Friday Bolts – 10.9.15
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “In terms of measurable offensive production, it will be difficult for
the Thunder to do much better under Donovan than they did under Brooks. Before last season, when Durant played only 27 games, the Thunder were top 10 in offensive efficiency for four straight seasons; three times, they were in the top five, and twice in the top three. Donovan’s impact won’t simply be measured by the end result, because when you have Durant and Westbrook, the ball is going in the basket. It will be measured in how they got there — and how the system translates to the defensive crucible of the postseason.”
Anthony Slater on Enes Kanter: “This offseason, though, Kanter deemed himself eligible for the national team. He expressed a desire to compete in Eurobasket. He would have been the team’s best interior offensive player. But coach Ergin Ataman left him off the roster, saying Kanter “did not apologize” for incidents in the past and there wasn’t enough of a dialogue between player and team. Kanter scoffed at the notion, publicly declaring that he was only left off because of his “political views.”
Weird thing from Fox Sports on an innocuous, humorous Westbrook quote: “Westbrook had to face guys like Steve Nash and Derek Fisher as a rookie — they may have been more skilled and poised, but they weren’t physically superior. Westbrook was better than Jones in just about every facet of basketball on Wednesday, and one can only hope the rookie takes the lesson as motivation. One can also hope the media learns its lesson when speaking with Westbrook.”
Ethan Strauss of ESPN.com on Steph Curry: “Payne, an efficiency obsessive, doesn’t believe in eradicating this issue with tons of daily practice jumpers. (“I would rather you shoot 100 to 150 mechanically correct, perfect shots before your mechanics start to break down and then start to build on that the next day,” he said.) Efficiency just might be the watchword of Curry’s season. Though he’s an incredibly efficient scorer, perhaps he could get the shots he wants with even less wasted movement — an economy of offense.”
