just because some people say it doesn't make it true ... russ is a PG and a great one at that

for those that say he is a SG they must think Derrik Rose is also not a pg because Russ and Rose have pretty much been the exact same player in the nba

That's your argument? He played SG at UCLA bro. Nobody has compared him to Derrick Rose. Derrick Rose has always been a PG, Russ was never a PG till he started playing for the Thunder. He is a great PG, but that's not his natural position.

Russ was a raw player at UCLA. Shooting guard fit him well. In the NBA his size and athleticism work best at Point guard. He has done a good job at adapting.

That's your argument? He played SG at UCLA bro. Nobody has compared him to Derrick Rose. Derrick Rose has always been a PG, Russ was never a PG till he started playing for the Thunder. He is a great PG, but that's not his natural position.

he was a combo guard at UCLA just like derron williams was at illinois .... and you should compare him to derrick rose they are and have been statistically the same player

he is a pg

he was a combo guard at UCLA just like derron williams was at illinois .... and you should compare him to derrick rose they are and have been statistically the same player

he is a pg

I don't think he is debating wether he is a point guard now. But, I think his skill set was probably better suited for the 2 guard like he was at UCLA in his early years in OKC. He had a difficult time transitioning to pg. Now he's a pretty versatile player, but that wasn't always the case, as we all know.

I don't think he is debating wether he is a point guard now. But, I think his skill set was probably better suited for the 2 guard like he was at UCLA in his early years in OKC. He had a difficult time transitioning to pg. Now he's a pretty versatile player, but that wasn't always the case, as we all know.

see



5. Russ and Reggie are both SGs playing the PG position...occasionally, it is nice to have a real PG run the offense and free up KD/Russ/Reggie to exploit other areas on the court.



Russ is a real PG and one of the best in the NBA

Russ is a SG who happens to play the Point better than all but maybe 7 players in the NBA (Rondo, LBJ, Paul, and maybe Nash, Rubio, D. Williams, Parker).

I don't know why you're arguing that a player who takes more shots than any other player on the team is not a shooting guard...

15 Surprising Athletes Who Have Made An Insane Amount Of Money | ThePostGame (http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201209/15-surprising-athletes-who-have-made-insane-amount-money#8)

Wow...just...wow.

Surely we can get this guy to re-sign with us for <$8M/year.

Russ is a real PG and one of the best in the NBA

My point was that Russ isn't a real PG. He's done a good job at playing the position, and because of his athleticism is one of the better ones in the league, but at heart he is more suited for SG. With the exception of Derrick Rose, he plays the position completely different than any other PG in the league.

15 Surprising Athletes Who Have Made An Insane Amount Of Money | ThePostGame (http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201209/15-surprising-athletes-who-have-made-insane-amount-money#8)

Wow...just...wow.

Surely we can get this guy to re-sign with us for <$8M/year.



I honestly think he will re-sign. He has had his money-man fun [unlike Harden]. Martin was super excited when he heard the news he was traded to the Thunder. He knows Houston has no chance of a championship within probably the next 5-6 years.

Martin knows that he is now in prime position to rack up rings to set next to his racks of money. Something Harden will understand in the distant future when he sees his buddies back @ OKC continuously playing deep in the playoffs.

I honestly think he will re-sign.

I agree. I think he likes it here and fits our system pretty well.

he was a combo guard at UCLA just like derron williams was at illinois .... and you should compare him to derrick rose they are and have been statistically the same player

he is a pg

I'm not debating if he's a PG or not. I know what position he plays even though that's not his natural position. I'm not comparing his stats to Derrick Rose. Im not saying he isn't a PG because of his stats. Know what I'm saying before you get defensive & pretty much run in circles, no disrespect intended.

I am not a Thunder fan but what is the point of signing Fisher? I doubt he is going to help the Thunder in anything

You obvioulsy didnt watch him before he came here. Keep it moving.

I'm not debating if he's a PG or not. I know what position he plays even though that's not his natural position. I'm not comparing his stats to Derrick Rose. Im not saying he isn't a PG because of his stats. Know what I'm saying before you get defensive & pretty much run in circles, no disrespect intended.

no disrespect taken ... i just disagree pg is his natural position ....

15 Surprising Athletes Who Have Made An Insane Amount Of Money | ThePostGame (http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201209/15-surprising-athletes-who-have-made-insane-amount-money#8)

Wow...just...wow.

Surely we can get this guy to re-sign with us for <$8M/year.

Ha! Apparently they mixed up Kevin Martin with Kenyon Martin. It is Kenyon Martin who has made that much money.

Kevin has made about half that amount between 50-60 total. That's still a lot of money, but there's enough of a difference between 55 and 110 that I could still see him refusing to play for substantially less than market value.

Still would like to see him sign for <$8, but if he proves to be a great asset in the playoffs, then a 2-year $18M is probably manageable. I'd for sure give him no better than a 3-year, $25M contract.

no disrespect taken ... i just disagree pg is his natural position ....

Well I respect your opinion as we all have one. We can both agree that he's a great PG & player in general & he makes the Thunder a better team than if we didn't have him.

Well I respect your opinion as we all have one. We can both agree that he's a great PG & player in general & he makes the Thunder a better team than if we didn't have him.

no doubt

Lost at Denver... Come on people start crying about how think the excitement level is down. *sarcasm

The thing that stuck out to me was on the pregame show on wwls. ..they said efficiency wise, Nuggets were the 4th best team in the NBA right now. That struck a cord with me. We may be playing down right now but they gonna have to be on point come playoffs time.

The Thunder have a couple of real problems at the moment, First, They do not have a consistent 3rd or 4th scorer for road games. Martin has not been good on the road during the second half of this season. Ibaka is improving offensively but he sometimes has off nights as well. I think we are witnessing right now how important Harden was to this team. Now we cannot put any blame on Presti because we all know the economics were not going to work. The facts are, the Thunder have lost 6 of the past 7 on the road. We needed this game to avoid another back to back loss. I don't know if we can beat the Clippers who are on a role right now Unless everyone who is counted on puts up early season averaging numbers. 7 of our last 13 games on the road are against playoff teams which would put us at a possible mark of 23-19 on the road at the end of the season. That is off the mark from the past 2 seasons marks of 21-12 and 25-16. What is the remedy? Maybe martin is not getting enough shots or looks, in that case we could put the blame on coach Brooks. However, this is not the only problem.
The other issue is with the turnovers, Early in the season is seemed like the TO were lower. Now, the are like last years average. However, the difference was, we had Harden. The Thunder cannot afford to fall to fourth in the WC. Well we can still hope for the best.

Harden was important to the offense. I can honestly say I don't think we miss him defensively.

But Harden is not the answer for this team. Sure, playing the brand of basketball we're playing, we'd be better...but that brand of basketball (Iso-heavy) is not going to win us a Championship as long that path goes through Miami (and that's at least this year and next).

...It's disheartening because when they play with poor ball movement, Presti looks like a fool for not just eating the money and signing Harden to a ridiculous deal and trading him off if it didn't work. But when we play with consistent, crisp ball-movement (and I say crisp because there are games we play competitively, have tons of assists but look like crap doing it) Presti looks like the best GM of all time.

~60 games into the season I really hoped we would see the offense come together. The fact that it hasn't leaves holes on the defensive end in transition (which is what killed us tonight in the 2nd quarter). It also requires more effort which leads to less focus on the defensive side of the court.

I'm certainly not counting the Thunder out of even winning a Title this year: The defense will lock-down come playoffs and that alone gives me great hope...but it just doesn't look like they're ready overall.

Pretty obvious at this point in the season the Heat are heavy favorites to repeat but we will see...Just thankful we get to enjoy watching winning basketball with two stars in KD and Westbrook...Sure would be ecstatic with a title but more than satisfied with what is representing OKC

Pretty obvious at this point in the season the Heat are heavy favorites to repeat but we will see...Just thankful we get to enjoy watching winning basketball with two stars in KD and Westbrook...Sure would be ecstatic with a title but more than satisfied with what is representing OKC

I have to agree. Some of the entertainment has to be anticipating the post season, but if we're short sighted enough to not enjoy watching some of the best basketball players ever on a regular basis, we're missing half the fun of sports. Only one team can win a title. Fans of the rest need to learn to enjoy the skill level of the players, the excellent passing, amazing shots, etc. Even in losses, all but the last minute or so of a game is usually really enjoyable. That was value for your entertainment dollar. It sure bets watching reruns of most of the shows on television.


OKC Thunder Fans - Oklahoma City NBA (http://www.thunderfans.com)

Harden was important to the offense. I can honestly say I don't think we miss him defensively.

But Harden is not the answer for this team. Sure, playing the brand of basketball we're playing, we'd be better...but that brand of basketball (Iso-heavy) is not going to win us a Championship as long that path goes through Miami (and that's at least this year and next).

...It's disheartening because when they play with poor ball movement, Presti looks like a fool for not just eating the money and signing Harden to a ridiculous deal and trading him off if it didn't work. But when we play with consistent, crisp ball-movement (and I say crisp because there are games we play competitively, have tons of assists but look like crap doing it) Presti looks like the best GM of all time.

~60 games into the season I really hoped we would see the offense come together. The fact that it hasn't leaves holes on the defensive end in transition (which is what killed us tonight in the 2nd quarter). It also requires more effort which leads to less focus on the defensive side of the court.

I'm certainly not counting the Thunder out of even winning a Title this year: The defense will lock-down come playoffs and that alone gives me great hope...but it just doesn't look like they're ready overall.

we are the highest scoring team in the NBA .. O is not and will not be the problem

we are the highest scoring team in the NBA .. O is not and will not be the problem

We're the second behind Miami in pts/100 possessions. But I get what you're trying to say.

That's great and all for the first 40 to 44 minutes, but simply put: Our offense looks like crap in crunch time.

I'll say it again, we're working really hard on the offensive end and putting ourselves in bad positions for transition defense. We're also forcing KD and RW to exert more energy in isolation heavy offense and it's hampering their ability to defend as well as they are able.

3 or so games this year we lose @ buzzer? I'll take that.

Big win over the Clippers last night. Moving us closer to the #1 spot. We must take advantage of the Spur's MVP being down.

Home court advantage will be a huge advantage for the Thunder in the West. (Harden bailed us out of SA last year).

Good win indeed, although it would have been better had Serge Ibaka not swatted Blake Griffin in his junk. Our best scenario is that he only sits out one game, because he is almost certainly going to get suspended.

And while yes, the Pistons stink, the Spurs performance last night shows they are not going to fall apart without a few weeks of Parker. We gotta be on our A game if we want the #1 seed.

Good win indeed, although it would have been better had Serge Ibaka not swatted Blake Griffin in his junk. Our best scenario is that he only sits out one game, because he is almost certainly going to get suspended.

And while yes, the Pistons stink, the Spurs performance last night shows they are not going to fall apart without a few weeks of Parker. We gotta be on our A game if we want the #1 seed.

very unlikely he gets suspended

very unlikely he gets suspended
It would seem that you hold a starkly minority viewpoint on that based on much of the commentary in the sports world.

Good win indeed, although it would have been better had Serge Ibaka not swatted Blake Griffin in his junk. Our best scenario is that he only sits out one game, because he is almost certainly going to get suspended.

And while yes, the Pistons stink, the Spurs performance last night shows they are not going to fall apart without a few weeks of Parker. We gotta be on our A game if we want the #1 seed.

It's going around that Parker may have some kind of tear, that it may be worse than anticipated.

^
Interesting, I haven't heard it but it wouldn't surprise me after watching the way his ankle bent.

Good win indeed, although it would have been better had Serge Ibaka not swatted Blake Griffin in his junk. Our best scenario is that he only sits out one game, because he is almost certainly going to get suspended.

And while yes, the Pistons stink, the Spurs performance last night shows they are not going to fall apart without a few weeks of Parker. We gotta be on our A game if we want the #1 seed.

Blake Griffin was playing like a donkey and a half yesterday. If you look at that replay over and over again, Blake has a fist full of Ibaka's jersey and he's stretching it to the moon. Serge was trying to loosen his grip by swinging at him and the whole time he's looking up for the rebound not paying attention to where his swing lands. It was an inadvertent blow to Blake who played it off with a lovely little flop. Blake did so much crap yesterday that was similar to one Ron Artest that it wasn't even funny. If Serge gets suspended, it's well worth it...just bad timing.

Serge likely won't get suspended. Possibly fined, but even that's doubtful.

When you have a ridiculous wing span, there's not much room for error. About the time that Serge prepared to swing, Griffin's arm was extended pretty high up. He then contracted a little bit, bent his elbow, and by the time Serge's arm hit Blake's arm, it was hit w/ Serge's upper arm (rather than the forearm or elbow he probably intended). From there, you realize the length of Ibaka's arm is the culprit as much as the intent. Things happened way too fast to be sure that he was trying to take a cheap shot, and basked on Ibaka's history, I would doubt that a cheap shot was his goal. He was still pretty focused on the play at hand as evidenced by his looking up at the rim.

Agree though that he should have jumped and drawn the foul. Would have negated the 3-pointer and kept the Thunder in the lead. Good to see him calm down and finish the game on 2 major plays.

Yes, to keep his composure and finish with a rejection and an and-1 was great for Serge. No doubt in my mind that it was inadvertent.

Griffin is a dirty player. Most of his "posters" are offensive fouls. He is like the lightweight version of Lebron. Large player that bowls through people near the rim yet doesn't get any fouls called on them.

I am just glad that it looks like OKC has figured out the Clips, there was a time the last couple seasons where facing the Clips meant surely an L was to be added. Now it is the other way around. I want to crush them in the playoffs. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin's flop-city routine is a joke to the league.


Tonight against LAL will be a good one, 8:30 on ESPN.

BS was right. Serge didn't get suspended but was fined $25,000 instead.

2 Turnovers tonight against the Lakers. Franchise low.

That's really quite ridiculous...

2 Turnovers tonight against the Lakers. Franchise low.

That's really quite ridiculous...

That's not only a franchise low, it ties the NBA low.

The team that always has people up in arms over how bad they are at keeping possession is the team that is tied for the all-time low in turnovers during a single game. How ironic.

The botched call on Russell traveling in the 3rd or maybe early 4th basically prevented OKC from claiming the record.

The botched call on Russell traveling in the 3rd or maybe early 4th basically prevented OKC from claiming the record.

The call where Brewer passed to Collison and it went out of bounds, they both emphatically claimed it was tipped by a Laker........ could have been a zero turnover game.

It wasn't a botched call. He really did travel, lol.

Another big W last night in NY.

We are in the lolcat's house tonight. Celtics @ noon Sunday then fly out to San Antonio for Monday night's game.

Another big W last night in NY.

We are in the lolcat's house tonight. Celtics @ noon Sunday then fly out to San Antonio for Monday night's game.

Win.

Of course, who deserves the LOL if we lose to them...and yes, we do tend to sleepwalk through what should be easy games (cough cough Wizards cough)

Win.

Of course, who deserves the LOL if we lose to them...and yes, we do tend to sleepwalk through what should be easy games (cough cough Wizards cough)

We do, but the Bobcats just suck. We won our last game against them by 45 points & had a 50+ point lead a few times in the game.

All I know is that the radio feed sounds like a high school game. I can hear the cheerleaders, lol...

Jeff Green's first game in OKC since being traded. I hope the crowd gives him a warm welcome.

Jeff Green's first game in OKC since being traded. I hope the crowd gives him a warm welcome.

Not sure if its the boring PA announcer not being loud enough or if its the fans who dont really care because all season the fans inside the arena have been giving poor standing ovations. They did poor against Martin, Harden, Fisher, Brewer and Now Green.

Huh? I must be reading your post wrong...

He's saying we're not giving standing ovations to players that deserve standing ovations.

Not sure if its the boring PA announcer not being loud enough or if its the fans who dont really care because all season the fans inside the arena have been giving poor standing ovations. They did poor against Martin, Harden, Fisher, Brewer and Now Green.

Only way they get great standing ovations is when they win the championship for them but they did not so they get poor standing ovations

why didn't ABC show any city shots during today's Sunday game? Normally, ESPN does a fairly good job showing the city but today there was nothing aside from the outside of the building itself at the very beginning.

Anybody have insight?

why didn't ABC show any city shots during today's Sunday game? Normally, ESPN does a fairly good job showing the city but today there was nothing aside from the outside of the building itself at the very beginning.

Anybody have insight?

Because it is not night time, it is prettier at night time so that is why they did not show any city shots

Only way they get great standing ovations is when they win the championship for them but they did not so they get poor standing ovations

A warm welcome is nice. A standing ovation is not required and I see no reason to downgrade the crowd when that doesn't happen.

He's saying we're not giving standing ovations to players that deserve standing ovations.

I understand that, but this sentence kills it for me:

"They did poor against Martin, Harden, Fisher, Brewer and Now Green."

Is he saying that we should have given Kevin Martin a warm welcome when he played for Houston? I didn't even know who Kevin Martin was before he was acquired by the Thunder organization. I think you give a warm welcome, if the player we're welcoming is in the starting line up introductions. If they're coming into the game, it is what it is.

I was at the game and didn't even hear Green's announced check-in.

Either way he played here 3 years ago... Not really deserving of a standing O.

I notice the crowd generally loves Fisher, though. Like everyone freaks out when he hits a 3. I find it odd.

I was at the game and didn't even hear Green's announced check-in.

Either way he played here 3 years ago... Not really deserving of a standing O.

I notice the crowd generally loves Fisher, though. Like everyone freaks out when he hits a 3. I find it odd.

It's always great when you see one of the rarities in sports ;)

I rest my case.

"I didn't even know who Kevin Martin was before he was acquired by the Thunder organization.

The typical Thunder fan.

Maynor got traded with little notice, but I noticed he's actually getting a decent amount of playing time and producing in portland..its a bummer that his injury bumped him down on the depth chart, but i'm glad he's having a chance to play again and prove his value...