Comments on: Thunder 110, Pacers 106

By: Darnell Mayberry

Darnell Mayberry — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 23:42:54 +0000

What KD ultimately does in the final seconds is not on Brooks. Brooks didn’t tell KD to settle for a fadeaway 3-pointer. Brooks is the one who makes the decision to put the ball in his best player’s hands and let the chips fall where they may. Now, if KD continues to make bad decisions then Brooks has to do something about it. But for now, Brooks is charged with developing this team’s young talent, including its star. And a part of developing young talent is letting them make mistakes while hoping they’ll learn and get better because of them. -DM-

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:07:15 +0000

he didn’t even call a play. just gave it to an ice-cold KD for an isolated, contested 21-ft fadaway at the buzzer. no screen. no pass. no cuts. just a prayer.

By: MartzMimic

MartzMimic — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 13:05:19 +0000

Another trend that bears mentioning is Brooks’ seeming inability to call an effective play at the end of games. Several times last season, we saw plays exactly like the one drawn up to try to win in regulation. I can’t recall a single one that went through KD that resulted in a made bucket.

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 08:32:25 +0000

Couldn’t agree more with your assessments. I too noticed how KD deferred to Russ, playing off his aggressiveness… He didn’t look to get his until overtime. Have all the sloppy turnovers/increased traveling & carrying calls going against KD making him a little passive, taking away his assertiveness and, to a lesser degree, his confidence? I’m sure his lost outside touch isn’t helping either (1-8 on 3′s, many open looks)…

I’ve been saying it for a while now: Harden needs to start. It has nothing to do with Thabo; in fact, over the past 5 games, Thabo’s probably played his best ball for the Thunder. But Harden is completely lost on this team. He has no role, no confidence, and at some point you have to wonder if he ever will adapt to the 6th man role. He fumbles passes on catch-n-shoot situations, drives with no idea how he’s gonna finish, misses free-throws at a high rate, has lost his play-making ability from a year ago… it’s time for a change. We invested too much into him to watch him get lost like this. It’s time to see what he does as a started, because as it stands now, he’s almost become a liability on both ends of the court.

Props go out to Green. He was a man tonight.