Camp Observations: Day 1
* Earl Watson, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Chris Wilcox and Nick Collison made up the Blue team, forming what could be the Thunder’s opening night starting unit. Coach P.J. Carlesimo, however, said don’t read anything into it as the lineups are likely to change daily and he simply wanted to get the returning guys time together on the first day.
* Russell Westbrook, Damien Wilkins, Desmond Mason, Joe Smith and Johan Petro formed the second string White team, and John Lucas, Kyle Weaver, Derrick Byars, Robert Swift and Chris Alexander made up the third-string Red team.
* P.J. ran a near three-hour practice on the first day, using most of it as a day of teaching. From what I caught in the final 20 minutes the media was allowed inside practice, he instructed on how he wants to box out and get out on the break on opponent free throw attempts and when and when not to call timeouts. It was interesting to hear him instruct his team to not call 20-second timeouts in the first 15 minutes of the first half or the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter. He said he’d rather save them in the last nine minutes of the first half and last three minutes of the game. It sounded more like football strategy than basketball, but P.J.’s been coaching longer than I’ve been alive. So what do I know? We’ll see how the strategy works this season.
* John Lucas was the last one on the practice court. He and Nick Collison, an interesting pairing, were shooting 3-pointers at the end of practice. Collison’s stoke looked good from beyond the arc.
* Jeff Green’s stroke looks effortless. For a below average shooter last year, Jeff’s easy stroke was shocking. It looks like he’s so strong that he barely has to fire it up. On this day, albeit a short glimpse of his post-practice shooting, I saw him miss more than he made.
* Kyle Weaver’s shot looks awkward. It was going in on this day, but he has more of a push release than a shooting stroke.
* Kevin Durant was hard on himself when he missed practice shots at the free throw line.
* The practice facility is gorgeous. Why it has the word “temporary” would baffle the mind of anyone who isn’t familiar with NBA practice facilities. But for as much work that went into the facility, the Thunder could stand to have another full length to have two practice courts like most teams, the weight room is not in a separate enclosed area and, while I haven’t seen it first hand, I’m betting the space limitations of the facility prevented the construction crews from building a large, plush locker room. That said, these guys should have no complaints for the next two years.
* The Uni Watch guy has weighed in on the Thunder’s threads. Not surprisingly, he didn’t care for them. Not too many people nationally care for much this organization has done.
“These things are so generic,” the Uni Watch guy wrote, ”they might as well just have “Basketball Team” printed on the front…”
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Pre-Order Your Thunder Jerseys
Fans can pre-order the Thunder’s blue road and home white jerseys at nbathundershop.com or at the Thundershop located on the ground floor of Leadership Square in downtown OKC.
The first 100 jersey orders will also receive a free Thunder T-Shirt. Jerseys are not expected to be ready for pickup or delivery until at least December.
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Media Day Sound Bites
The first official day of practice gets underway today, putting an end (you would think) to all of Monday’s questions about uniforms and relocation and impressions of Oklahoma. Xs and Os should finally take the place of everything else. But before the team begins its first practice and I check in here with the first practice report, here’s some of what was said at Monday’s media day.
Coach P.J. Carlesimo on ticket sales: “Unbelievable. Even though you expect it or you think it’s going to happen, it’s something that we all can’t take for granted. It’s incredibly special. Maybe that’s the way it is in Oklahoma… It’s really incredible in this day and age with the economy and all the things that’s going on and all the things you read about sports to be in a place where the enthusiasm is not just good, it’s so over the top it’s exceptional. I’m going to really try and be careful and not take it for granted and not just say, ‘Well, that’s the way we knew it was going to be here so that’s normal.’ This is not normal. It’s exceptional, and we’re really grateful for it.”
Carlesimo on Durant becoming more of a vocal leader: “I think that’s something that just evolves. I wouldn’t put that on him. If it happens great. We’ve got a nice mix of leadership. I think you always look for your best players to lead. But I don’t want him to necessarily feel like he’s got to usurp that from anybody else. I just think that will naturally happen.”
Carlesimo on the importance of October to Russell Westbrook: “In one sense very, very important. In the other sense meaningless. We’re going to look back years from now and no one’s going to remember or have any clue what Russell did in October of his rookie year. But by the same token, we want to hasten his development. We want to put him in situations even in (the first five preseason games), anything we can do to accelerate the process is good. We did that with Kevin and Jeff last year. We anticipate doing that with our young guys again.”
Carlesimo on the importance of the division: “Half the teams in the league I don’t think know who the teams in their division are. It matters if you win your division. But other than that it’s just where you finish in the conference.”
Nick Collison on the uniforms: “I really like them. To be honest, when I heard of the colors I couldn’t really see how they go together very well. It seemed like a lot of different colors. But when I saw the uniforms they looked great. I really was impressed with them when I saw them today.”
Kevin Durant on adjusting to the physicality of the NBA: “The league is very physical. It’s grown man strength up here. In college you’re dealing with a lot of boys. But up here it’s grown men. I just told myself not to get in there. I know I’m not the strongest guy. I just let my talents kind of take over and always get better. I worked hard in the weight room this summer, so hopefully it pays off.”
Durant on how much he matured last season: “I came in and was thrown right in the fire early. I’m glad I was put in that position. I’m happy to be a part of a great organization that relies so much on me to step up and be professional. And I’m happy that I can do that. This year is going to be a new year for us. I grew up a lot last year, going through a lot of different things. Hopefully this is a better year for us.”
Durant on what he’s looking forward to this season: “Just playing in front of a sellout crowd every night. That’s something that we didn’t have too much of in Seattle. But here, playing in front of sellouts every night, it’s going to be just like I’m in college again. So I’m excited.”
I’ll post a few more later from Robert Swift, D.J. White, Chris Wilcox and Joe Smith.
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Thunder Media Day Notes
Just got back from media day and I’ve got a lot of tape to transcribe. But I’ll add a couple of quick notes in the meantime. By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the Thunder’s jerseys. If not, here they are. The blue is the road jersey and the white is the home uniform.
* Every player said publicly he likes the uniforms. There was an awkwardness on the stage, though, when Jeff Green, Kevin Durant, Earl Watson and Nick Collison modeled the uniforms for the first time.
*P.J. Carlesimo said his No. 1 priority in the preseason is getting players acclimated to the system.
* P.J. also said he wouldn’t put a bar on high good Durant and Green can be. He said there’s no limit.
* As for seeing Durant become more of a vocal leader, P.J. said it has to happen naturally. Durant said he has gotten smarter and intends to become more of a vocal leader this season after being hesitant at times last season because he was so young.
* Speaking of Durant’s age, he turns 20 today but didn’t have that birthday glow about him. It seemed like just another day for him.
* Carlesimo said he wants to hasten Russell Westbrook’s development, much like he did with Durant and Green last season. It sounded like Westbrook has a good chance of starting from Day One, which I thought would have been impossible before Monday.
* Nick Collison was asked about his allegiance to Seattle and reiterated much of what he’s said recently. He said he likes Oklahoma so far, though, and that it reminds him of home.
* Durant, meanwhile, said: “I love the city.” When asked about his memories of his stops through the state in college, the first thing he noted was losing in the final of the Big 12 Tournament. He said he isn’t concerned about nightlife in the city because he likes to stay at home and play video games.
* Durant was one of several players who attended last weekend’s OU-TCU game in Norman. Durant said he signed every autograph with “Hook ‘em Horns” and posed for every photo by throwing up the Horns sign.
* Chris Wilcox said he thinks his mysterious illness in recent weeks was food poisoning. Wilcox said the illness caused him to lose weight, which he hopes to put back on during training camp and the preseason.
* Robert Swift’s appearance was the subject of most of his interview. He said he’s undergone 154 hours of tattoo work but couldn’t say with certainty how many he has because some are connected to form one image. He also showed up with his finger nails painted black. When a reporter brought up a comparison to Chris “Birdman” Andersen and suggested Swift could have the same connection with fans that Birdman did, Swift said, “Yeah. But I’m not as wild as Birdman.” The media got a good laugh out of the line despite having an idea but not being entirely sure of exactly what he meant by “wild.”
* Swift also said he is likely to miss a portion of the preseason schedule with a fractured right hand. He said he should be healed in another week or two but will participate in drills with a protective brace for now.
* Rookie D.J. White said more than anything fans can expect hard work out of him. He also says he keeps in touch with former OU coach Kelvin Sampson, his coach at Indiana, and that he looks forward to seeing him at the season opener Oct. 29.
* Desmond Mason has a new number. No. 34. He’s worn 24 throughout his career. He could have had it with the Thunder with no current players wearing 24. So why the change? No. 34 was his college number, which he said he wanted when Seattle originally drafted him but was taken by Jelani McCoy.
* Derrick Byars, one of the team’s three training camp invitees, thinks he brings something the Thunder doesn’t have much of — perimeter shooting. The 6-foot-7, 220-pound guard/forward might be right. He averaged 17.0 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists as a senior at Vanderbilt. He made 79 of 212 3-pointers as a senior (37.3 percent) and 63 of 143 (44.1 percent) as a junior. He was drafted 42nd overall in 2007 but didn’t make the team. He played last season in France, and when I asked him about how hungry he is to get his first taste of NBA ball he said, “Hungry ain’t the word.” He really wants to make this team and stick in the NBA. He might be a guy to keep an eye on throughout the preseason.
* It was announced Monday that Fox Sports Networks will broadcast the Thunder’s games. The Fox Sports Network serving the Oklahoma market will also be re-launched as “Fox Sports Oklahoma.” The network will broadcast 65 Thunder games, and the remaining games will be broadcast by a yet-to-be-named partner.
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Say hello to the 2008-09 season
My Vikings fell to 1-3 today and looked terrible doing it, and I’m getting creamed this week in my fantasy league. But, hey, Thunder media day is Monday so my spirits aren’t too low. The season is here, and I’m excited for it. After a year without the NBA in OKC, we’re finally about to see some ball being played inside the Ford Center again.
News and information on the Thunder will pick up considerably starting Monday afternoon when the players and coaches meet the media for the first time. I’ll post continuous observations from media day here throughout the day Monday, and our Thunder coverage will be extensive in The Oklahoman and on NewsOK.com from here out.
In case you missed it in today’s paper, I had a story on Chris Wilcox’s critical season. I also wrote about position battles to watch as the Thunder opens training camp Tuesday.
In Monday’s paper, I explain why fans should temper their expectations for rookie point guard Russell Westbrook, who isn’t likely to post overly impressive statistics. As you’ll read in the paper Monday, only five point guards in the past 10 NBA seasons have averaged at least 12 points and six assists: Chris Paul, Kirk Hinrich, Steve Francis, Mike Bibby and Jason Williams. Paul and Francis (co-winner with Elton Brand) won the Rookie of the Year award in their respective debut seasons. Of course, here’s a guy who has the complete opposite take on Westbrook and says he’s going with R.W. or O.J. Mayo to win Rookie of the year.
“Westbrook is a great player and is joining Durant and Green in a young Oklahoma City team. His only competition for the starting job is Earl Watson, a good player, but for a talent like Westbrook is beatable for the starting job. For a team with no real playoff ambition this guy should get all the burn he needs to put up the kinds of stats to be in the thick of the debate for the best rookie.”
We’ll see.
At any rate, we’ll be asking all kinds of questions to everyone with the team at media day. But I want to know what questions you would ask the players and coaches if you could. (Please be serious). I’ll try my best to get those answered as well.
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Ibaka does what Ibaka do
Serge Ibaka, whose draft rights are held by the Thunder after the team selected him with the 24th overall pick in this year’s draft, showed off his athleticism today in a dunk contest over in Spain.
I honestly can’t understand a thing in this video, but judging by the trophy he’s presented with at the beginning of the video and the check he’s holding at the end it’s safe to say he won the thing.
Ibaka, you’ll recall, recently signed a three-year deal over in Spain but has buyout clauses that can bring him over whenever the Thunder brass feels he’s ready. Ibaka just turned 19 on Sept. 18, and you’ll see here that Thunder GM Sam Presti (actually his title was still Seattle SuperSonics GM back then) likes the idea of leaving the youngster overseas to develop for a few years.
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It’s Hard to Keep a Secret
Looks like somebody posted a video they weren’t supposed to. That likely explains the “Uh Oh. This video no longer exists” message on the video in the post immediately below. (Edit: The original video was removed but has emerged on YouTube.) This picture, however, pretty accurately displays what was in the removed video. The video was from NBA 2K9. This photo is from NBA Live 09. The only real difference is the photo doesn’t capture the animated Ford Center crowd, Derrick Rose destroying the Thunder and Russell Westbrook leaving the game with an injury in the first minute of the game against Chicago like the cool demo did. I’ve got a feeling the video will resurface Monday after the team unveils its jerseys at media day.
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Sneak Peak at Thunder Jerseys?
Could this be the home uniforms for the Thunder? I wouldn’t doubt it. They look pretty sweet to me. We’ll see the real thing Monday.
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Kevin Du-who?
Give it some time, Kevin Durant. OKC will learn your name and face soon enough.
The 2007-08 NBA Rookie of the Year was just another face in the crowd to many of those in attendance at Friday’s Hurricane Ike benefit concert featuring artists Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at the Zoo Amphitheater.
It was a strange sight to see some people walk right past a future NBA All-Star without so much as making eye contact. Some, not all, literally treated him as though he were a panhandler as he graciously tried to hand out Thunder Blue bracelets that read, “Oklahoma City Thunder.”
You would think his 6-foot-9 inch frame would have at least sparked a raised head and a look of curiosity. Then again, those same folks probably would get a chuckle at my expense if they saw me cluelessly ignore Robert Plant or Alison Krauss, both of whom I have no chance of picking out of a lineup.
But not all were totally oblivious. Perhaps it was the gigantic Thunder T-Shirt balloon or the boom of “Thunderstruck” over the PA system or Kevin’s height, but some knew he was “somebody” even if they didn’t know who. Those fans politely asked him his name, extended a hand and a warm smile and welcomed him to town.
Many more stopped and greeted Durant, Jeff Green and, surprise, surprise, John Lucas III on Friday night as they collected non-perishable food items and handed out bracelets and tickets to the team’s Oct.14 preseason game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Kevin Durant at Zoo Amphitheater (I wish I knew how to make this thing smaller).
Lucas, the former OSU standout, is a training camp addition who could win the team’s 15th and final roster spot as the third string point guard. Lucas holds career averages of 3.1 points, 0.8 assists and 0.7 rebounds in 60 games, all with the Houston Rockets from 2005-07. Derrick Byars, a 6-7 guard/forward out of Vanderbilt, and Chris Alexander, a 7-1 center out of Iowa State, are also expected to be added to the training camp roster.
Green, Durant and Lucas were all happy to be at Friday’s event. The chemistry between Green and Durant was obvious from the moment their frames came within view.
When asked to pose by the Feed The Children truck, Durant immediately struck a playful pose with his hands on his hips like a 15-year-old schoolgirl. Next to him, Green put his foot on one of the back left tires of the 18-wheeler and posed as if he were the proud manufacturer of the behemoth.
I asked Kevin how long he’s been in town. He said three or four weeks. When I asked how he likes it so far he said, “I love it so far. I just can’t wait to start winning.”
That stuck with me. Durant could have said he can’t wait for the season to start or he can’t wait until the public sees the uniforms for the first time or anything else. He said, “I just can’t wait to start winning.”
There were a few Red River Rivalry moments of note. The most comical came when two young men walked up to Kevin to take a photo with him.
KD: “How ya’ll doing?”
Fans: “Good.”
KD: “What school ya’ll go to?” (as he puts his arms around the two).
Fans: “OU.”
Durant immediately hangs his head, pretending (I think) to be disgusted and removes his arms from the boys’ shoulders before walking away. He’s only joking, of course, and returns to take the photo. Durant gets the last laugh, however, by throwing up a Longhorns sign. The girl taking the photo says, “You didn’t have to do that.”
Another young fan walked up to Durant and told him he was at the triple overtime OSU game that became an instant classic in which Durant scored 37 with 12 rebounds. Durant didn’t seem too thrilled to hear about the game. And Lucas, hiding behind Durant, begins nodding his head in approval toward the fan, remembering the Cowboys won the game, 105-103.
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Thunder players in the community
At least three Thunder players will assist the organization’s efforts at today’s Hurricane Ike benefit concert at the Oklahoma City Zoo Amphitheater. Still trying to nail down which players will be in attendance, but No. 4 overall pick Russell Westbrook is one of the players scheduled to be on hand.
The Thunder has partnered with Feed The Children to collect non-perishable food items at today’s event. The Feed The Children truck is scheduled to be in place by 3 p.m., and the players are scheduled to appear from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The first 500 concert-goers who bring two or more non-perishable food items and present a valid concert ticket to the show will receive a voucher for two tickets to the team’s Oct. 14 preseason game at the Ford Center versus the Los Angeles Clippers. Everyone who donates food also will receive a Thunder Blue wristband.
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