Scott Brooks

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By Kaleb Page

April 24, 2015

Being a professional coach these days comes with more scrutiny than ever before. With 24-hour news cycles, social media and podcasts, there is no shortage of debate on how well a coach is actually coaching.

For much of professional coaching, especially in the past, the leash on a coach was at least three to four years. However, given the right circumstances that leash can be shortened or it can get the extension.

Scott Brooks was fired Wednesday by the Oklahoma City Thunder. After seven seasons as the head coach, the team decided to fire Brooks and look to go in a different direction. It’s surprising given what Brooks did in his time as a coach. He had a career record of 338-207 (.620) and was the NBA Coach of the Year in 2010.

When Brooks started his career with the Thunder back in 2008 the team was an awful 22-47, for the next six seasons Brooks coached a team that hit at least 50 wins four times. That doesn’t include the 47-19 season (2011-12) that had the team in the NBA finals facing off with the ‘Big Three’ in Miami (the Thunder would lose).

This season for the Thunder, in the much tougher Western Conference, was a roller coaster ride. Every time your looked to see what the team was doing, there seemed to be a debilitating injury. For a good 90% of the season the team was without their superstar Kevin Durant (last year’s MVP). Russell Westbrook battled many injuries (missed 15 games) to still battle night in night out, make a push for the MVP and becoming a nightly triple-double machine. It also didn’t help that versatile big man, Serge Ibaka, fell to injury keeping him out for the big stretch run toward the playoffs.

Despite the setbacks, the team was in contention all the way up to the final game of the season for the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs. Even though Brooks took this team from nothing to something. It still wasn’t good enough to stay off the chopping block.

Now, there’s the argument that Brooks had long enough with a lot of talent to get more Finals appearances and even an NBA title. However, I’m not picking up what they’re putting down.

If anything Brooks deserved at least another year. He was the original guy that was the voice leading this group of young talent, and it was in the hardest conference in the association.

To be honest I think the real look into scrutiny should be at GM. Yes, GM Sam Presti is a bright mind at that position but there are some questionable moves that have put this team down this so-called path.

Let’s look at this team when they got to the NBA Finals. When they were in the Finals this team had Westbrook, Durant and James Harden (Yeah…you read that right). Now imagine, that team still together as a dynamic big three and even a big four if you factor in Ibaka. However, the GM took part in a three team trade that sent Harden to Houston and got Kevin Martin in return.

Yeah, let’s just say that didn’t pan out with Martin being an afterthought and leaving after just one year.

You could even look at the trade that let Jeff Green go and gave the team Kendrick Perkins. A deal that wrapped up so much money in Perkins, that it could have been used elsewhere (i.e. James Harden).

I know the coach is the figure-head of the team, and he will take the fall 9 times out of 10. In all honesty, it looks like there needs to be some changing elsewhere as well.

…But I guess that’s none of my business. (Enjoy Shaq and Charles Barkley’s take)

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Wake Up!…It’s Westbrook Time

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By Kaleb Page

March 10, 2015

In the greatest basketball league on the planet (the NBA) nightly you can be amazed by the talent on the floor. Whether you tune in to the Houston Rockets and watch James Harden, Cleveland with the three-headed monster of Love, Irving and James or in a small market like Milwaukee  where “The Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo  puts on a show.

While the league has many great players, the premium players are starting to make the push for the most valuable player trophy. Now I bet there are those out there acting like the funny vine saying that the only person for the MVP is LeBron James, LeBron James, LeBron James, LeBron James and LeBron James.

Yes I know James is the best player in the world and should be placed in the discussion for the MVP, but there is one player who has cemented his place in not only the discussion for the MVP but for the upper echelon of stars in the league.

This player is none other than Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook. For years there has been constant debate on whether or not Westbrook can play with Kevin Durant, also whether or not he can be a point guard in the league.

If you watched the video or even remember back a few years, the sentiment shown towards Westbrook was one of doubt towards his ability at the point and with Durant. Even recently there has been the same sentiment to doubt Westbrook on what he brings to the team.

Then came the All-Star Game.

Where Westbrook out-shined the stars on the court (Yes I know it’s a glorified scrimmage) putting up 41 points in 26 minutes; just one point shy of Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time record of 42 points (in 37 mins.).  That performance just rolled over into what has been an amazing start to the second half of the season.

On Wednesday night Westbrook scored 49 points, career-high 16 rebounds and 10 assists for his fourth consecutive triple-double. Four straight triple doubles in the best professional basketball league in the world? Are you kidding me?!

Even though it was against the 76ers, you still better be giving out the love to what Westbrook is doing. Four straight triple doubles hasn’t been done since the great one Michael Jordan did it in 1989.

While Durant has been injured Westbrook has had to hold this team afloat in what is a deadly Western Conference. It still surprises me that Westbrook still is cast aside as the side dish to Durant, and still gets left out of MVP talks.

While there are few people rumbling for Westbrook to get the love; there still isn’t enough talk.

The guy,who plays with controlled chaos and as Stephen A. Smith says is the ‘ultimate assassin,’ needs to be out of the possible talks of the MVP and instead in the for sure talks of MVP.

Right now it’s Westbrook’s world and we just live in it.

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The Cavs Make Moves

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By Kaleb Page

In this early stage of the NBA season the Cleveland Cavaliers have had not even close to the start everyone including themselves had expected. With a record of 19-16 this is still a team searching to find what it is and what it wants to hang its hat on night in and night out. As I said it is still very early so things can change and even with injuries to Kyrie Irving and LeBron James this team still is second in their division and fifth in the eastern conference.

For the GM of the Cavaliers David Griffin, managing this team that has so much potential is a huge task. With Irving and James down and the Cavalier faithful starting to wonder what is up with this team in recent weeks; Griffin needed to find something to re-energize not only the team but the fans as well. On Monday night that opportunity presented itself in a trade.

Prior to the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Cleveland Cavaliers starting shooting guard Dion Waiters was pulled from the line-up. It was then soon broadcast all over the sporting world that a three team deal had been made. This deal would send Waiters to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to the Cavaliers, and the Knicks get three players who have non-guaranteed contracts they can dump at the end of the season to further open up their cap space. Along with the players in the deal, the Thunder are giving the Cavs a protected future first-round draft pick and they are also sending a 2019 second-round draft pick to the Knicks.

Quite the deal that happened on a Monday night in the NBA. This move for the Cavaliers was dissected by ESPN’s Tim Legler and he made it clear that this trade really benefits everyone involved. In his break down on SportsCenter, Legler mentioned that this trade addresses a need the Cavs have when it comes to team defense, and with a guy like Shumpert who adds length along with a defensive mindset to the starting line-up; the Cavs made a great deal. He also went on to mention that the swap of Smith for Waiters is a slight upgrade even though both players do have similar playing styles.

With that said I would have to agree with Legler on this trade being really beneficial for the Cavaliers. When you can get a young guy like Shumpert, who is a rising player in the league known for his perimeter defense, it helps improve what the team is lacking right now. Even though Smith is somewhat a loose cannon no matter what team he is on, he has proven to be an offensive weapon capable of going off at any time. It will be interesting to see if these two pieces are able to pay dividends for this team that expects to be in the finals when it is all over.

I would add though that this might not be the end for the Cavaliers as far as deals go. Even though the deal is great, it does miss the hole that is still their post defense. It is hard to find anyone on the market to fill the void left when Anderson Varejao went down, but the team does need to find some type of presence to shore up the back-end just like it did with this trade that added help to the perimeter.

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Kevin Durant Injured: Trouble in Oklahoma City?

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By Ellen Chlumecky

It was reported on Sunday that the superstar small forward of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kevin Durant, has a fracture in his right foot and is scheduled to miss out on the first month of the season. As ESPN News addressed, he is reported to have a broken bone at the base of the small toe. The irony of it all is that Durant does not miss games very often; missing just six games in the last five seasons. He leads the NBA in several aspects of the game: games, minutes, and points at this time. He only trails LeBron James in win shares. Many people debate that he may even dominate LeBron James in the whole game itself. However, with this recent injury, he might not be able to catch up with James by the time he returns. It does however give his teammates a chance to step up, especially Russell Westbrook.

The general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder reported that the foot fracture is the most common surgical procedure performed on NBA players in the game today. The procedure has happened so frequently that doctors are aware that there is enough examples and previous instances to predict an average recovery time. While surgery seems preeminent in his future, the general manager wants Durant to continue to go under consistent evaluation over the next few days just as a precautionary action. They have yet to have a press conference discussing the matter openly.

ESPN was one of the first news sources to report the injury. They interviewed the general manager, Sam Presti. Presti is hopeful that Durant will return in the allotted time reported. He is also discussing cutting down on Durant’s playing time because he wants to take stress off Durant. ESPN reflected the injury as a positive opportunity for Durant’s other teammates to step up into a leadership role.

Sports Illustrated and Bleacher Report also reported on the injury. Both reports talked about how Durant’s injury is going to be a major detriment to the Thunder’s upcoming season. Both sources spent the majority of their articles discussing how big of a detriment the length of the injury and how other players have or have not come back from the injury. The other main point they made is how Russell Westbrook has a chance to step up but might not have what it takes.

Whether or not either news report is right about Westbrook, there is no option for Westbrook at this point. We will have to see whether or not Westbrook steps up or falls under the pressure.

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