i was hoping someone here would make a tribute video to the OK3, perhaps w/ 'one shining moment' playing in the background
What went wrong for OKC? Stephen Jackson: 1st, coaching wise. They were not coached the right way. [...] They should have played more one on one halfcourt offense. He didn't run the right offense all year. They should have had more iso plays. [...] On the flip side, Russ is right about the Utah fans. [...] [Back in 2007 with Golden State,] We heard all kinds of stuff from Utah fans. Utah is the worst city I've played in in dealing with that. It's not a place for the brothas. [...] I'm not surprised. It's not why they lost. Donovan Mitchell was the best player in this series. Utah is going in the right direction. OKC, it wasn't the players, it was the coach. Shannon: You can't coach Russ. Kevin Durant [...] leaves no stone unturned in letting you know why he left. Russ shoots 43 times. How do you win a game like that? You can't. You're not gonna win with him. He might average a triple double next year & year after that. Guess what? You added Paul George & Carmelo Anthony. You've won one more playoff game. [...] They can't win like this. [...] This is as far as they're ever gonna go & good luck attracting free agents. Stephen: You get a different coach, it can happen. Skip: I did pick the Thunder. [...] 3rd quarter, Russ willed them back in this game. Russ scores 20 in the 3rd on 7-14 shooting. Thunder are hanging on, hanging in only because of Russ. [...] They get 6 straight shots. 1st shot wasn't even a shot because they said George wasn't in the shooting motion. YES HE WAS! SJ: Harden gets that call. Skip: Harden gets it 100/100 times. He should have been shooting 3 FTs. The last shot of the 6 is where he leans into Gobert. Does James Harden get that call? Yes he does. Shannon: Harden gets foul call for walking through the metal detector. Skip: I think the refs had seen so much ugly basketball to that point & just let it go, just play. They had chance after chance after chance. Now George Paul. He wants a max contract to be someone's savior. Last 43:15 of the closeout game, he scores 0 buckets. Shoots 2-16, 0-6 from 3. This is Paul George, where Russ is gonna have some help. Are you kidding me? You stayed in the game in spite of this guy. Shannon: I'm gonna take Russ off and put LeBron on this team. Bron, PG, Melo and Adams and Russ gets the Cleveland supporting cast. Who wins the series? Stephen: Both would've been struggling. Skip: You'd be saying about PG what you say about Clarkson & Hood, LeBron doesn't have enough help. Shannon: Are you saying LeBron with that cast doesn't beat Utah? Stephen: You put LeBron on Prairie View A&M, they win the National Championship. [...] [...] Stephen.: They gotta get a new coach. Shannon: Who? Stephen: Mark Jackson, Dave Fizdale, Jerry Stackhouse, they'll all challenge him. Shannon: Fizdale ain't gonna challenge him. He saw in Memphis. He challenged Marc Gasol & he's doing TV with you & I. Stephen: That's a different situation. [...] Skip: I thought Carmelo would rise & shine. He's beyond a shell of himself. I was the biggest Carmelo fan. Shannon: OKC had 93 shot attempts. Russ took 43. Skip: It was all they had. Stephen: [...] Russ, I'd love to go to war with. The way he plays, passion he has, you can't teach. It can hurt your sometimes. Shannon: If I'm going to war, I'm gonna go to war but the objective just isn't to go. It's to win the war. Skip: Remember what a bad matchup this was. Gobert is the best rim defender in basketball. LeBron would have a hard time going to the basket.
Stephen Jackson is Houston adjacent. His constant dick-riding of Russ Westbrook is disappointing and embarrassing.
yeah, but SJax is from Port Arthur.. Maybe it's just too far out. I've been considering SJax an honorary Houstonian because of proximity despite never hearing him rep Houston or the surrounding area. That's my mistake.. That's on me.
It's embarrassing. the contortions he does for Westbrook was even more cringe during the regular season. SJax was the main subscriber to the "The Thunder are built for the Playoffs" movement.
Where do the Thunder go from here? SAS: Some of those fans, there's a history there with some players. (Stephen Jackson, Derek Fisher, Westbrook) It's not the first time we've heard that about fans in Utah. Some of them stain the rest of the fan base & NBA may need to address it. Carmelo is in no position to sit up and say what he will and will not do. He has an option for $28M. He's about his money. He's not getting that anywhere else. If he opts out, he's obviously willing to take a pay cut. If that was his last game in OKC, didn't look well. Paul George, still a star, but boy did he pick a bad game to not show up in & help Russ. Him nor Melo showed up. MK: Westbrook is 100% right, not even a little bit wrong. Buying a ticket doesn't give you a license to say whatever you want. Carmelo is in position to say whatever he wants because he'll opt in for $28M & has that leverage. He'll be on the team and eat up their cap. Carmelo has been a great iso scorer throughout his career, not much more than that. Not ideal conditions in terms of winning a championship but do you require ideal conditions to even get to a Finals? They can't just be good? He's been in good situations. In the right circumstances, he can still be a useful iso scorer. His leverage is the option which makes him comfortable saying I'm not coming off the bench. Paul George, where is he going? Everyone has talked about LA. Philadelphia makes some sense for Paul George too. If market doesn't matter, he should take a hard long look at New Orleans. SAS: This stood out & stopped me in my tracks. Westbrook or Paul George, they gave the ball to 'Melo when Utah was making run, thee Carmelo Anthony iso player extraordinaire, threw it back out so he can set a pick for Jerami Grant. I couldn't believe it. That's not the 'Melo I know. Something isn't right. I don't know whether it's father time or something emotionally, but I didn't see Carmelo at all in these playoffs. In his 15-year career, 9 times he's been eliminated in the first round. 1 time to a Conference Finals. 0 NBA Finals. Drafted #3 overall where his best buddy LeBron went #1 overall. There's nothing left to say.
Stephen Jackson just basically confessed to being a complete idiot. People that blame Billy Donovan first for OKC's problems are completely clueless about his first year there and how high a peak their offense reached (before WB grew tired of it). If it weren't for KD's meltdown in game 6, they would have made the Finals and won a championship. I give Shannon Sharp credit for stating the plain truth about WB that so many in the media are afraid of saying. Melo has zero leverage. He can pretend all he wants but everyone knows he will opt in. Simple as that. Then he will do whatever the new OKC tells him to do or reach a buyout. Somebody has no idea what leverage is.
George (or Melo) comes to Houston this summer and we win the chip -> "George/Melo was just not able to fit with Westbrook" ...or even better: "Playing with Westbrook last season helped him being a better player" (just what they said about Oladipo)
