Friday Bolts – 9.25.09
Sporting News named their All-Decade team in their last issue and Kevin Durant was on the first team. As was Joakim Noah, over Blake Griffin, Shane Battier and Dwyane Wade. Hmm.
Shaun Powell of NBA.com says this is a make or break year for Greg Oden: “Can you imagine that, two years removed from a no-brainer draft decision, there are rumblings the Trail Blazers should’ve taken Kevin Durant instead? That says plenty about Durant, but also something about Oden, raw and hardly the impact player many expected him to be. Big men develop slowly, and Oden did suffer leg injuries, so patience, please. Still, Oden can make everyone in Portland exhale if he learns a pet move, elevates himself to third option on offense and grabs more than seven rebounds a game. Is that asking too much too soon? No, it isn’t.”
Real GM “honestly appraises” OKC’s championship chances: “Presti is manning an enviable battleship, easily one of the three or four best long-term outlooks in the NBA, but he still has a lot of work left and cannot simply set this current core out into orbit and expect a title to automatically return.” There’s a hefty amount of info about KD in there that’s pretty interesting.
A new Oklahoma sports website has launched called OK Blitz and as part of their marketing campaign, they’ve developed three very good commercials. One features the 2009 Mascot of the Year (don’t you love how people flaunt this, as if it means something), Rumble the Bison. Another is a clever one with Pistol Pete donating “blood”. And the last is the best of the three: Billy Sims yelling “BOOM-AH!” at an inappropriate place. Brilliant.
Oh, it looks like Houston is debuting those alternate jerseys against the Thunder Nov. 6. We’re so special!
Scott Howard-Cooper for NBA.com talking about Tyreke Evans’ point guard ability and using an example: “On the other hand, Russell Westbrook wasn’t experienced at the point coming out last season. The Thunder took him at No. 4 and he ended up making the All-Rookie team. He had a deeper body of work to evaluate (two years at UCLA, although he had a very limited role as a freshman), and was a better athlete and defender. But the Kings can rightly point skeptics toward Oklahoma City as evidence of how this can all turn out right.”
ESPN has their fantasy preview up, with rankings and projections. They have Kevin Durant as the third overall player with averaging 28.0 ppg and 7.4 rpg. Yes please.
Another tiny little site update: There’s now a nice print feature down at the bottom. So when I write a long-winded column or game recap, just print it off, take it to the throne and enjoy.
