****Official 2012/2013 Oklahoma City Thunder Basketball Thread****

[Teo9969]

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...

[Teo9969]

15 Surprising Athletes Who Have Made An Insane Amount Of Money | ThePostGame

Wow...just...wow.

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

[AP]

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.

[Anonymous.]

15 Surprising Athletes Who Have Made An Insane Amount Of Money | ThePostGame

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.

[AP]

I honestly think he will re-sign.

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

[Mississippi Blues]

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.

[SoonerBoy18]

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.

[BoulderSooner]

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 ....

[Teo9969]

15 Surprising Athletes Who Have Made An Insane Amount Of Money | ThePostGame

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.

[Mississippi Blues]

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.

[BoulderSooner]

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

[SoonerBoy18]

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

[OKCisOK4me]

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.

[OKCJapan]

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.

[Teo9969]

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.

[Easy180]

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

[betts]

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

[BoulderSooner]

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

[Teo9969]

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.

[Anonymous.]

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

[Anonymous.]

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).

[adaniel]

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.

[BoulderSooner]

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

[Of Sound Mind]

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.

[Bellaboo]

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.