So any chance the Thunder will fire Brooks? He is a overrated coach

He won 60 games in the regular season... Should the Spurs fire Pop? Should Denver fire George Karl? It would make sense because they both have worse records in the regular season than the Thunder.

Last night was pretty much everything you could ask for from our guys. Everyone mostly firing on all cylinders and we end up losing in crunch time.

Late game execution was embarassing to say the least, getting defensive rebounds at the end was pretty much impossible for our guys. Not to complain about officiating, but it was pretty blatant KD was fouled in the second-to-last posession on his shot. Should have been two free throws and put us up and forced Grizzlies to tie instead of us. Oh well, this is no excuse for failing miserably in overtime.



Winning the next 3 in a row is a super long shot, but at least we get to see the team Wednesday night at home. We will be giving standing ovation, win or lose.

If anyone on this forum has played in or coached in college or the NBA, I will value their opinion about Brooks or any player on the Thunder. If you got cut from your high school basketball team and/or don't have the credentials to coach anything but your kid's YMCA basketball team, please outline your specific complaints with Coach Brooks, followed by the highest level you played or coached basketball. :p

If anyone on this forum has played in or coached in college or the NBA, I will value their opinion about Brooks or any player on the Thunder. If you got cut from your high school basketball team and/or don't have the credentials to coach anything but your kid's YMCA basketball team, please outline your specific complaints with Coach Brooks, followed by the highest level you played or coached basketball. :p

Brooks is a good NBA coach (great in some areas, getting effort/D/Hustle/motivation and i think player development)

but the Thunder's system on O seriously breaks down in crunch time. (this was less of a problem with Russ because he can break down the D)

in the final 6 min and in over time we go to iso basketball (this works ok against bad defensive teams) with KD getting the ball at either the top of the key or on the elbow (foul line extended ) against Memphis which has 2 great man defenders (allen and prince) this is makes things very difficult. the D gets to set and help can come against durant from either direction. also with our relative lack of tall 3 point shooters (much easier to close out on fisher and jackson) memphis can pack in the D and force durant to shoot off balance shots. will he normally make more than 2-13 of course he will because he is a great player. however this is not putting him in a good position to succeed when you do it 15 possessions in a row.

having durant come off screens to catch and shoot and letting him be an off the ball threat at least some of the time (as we did the other 42 min of the game) is a much better way to play. Reggie Jackson had 8 ast and he is capable of running the O ..

played highschool/AAU and have coached AAU basketball and of course college inter-murals

He won 60 games in the regular season... Should the Spurs fire Pop? Should Denver fire George Karl? It would make sense because they both have worse records in the regular season than the Thunder.

I don't think Brooks is overrated as a coach... i am just curious if he has taken this team as far as he can... which is to say he has done a lot. we have gone from that 3-29 to a consistent playoff contender. Sometimes in sports it is time for a change in the locker room to spur new motivation and just shake things up. Is it time for that in OKC? and if it is, we should be selective. Scott Brooks is better than 90% of the coaches we could replace him with. So it is a matter of 1) is it time to change up the locker room and 2) who could we get to make that next jump?

I am very critical of Brooks sometimes, but asking if Brooks has reached his ceiling without Westbrook playing is ridiculous.

The Thunder signed Brooks for a four year, $16 million extension beginning this season. He will be here for three more seasons and if he continues to coach a team that makes it to the playoffs and past the first round consistently, he might be here for longer. The people who think Brooks should be fired are the same people who probably think Bob Stoops should be fired for ONLY having a 10 win season.

You must be an OU fan. I predicted OKC would loose in the first round...I was almost right.

What does a OU fan have to do with it?

He won 60 games in the regular season... Should the Spurs fire Pop? Should Denver fire George Karl? It would make sense because they both have worse records in the regular season than the Thunder.

As for Spurs, no since he won 4 championships, as for the Nuggets since George is a overated coach just like Brooks is

I am very critical of Brooks sometimes, but asking if Brooks has reached his ceiling without Westbrook playing is ridiculous.

for the record, i was making this statement back during the regular season when i saw us making the same mistakes that we were making 3 years ago. Things like bad clock management at the end of games (while he is mostly good, i think there are times that he doesn't maximize usage of the clock. Things like our team randomly deciding to stop playing any offense at all and just dribbling down, holding onto the ball for 20 seconds and then chunking up a last second 3 to avoid the shot clock expiring (something that you thought would have been coached out of them by now). Things like crazy substitution patterns in which players that aren't producing on a given night are given way more playing time than those that are or sticking to the substitution patterns like they are in stone regardless of who the other team has on the court.


This is not something new that i have only been saying since Westbrook went down. Yes, if i had only come to this conclusion in the past 5 or so games, then you are right, that is ridiculous... but this is not.

and as for the comment that was made about Brooks being on a four year deal... if the NBA has proved anything, it is that Coaches Contracts are just a minor inconvenience when it comes to the decision of changes coaches.

You don't just desperately try out random options. Lamb is the worst defensive player on the team and got totally lost when he played in the regular season. That ship sailed months ago. This is not a realistic option. Moving on..

LOL, Fisher says hi.

If anyone on this forum has played in or coached in college or the NBA, I will value their opinion about Brooks or any player on the Thunder. If you got cut from your high school basketball team and/or don't have the credentials to coach anything but your kid's YMCA basketball team, please outline your specific complaints with Coach Brooks, followed by the highest level you played or coached basketball. :p


I value Dez Bryant's opinion more than Mike Leach's because he played in the NFL and Leach hasn't coached above college (or even played in college).

The Thunder signed Brooks for a four year, $16 million extension beginning this season. He will be here for three more seasons and if he continues to coach a team that makes it to the playoffs and past the first round consistently, he might be here for longer. The people who think Brooks should be fired are the same people who probably think Bob Stoops should be fired for ONLY having a 10 win season.

Stoops is not winning another National Championship. Not going to happen. Some people are content with contending year after year for league titles. Some want more. Brooks is a good coach. The players love him and he's a good motivator. He's limited, though. He doesn't know how to maximize Durant and WB. He should win 65 games with those 2.

I value Dez Bryant's opinion more than Mike Leach's because he played in the NFL and Leach hasn't coached above college (or even played in college).


Stoops is not winning another National Championship. Not going to happen. Some people are content with contending year after year for league titles. Some want more. Brooks is a good coach. The players love him and he's a good motivator. He's limited, though. He doesn't know how to maximize Durant and WB. He should win 65 games with those 2.Well, we know where your college affiliation lies, don't we! LOL

Stoops is not winning another National Championship. Not going to happen.

I wonder if Nebraska fans thought Osborne was going to ever beat OU or win a national championship? It took him like 30 years to win titles. People like you would have fired him before he won the program 3 titles. I'm sure you would have wanted Swizer fired right before the 1985 title too.

Stoops may not win another title, but declaring that there is zero chance that he will considering he has led maybe the most consistently high level program in college football over the last 14 years is asinine. Just make your case, don't overstate it.

He doesn't know how to maximize Durant and WB. He should win 65 games with those 2.

Brooks has his flaws, but you realize that KD and Westbrook are the most productive offensive combo in the NBA, right? Kind of hurts your argument.

Tonight is the night, does the Thunder roll over and accept defeat? Or do we pull out a W and fly back to MEM with a mission to crush hopes?

Winning game 6 sounds almost impossible as the series stands. I am sure if we force a g6, the Grizzlies will pull off a game 5 Heat performance from the finals last year (where everyone and their dog can make anything).


At least we get to see our team at home for possibly the last time (this post season) tonight.


8:30 on TNT

I hope we can have the intensity, and ability to hit shots, that we had in game 1. If so we will at least be going back to MEM for a game 6. I don't see us winning the series. Coming back from 1-3 has only been done something like 8 out of 211 times. But I want to us to go down fighting.

Tonight is the night, does the Thunder roll over and accept defeat? Or do we pull out a W and fly back to MEM with a mission to crush hopes?

Winning game 6 sounds almost impossible as the series stands. I am sure if we force a g6, the Grizzlies will pull off a game 5 Heat performance from the finals last year (where everyone and their dog can make anything).


At least we get to see our team at home for possibly the last time (this post season) tonight.


8:30 on TNT

If it goes to a game 6, I'm hoping for a re-run from 2 years ago, when Memphis came out old, tired and ragged at the end of the series.

Marc Gasol ate speghetti warehouse for lunch today. Maybe it will come back to haunt him by game time.

Get ready to see the Thunder get eliminated tonight

They better be pumped. This game is almost necessary.


Also, cute attempt. http://dahmanooo.wikispaces.com/file/view/Dancing%20troll.gif/352078796/Dancing%20troll.gif.

See how silly it sounds to suggest they aren't pumped up to play in a playoff game and then suggesting that's why they got beat?

Get ready to see the Thunder get eliminated tonight

I haven't seen you make a quality post... Maybe ever. How about instead of just throwing out baseless opinions/assertions you make a decent contribution to the dialogue. For example, provide a reason for your statement.

The Thunder could get eliminated tonight, but I'd argue they're more likely to stave off elimination for at least one game. There's a lot of pride in the locker room and the crowd should be energized. We'll see. Hopefully, its not like game 5 of the Finals last year.

I haven't seen you make a quality post... Maybe ever. How about instead of just throwing out baseless opinions/assertions you make a decent contribution to the dialogue. For example, provide a reason for your statement.

The Thunder could get eliminated tonight, but I'd argue they're more likely to stave off elimination for at least one game. There's a lot of pride in the locker room and the crowd should be energized. We'll see. Hopefully, its not like game 5 of the Finals last year.

Sure, here is my reason that the Thunder will get eliminated: No Russell Westbrook

It's over folks. Not even 2nd half and it's over.

Maybe next season, Thunder.

So we went from damn we need Harden to nah don't need him to damn we need Harden

Sad the season had to end like this. I said a couple months ago that Memphis was a team the every body on the Thunder and even the fans really despise. I rooted against the Spurs all season and I hope they take them down!

So we went from damn we need Harden to nah don't need him to damn we need Harden

We need Westbrook, We need scoring Down low, all we do is take jumpers!

Sure, here is my reason that the Thunder will get eliminated: No Russell Westbrook

Proving my point.

So we went from damn we need Harden to nah don't need him to damn we need Harden

Harden have not done ****, he sucked in the Finals and sucked against the Thunder in the first round, Harden would have not made a difference

It's over folks. Not even 2nd half and it's over.

Maybe next season, Thunder.

Giving up on the team already after the Thunder is behind 2 points?

Patrick Beverly for series MVP.

Silence on this board. Either way, what a finish!

Ok, you hate to say it, but how many millions do you pay Durant to make THAT shot? I know, they wouldn't be there without him. BUT.

Great year Thunder. NEXT YEAR!

Proving my point.

Told you that the Thunder will get eliminated, now the Thunder can watch the rest of the playoffs on the couch at home just like my Magic! Enjoy the loss! :D

Giving up on the team already after the Thunder is behind 2 points?

Yup. You could tell they checked out. I was right

Excited for next year!

Barkley is spot-on in the postgame wrap-up on TNT. Thunder's a great team, but they miss a big man when the jumpers don't fall and the Grizzlies wouldn't have lost to an OKC team WITH Westbroook. They were playing better basketball than the Thunder before Westbrook got hurt. The match-up either way belonged to the Grizzlies THIS YEAR. But he said in the long run the Thunder will be winning for years because of their youth. He again said we just need a big man. Kenny Smith agreed with him on just about everything. Interesting thoughts from them all that nobody really knew how good Harden was going to be as a starter, they made the right move in the trade and Barkley said to remember that that trade came with some great draft picks coming up. But this year? It was going to be the Grizzlies no matter what.

Ready for summer camp and the '13-'14 season. Thunder up!

The contract Perkins has is atrocious. Can't believe they're paying him that much money.

Told you that the Thunder will get eliminated, now the Thunder can watch the rest of the playoffs on the couch at home just like my Magic! Enjoy the loss! :D

Can you do us all a favor and not make any jerk remarks? Some of us are frustrated with the loss and are mourning the end of the great season. Thanks.

The contract Perkins has is atrocious. Can't believe they're paying him that much money.

It made sense at the time because he was a great defensive stopper and we already had so many offensive options that we didn't need him to be an offensive prowess. Now, with the loss of Harden, no Westbrook, Serge struggling for z lot of games, we miss those offensive capabilities.

Can you do us all a favor and not make any jerk remarks? Some of us are frustrated with the loss and are mourning the end of the great season. Thanks.

Why be frustrated? You should have expected that the Thunder is done without Westbrook

Why be frustrated? You should have expected that the Thunder is done without Westbrook

Go away!

Go away!

No

No

Not cool, dude. Bad timing. Wrong place. C'mon.

Not cool, dude. Bad timing. Wrong place. C'mon.

They will get over it after they stop crying after the loss today

There is always at least one 13 year old on any sports thread or forum. It's the price of having one. It's pretty obvious who the 13 year old is here.

Tough loss, but we didn't fold despite losing one of our superstars. We could have won any or all of the games we lost. We weren't going to win it all this year regardless. Its Miami's championship to lose. Reggie Jackson got some superb experience during these playoffs, if there's a silver lining to be looked for.

Does everyone now understand just how important Westbrook is to this team?

For anyone who cares, you can go to Monkees profile and hide all of his posts. Problem solved.

Now, Perk played an absolutely atrocious game last night, as did mostly everybody. But, if we amnesty him, who do we get to take his place? We need an elite center with the ability to score as well as defend the paint. But Dwight Howards and Javale Mcgees are hard to come by. Thoughts?

For anyone who cares, you can go to Monkees profile and hide all of his posts. Problem solved.

Now, Perk played an absolutely atrocious game last night, as did mostly everybody. But, if we amnesty him, who do we get to take his place? We need an elite center with the ability to score as well as defend the paint. But Dwight Howards and Javale Mcgees are hard to come by. Thoughts?


Ding ding ding. Best way to get rid of a troll, just put them on ignore and they won't get the responses they want. Also the report post feature is there for a reason. :)

Tough loss for the fans. Things will get better. At least that's what I tell myself every year after OU's bowl game. :-P

What a great season!

I am proud of the way the team performed with losing their star PG in the middle of the playoffs. Nobody was claiming OKC was still going to the Finals. MIA is tornado of domination right now, I don't see anyone (especially now the Grizz) beating them.

Barely losing 4 games to Memphis with the condition our team was in, is truly respectable.
It was cool to stay in the arena until the team walked out and chanting OKC. You could tell the players really appreciated the fans as they high-fived everyone they could through the tunnel.

At least I get to save money not buying more playoff tickets the rest of the way.


On to next season. Russell comes back. Perkins most likely is gone. Martin is probably gone. A lot of cool new things will be in place for next season. I am excited.

For anyone who cares, you can go to Monkees profile and hide all of his posts. Problem solved.

Now, Perk played an absolutely atrocious game last night, as did mostly everybody. But, if we amnesty him, who do we get to take his place? We need an elite center with the ability to score as well as defend the paint. But Dwight Howards and Javale Mcgees are hard to come by. Thoughts?

javale mcgee is a massive head case and only plays hard about half the time ..

What a great season!

I am proud of the way the team performed with losing their star PG in the middle of the playoffs. Nobody was claiming OKC was still going to the Finals. MIA is tornado of domination right now, I don't see anyone (especially now the Grizz) beating them.

Barely losing 4 games to Memphis with the condition our team was in, is truly respectable.
It was cool to stay in the arena until the team walked out and chanting OKC. You could tell the players really appreciated the fans as they high-fived everyone they could through the tunnel.

At least I get to save money not buying more playoff tickets the rest of the way.


On to next season. Russell comes back. Perkins most likely is gone. Martin is probably gone. A lot of cool new things will be in place for next season. I am excited.


i very much agree with most of what you posted .. i am proud of our team and loved the growth we saw from reggie

so where do we go from here .. (numbers are from hoops hype/usatoday)

this years cap was 58mil and tax level was 70.3 mil

under contract for next season

KD 18.7 mil
Rus 14.6 mil
Serge 12.2 mil
Perk 8.4 mil
Thabo 3.9 mil
Collison 2.5 mil
Lamb 2.1 mil
Reggie 1.3 mil
Jones 1.0 mil
Thabeet .9 mil

Martin Fisher Orton Liggins are free agents that we can resign even over the cap

plus we have cap holds for the 2 first round picks

total under contract 66.1 mil and we have to have at least 13 players under contract per NBA rules Cap next year will be around 60 mil with the tax line around 72 mil (these are set in july)

so what does this mean??

if we don't amnesty Perk we will be 6 mil over the cap (actually more because the 12th pick makes 1.7 mil +/- 20% and the 29. makes .88 mil +/- 20%)

so our options are to resign Martin for whatever we want because of his Bird rights
we can resign Fisher Orton and Liggins to 120% of this years salary
and we will have our MLE (mid level exception) which is 5 mil

keep in mind that with the draft picks we will be at 68 mil and then with 1 or 2 other players we will be very very close to the tax line which our owners have not shown that they will play

if we amnesty perk (keep in mind we still have to pay him he just doesn't count against the cap) his 8.4 mil comes off the cap and we would be about 2 mil under going into the draft

this doesn't change our options much

after the draft we would be at the cap and have our MLE to work with and would have to decide if we want to resign Martin


so pay role with Perk IMHO we don't resign Martin or use the MLE and we have a 72mil dollar pay role just under the cap

if we amnesty Perk we could either resign Martin this puts us between 68 and 72 mil (depending on how much martin would sign for 8-12 he will get 8 from some one) but puts the owners on the hook for between 76-80 mil (or a little less depending on how much perk signs for elsewhere)

if we amnesty Perk and use the MLE on whomever (big guy or wing) we will be at 65 mil or so and the owners will be on the hook for 73 mil (or a little less depending on how much perk signs for elsewhere)

bottom line we will return Perk or Martin or MLE new guy very unlikely 2 of the 3

so unless we make a major trade our team will not be much different

Oklahoma City Thunder lose to the Memphis Grizzlies - Grantland (http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9280958/oklahoma-city-thunder-lose-memphis-grizzlies)

from usa today: Reminder: Oklahoma City Thunder fans are the best | For The Win (http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/05/reminder-oklahoma-city-thunder-fans-are-the-best/)

The contract Perkins has is atrocious. Can't believe they're paying him that much money.

He's getting paid too much, but atrocious is a little strong. There are worse contracts and centers are almost always overpaid. It's definitely not a good contract though.

For anyone who cares, you can go to Monkees profile and hide all of his posts. Problem solved.

Thanks. I had forgotten how to do that.

Perkins most likely is gone.

Perkins will almost definitely be back. I'd put it at 95%. He'd have to get traded or amnestied. Who is going to trade for him and his contract? No one. And he is not getting amnestied. You'd still have to pay him and then also find a replacement. The better solution is for Brooks to use him less and in appropriate situations. The team could definitely go small like Miami did this year.

Good breakdown, BOULDERSOONER. Like I said above, amnestying Perk serves almost no purpose. We wouldn't have the money to go get anyone that really would be good enough to be worth it. We just need to use him less. I'd like to see us go small more with KD at the 4 and up Collison's minutes. \

I think Kevin Martin will be back if he is willing to... wait for it, "sacrifice." The Thunder won't offer him market value. I think they should offer him about 6 million per year. He's been on losing teams his entire career. Is he willing to sacrifice to stay? I hope so. He was very efficient this year. He's not good enough to be a #2 on a title team, but he's good enough to a #3 or 4 option, which he would be with the Thunder.

The big question is what we're going to with all our young assets (rookies and draft picks). Are going to give Lamb or PJ3 real minutes next year? What about our 2 first round draft picks? When does Tibor Pleiss come over (I'd say after next season)? We have a bunch of assets, but it's unclear what we're going to do with them... That's the big mystery to me.

Finally, our guys are young and should continue to improve. Reggie should be better from the experience he gained. Serge still has a lot of room to grow. Could he come back with some post moves? People often forget to consider that teams can improve if they're young just by maturation and hard work. Hopefully OKC's improvement in this area is enough to not even need other major moves.

IMHO we do not amnesty perk and we don't resign Martin ..

Reggie proved that he can be a very good bench player and Imho he will lead the second unit with Lamb making the big jump and perry jones/our #12 pick getting some run

IMHO we do not amnesty perk and we don't resign Martin ..

Reggie proved that he can be a very good bench player and Imho he will lead the second unit with Lamb making the big jump and perry jones/our #12 pick getting some run

I generally agree, but I think they'll give Martin an offer well below market value and see if he'll bite. He probably won't, but it's worth a shot. If he leaves then you have half a season to see the young guys play before determining if something needs to be added at the trade deadline.

It's important for everyone to remember that the motto of the Thunder's front office is sustainability. They won't sign people to long term bad contracts. Another Perk signing won't happen.