Now we know who the most important player on the Oklahoma City Thunder

LOL remember when OKC traded James Harden before they had to for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, and some weak draft picks?

That was a funny day...

 

whatever happened to Perry Jones. They were saying he was the steal of the draft blah blah blah. Nonsense

 

Who said he was the steal of the draft? Don't remember that at all.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=per...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

 

Pretty much everyone on the panel said that Jones and Moultrie were steals.

 

they have no need for Harden when KD and Westbrook are both healthy.

 

OK. Considering PJ3's disappointing production last year with Baylor and the fact he was so incredibly soft, I don't see it at all. Watching some of his precious few minutes as a rookie, he was exactly what I expected.

 

I think the mistake people are making still with Westbrook is on importance. Him getting hurt and no one to replace him with makes him seem a lot more important.

Reggie Jackson is obviously no Westbrook, but I don't believe Westbrook is the best fit for that team.

They need a playmaker/pass 1st type player. I believe if you flip Westbrook for Rondo, OKC gets WAY BETTER. Durant gets 30+ shots a game without the need to do it all or Rondo has wide open lanes to operate because defense is focused on Durant.

I believe Harden also would've been a better fit than Westbrook, and I've been saying that since before Harden came to the Rockets.

I think Westbrook has a lot of talent, but makes a bunch of idiotic mistakes, that someone who has been starting as long as he has shouldn't be making.

I believe he is someone like Allen Iverson or Kobe (yes Kobe), who is a volume shooter that is of course talented, but like Kobe gets a chance to play next to another superstar or in Kobe's case the best frontcourt in the league for a vast majority of his career (Shaq then Gasol/Bynum), so they get judged as a lot better than they actually are.

Considering OKC isn't THAT much worse (probably a drop from a #1 seed, to a #4-6 seed in the west) by switching Westbrook with a low 1st round pick Rookie on the fly (no practices like this, no game planning for this), is a telling sign that he isn't a superstar, but a good player who volume shoots.

Consider superstars: Lebron, Harden, Durant, Rose, etc who get injured all of a sudden in the playoffs. Their teams would be LUCKY to win even 1 playoff game if they went down.

 

Even with both of them...did they have any chance against the Heat?

I felt like, given time for the core 4 to develop, they could've eventually overtaken Miami. Harden was the X-Factor. He went ham against the Spurs and helped bring the Thunder to the Finals. I understand he had a poor showing, but they would not of gotten there without him.

Westbrook v. Wade
Durant v. LeBron
Ibaka v. Bosh

Harden, especially if he continued to develop, could've been the weight that tipped the scale in OKC's favor. Now, they just seem like they're a poor-man's Heat team.

 

the thunder will not beat the heat until they get a more consistent scoring PF/C.

they still lose to the heat in the finals with rondo or any other "pure" point guard

 

Yeah, a bunch of the talking heads/pundits were on the whole "Presti does it again, nabs high lotto talent with late selection!" kick, basically thinking back to the time in 2011 when Jones was considered a top 5 lock.

Sort of reminds me of when the Rockets stole high-lotto lock Terrence Morris in the early 2000's, who, like Jones, made the mistake of going back to school rather than capitalizing, and fell to the second round. Turns out he wasn't a diamond in the rough.

 

We might have won the series without Durant.

I think this has said more about Ibaka than anything.

 

The guys at ESPN & NBATV. People were amazed at how far he fell. They definitely were heaping on the praise.

 

Remember Harden at the beginning of the season...euro-stepping his way to 30/10+ every game...by playing less minutes as a 6th man for OKC, he would've completely dominated the scene during the playoffs. What if, what if!!!

 

LOL at Westbrook being more important than Durant. What does Durant have to do? Except carry the entire load of the team, while being doubled and trippled teamed.

Westbrook needs Durant. Durant just needs someone else to help with defense and facilitating. This was the PERFECT chance for Martin to step up and get a pay raise. I cant believe I used to defend him when he was here. He has been a royal let down.

 

That does not excuse the fact that he shoots more than Durant. Playmakers should be creating for others more than themselves.

 

westbrook was 6th in assist this year. he creates for others it's just that the thunder need his scoring more as well as his passing. it's not his fault durant is passive and chooses to defer to him.

 

7th*

msglngth

 

thx presti

 

Then these pundits didn't actually watch Perry Jones at Baylor very much. He excelled against weakfish opponents who had slow short guys guarding him. When he faced big-time players or physical guys like Kevin Jones, he was passive and got his rump handed to him.

PJ3 won't do much in the NBA.