Scott Brooks is getting exposed

[Obstructed_View]

My favorite moment from tonight's game: James Harden is isolated on Serge Ibaka - OUT OF A TIME OUT - and Chris Webber says "This is great, it shows the confidence in a great defender". No sooner does he finish that sentence than Harden backs up for a three - POP.

Irony on display: The OKC crowd chanting "Ref you suck" because Kevin Durant was actually called for two legitimate fouls in a row, one on offense, one on defense.

[temujin]

From the Daily Thunder:

But let’s look at went horribly wrong tonight. Start with the painfully stupid decision to not just Hack-a-Turk, as Kevin McHale dubbed it, but to stick with it despite cutting the Rocket lead to six with 4:16 left. Asik made nine of his 14 free throw attempts in the fourth, giving the Rockets nine free points. After OKC had it to two possessions with four minutes left, the Thunder continued with the strategy, and gave the Rockets three added free points.

For a team that preaches defense, calls it their backbone, and was pretty damn good at it in the regular season (top five in defensive efficiency), the Thunder sure as didn’t trust it tonight. Yes, James Harden and the Rockets were scorching the Thunder on that end of the floor. And yes, Omer Asik isn’t a very good foul shooter (56 percent). But instead of forcing the youngest team in the postseason to execute in the halfcourt in an elimination game, on the road, with 18,000 rapid blue-shirted people screaming their faces off, Scott Brooks sucked the life out of the arena and put the Asik at the line four more times.

http://dailythunder.com/2013/05/thun...story-107-100/

Presti has a lot of work to do with the OKC press.

You would never read anything remotely like this in a Pop-controlled newspaper.
And it's not because he never makes mistakes.

[Kidd K]

As a Spurs fan, of course I welcome this move. But till today, I still don't understand it even assuming Westbrook is not injured.

You just don't trade your #2/3 player who is 23 and hasn't hit his peak yet, unless they have problems with your #1 player, which they did not. As good as Harden was, he even accepted the bench role. All he need is just a couple more million dollars a year. That's very reasonable.

Plus, their major opponent is the Heat, which means Perkins can be amnestied if they can't afford all of those players. LeBron them had to plot together to build a big 3, yet OKC just gave up their own big 3. That negates all the good moves Presti has made in the past.

I completely agree with your points on Harden (I was already making them before the season started tbh, because I already felt Harden was better than Westbrook LAST season). . .but I just want to point out that it was actually only an extra one million dollars a year that OKC balked on, not 2 mil. They threw away Harden who is clearly going to be the best SG in the league very soon as Wade and Kobe continue to decline, for Martin who has never been a star. . .all for saving one mil a year.

As for their big 3, let's face it, they got lucky as that they were so fortunate to get that many high draft picks in a row. Yeah they tanked, but they got all the lottery balls to bounce their way too. OKC being so good was a fluke to begin with. Hard not to be that good when your core is made up of VERY high lottery picks all gotten in a row. They will never be the same now. The older their core guys get, the more they're gonna have to pay them which means the worse their team around them gets.

They threw away a big 4-5 year contending window by trading Harden all to save a few million bucks. Ultra stupidity.

[Chinook]

Is there any white monkeyballers?

Josh McRoberts

[Pasta Batman]

People were too quick to proclaim Presti a genius. Trading Harden was a terrible move, even more so when you look at the pitiful package they got in return.

I don't know. The price tag was high. Spurs often stayed away from paying. It's just their stars never pushed them enough. I don't know... it's quite interesting.. Presti is still damn smart and good.

[szkorhetz]

Last year Brooks out coached Pop, by a lot. Certainly, trading his second best player wasn't his choice..

[100%duncan]

I don't know. The price tag was high. Spurs often stayed away from paying. It's just their stars never pushed them enough. I don't know... it's quite interesting.. Presti is still damn smart and good.

Trading your 2nd best player and arguably the best creator out of the 3 (KD, RW, JH) for Kevin ing Martin is not smart and good.

[PingPong]

Is there any white monkeyballers?

Aaron Baynes?

[TJastal]

That's not at all what happened. There was plenty of discussion back at the time of trade, but they could have easily kept Harden. They were eventually going to have to let one of their higher paid players go, but it didn't have to be Harden and it didn't have to happen when it did. Harden is currently in the last year of his rookie contract. If they did nothing at all, he would have been a restricted free agent this summer. There was zero danger that he could walk with OKC getting nothing in return. They had plenty of options besides selling Harden for pennies on the dollar.

I read somewhere Harden slept with Ibakas girlfriend and that caused a major rift between the two players. Dunno if it was true or where I heard it.

[rmt]

Presti has a lot of work to do with the OKC press.

You would never read anything remotely like this in a Pop-controlled newspaper.
And it's not because he never makes mistakes.

I prefer freedom of the press where the media can question why Splitter sat on the bench until game 4 vs Randolph and Gasol instead of the frightened impostors in SA afraid of asking real questions. Don't think Brook has done enough to warrant getting fired - he's not responsible for Westbrook's injury. To change mid-series after playing a certain way for years is difficult to do. Presti needs to send Ibaka to Hakeem every summer to learn some post moves so he can create his own shot.

[Mel_13]

I don't know. The price tag was high. Spurs often stayed away from paying. It's just their stars never pushed them enough. I don't know... it's quite interesting.. Presti is still damn smart and good.

The Spurs went over the tax threshhold several times, even after multiple championships. OKC has been making money since they arrived up there and they haven't won a single le. They were not going to pay the tax this year (the trade actually increased payroll this year), and they had several options to avoid the tax in the future that didn't include trading Harden.

[Mel_13]

Presti has a lot of work to do with the OKC press.

You would never read anything remotely like this in a Pop-controlled newspaper.
And it's not because he never makes mistakes.

Never going to happen. At least not until the team wins a championship or two.

[pgardn]

Josh McRoberts

The Birdman is the quintessential monkey baller IMO.

Should not have anything to do with color if you take him into account and the definition is as first stated.

If you start going racist with the term, then Andre Miller is white.

[DarrinS]

Is there any white monkeyballers?

Birdman

[RobinsontoDuncan]

Monkeyball - Low IQ style of basketball involving an over reliance on physical attributes and dunk shots to play the game. Examples of monkeyballers: DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook (It doesn't help that Westbrook does have ape-ish facial features)

you are incredibly racist.

[Bruno]

I think coaches impact in a playoffs series is minimal. Hack-an-Asik wasn't maybe the best move but it isn't what cost thunder this game. Thunder were down by about 10 points before doing it. And the whole he got out-coached talk is 99%of the time pure BS.

A lot of elements of OKC got way more exposed than Brooks:
- Presti for the atrocious Harden trade and his inability to give Thunder quality depth.
- Perkins for being useless as soon as there isn't a dominant low post scorer in the other team.
- Kevin Martin for choking while he should play a bigger role with Westbrook out.
- Abaka's defense. Him being 3rd in the DPOY vote is a joke. He is just too naive/dumb to be a great defender.

And Thunder struggling without Westbrook isn't a surprise. Even with all his flaws, he is a damn good player that was really important for them.

[exstatic]

People were too quick to proclaim Presti a genius. Trading Harden was a terrible move, even more so when you look at the pitiful package they got in return.

Not Presti's choice. He's given a budget by ownership. Clay Bennett's fault, tbh.

That package is also incomplete. They have a top ten pick in June.

[exstatic]

Is there any white monkeyballers?

Birdman.

[z0sa]

Scott Brooks' decision making does not compare with trading Harden. Who cares if he leaves after you win a le?

[therealtruth]

People were too quick to proclaim Presti a genius. Trading Harden was a terrible move, even more so when you look at the pitiful package they got in return.

You're acting like it was his decision to make. If his owner tells him he can't spend over a certain amount he has to work within those numbers.

[Gospursel]

naw
because it's a racist term
can't stand it personally but it's an open forum

This, tbh

[Captivus]

OKC doesn’t have system. So when Russell went down, the backup doesn’t know what to do.
They rely too much on isolation plays and hope for the foul.

I’ve hear Shaq said this a million times about D12, and I think it applies to Ibaka and Perkins, they don’t have a "go-to" move. OKC can’t assume Ibaka will hit jumpshots like he did against the Spurs last year.

Someone posted yesterday that if OKC don’t starts winning, the refs are going to stop helping them. (he didn’t say exactly like that...).
I agree, too many cries babies, Durant always making those faces, raising his arms, getting techs...refs are going to get tired.

And be careful, because the Houston Rockets can easily became a league favorite any moment. If they defeat OKC....mmmm....Durant/Westbrook/Ibaka is nice for marketing, but Harden(bear), Lin(Asia), Asik(Europe), and many others…is also interesting.
The Rockets are a young team and they will only play better next year, and if they can get 1 more guy, its over OKC, Rockets will replace you...talk about that Harden trade!!!

Ok...I may be overreacting...

[Dex]

My favorite moment from tonight's game: James Harden is isolated on Serge Ibaka - OUT OF A TIME OUT - and Chris Webber says "This is great, it shows the confidence in a great defender". No sooner does he finish that sentence than Harden backs up for a three - POP.

Irony on display: The OKC crowd chanting "Ref you suck" because Kevin Durant was actually called for two legitimate fouls in a row, one on offense, one on defense.

My favorite Webber moment of the night, immediately after Stockton had mentioned that the Spurs swept the Lakers:

"My favorite thing about this playoffs is that not a single team has given up"

CWebb apparently didn't see much of Game 4.

[Mel_13]

Not Presti's choice. He's given a budget by ownership. Clay Bennett's fault, tbh.

That package is also incomplete. They have a top ten pick in June.

How he stays within budget is presumably his choice. There were plenty of options that didn't include trading Harden. Certainly not trading him last summer. A genius would have found a better solution.

And that pick will be 1th or 12th. I included that in my estimation of a pitiful return for Harden.

[Mel_13]

You're acting like it was his decision to make. If his owner tells him he can't spend over a certain amount he has to work within those numbers.

As before, it was his choice how to stay within budget. He can be a genius or a drone, but not both.