Friday Bolts: 10.4.19

Billy Donovan told media members at practice yesterday, including Brady Trantham (The Franchise), that the team is hopeful Andre Roberson will play in its first scrimmage this weekend.

Brett Dawson (The Athletic) has a Q&A with Terrance Ferguson on fatherhood and basketball: “Last year I took plenty of contested shots I shouldn’t have taken, because that was my game last year, catch and shoot. This year I’m working on the closeouts, I’m playing five-on-five. I’m working on the pump fake, getting my teammates open, a one-two pullup, or the side dribble. I’m experimenting with a lot of things, and right now I feel comfortable with everything.”

The Jump did a segment on Steven Adams as a trade piece, in which the panel all agrees that the Thunder should wait to pounce on desperate teams as the season unfolds:

Zach Buckley (Bleacher Report) ranks the most valuable expiring contracts around the NBA this season. You won’t be surprised to see the Thunder player at #2, but Buckley includes another OKC wing in his honorable mentions: “That’s assuming Roberson remains an elite defender after he missed a season-plus with injury. He hasn’t suited up since tearing his patellar tendon on Jan. 27, 2018. Expecting All-Defensive contributions from him might be too much, and his trade value is bogged down by debilitating offensive limitations without that level of stopping prowess.”

While a lot of Thunder alumni have been showing up in the bolts as members of All-Historical summer lists, Derek Fisher is here because he’s embroiled in some messy fallout from the LA Sparks’ playoff ouster. Ramona Shelbourne (ESPN) has the scoop what feels like a standard “lost the locker room” case for him, alongside a much dicier bean-spill regarding the team’s General Manager: “Several players said Fisher got into a debate with Nneka Ogwumike and Parker over plays the team could try to install and run when the Sun trapped point guard Gray. Ogwumike proposed one play with which the team previously had success, stressing the need to install counters in the Sparks’ offense. Fisher listened but bristled at how the team had been outrebounded by 22 in Game 2. He argued effort and execution were why the Sparks lost, not strategy. When Parker proposed another play, one the Sparks had run to counter point-guard traps in previous seasons, Fisher snapped and said, according to sources, “Is that why we f—ing lost?” It startled the players to hear Fisher snap like that, multiple sources said, as he’d previously taken a more collegial tack with the team.”

Upsetting developments over at SI.

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