Wednesday Bolts – 2.19.14
Bill Simmons has Perk as his 12th worst contract in the league: “Poor Perk. It’s not his fault that (a) OKC overpaid him, (b) Scotty Brooks uses him too much, (c) advanced metrics are his mortal enemy, (d) he’s an 11th man making $8.7 million this season, and (e) OKC was too freaking cheap to amnesty him already. Kudos to OKC’s owners for brainwashing their fans and the local media into believing they aren’t cheap. It’s practically a Jedi mind trick. I wish I knew how to do that. This column is only 3,000 words. It’s much shorter than you think it is.”
Andrew Sharp of Grantland: “But he’s coming back at a weird time. If you’re reading this, you probably know what’s been going on in Oklahoma City over the past few weeks. The Thunder have turned into the best team in the league. Their defense is better than it’s ever been, Reggie Jackson has become the perfect complement to Kevin Durant, and about eight months after he looked completely overwhelmed in last season’s playoffs, Serge Ibaka has turned into a legitimate weapon on offense, the kind of superstar who was worth choosing over James Harden. And it’s all happened with Westbrook on the sideline. So we’re back to square one. The question people have been asking for four years. Would OKC be better off without Russell Westbrook?”
Berry Tramel: “The Heat is coming to town for a Thursday night showdown, and you know what means. Matchups extraordinaire. Durant vs. LeBron. Westbrook (light a candle) vs. D-Wade. Serge Ibaka vs. Chris Bosh. Kendrick Perkins against no one. That’s the fundamental problem with Perk and Miami. It’s 100 percent uncomplicated. The Heat has no one for Perkins to guard. Which is why Scotty Brooks knows what he has to do. He has to sit Perkins against Miami. Start Perk if need be, for ceremonial sake, but get him out quickly, never to return, at least until the Heat decides to play a more traditional lineup.”
Breaking: Kevin Durant does cool thing.
Thomas Beller of the New Yorker asked KD a question: “Durant threw his head back and laughed at this, and then he became stone-faced. “I have no musical talents. So I guess I made myself look good with that,” he said. “That’s a great question, though. I always wanted to play the piano, so now that you said something, I might take up lessons.” When one of the greatest basketball players, who nevertheless is still No. 2, starts talking about piano lessons, it is not a sign of his desire for a hobby but rather a statement about his capacity for self-improvement. If Bryant was yielding the baton, ever so slightly, of will as an agent of transcendence, I felt Durant was now picking it up.”
Darnell Mayberry on trade assets: “An unnecessary but usable contract in Hasheem Thabeet. The third-string center has played in eight games this season. He’s totaled 44 minutes. Yet he’s on the books for what, at this point, is a costly $1.2 million. OKC could package that prohibitive money along with some other type of compensation to lure someone with more value. And even if Thabeet doesn’t command anything of substance, the Thunder could try to move him to create more room under the tax to land someone the team really wants in a separate deal.”
