Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Change We Can Believe In? We'll Find Out in a Hurry

Scotty Brooks is wasting no time making changes to the Thunder lineup. Johan Petro is riding the pine. Damien Wilkens is in at Shooting Guard. Kevin Durant is moving to Small Forward, Jeff Green slides to Power Forward and Nick Collison completes the circle by sliding to Center.

By all accounts, KD has been playing out of position his entire (if not short) career and so has Jeff Green. I cannot do the X's and O's anymore justice than what Chris Silva from Thunder.NBA.com has already done so you can read it about it here.

I do know that the game tonight against the Phoenix Suns represents a fresh
start what with a new coach, a new lineup and a second chance to make a first impression on
the fans. That said, few teams could provide a better litmus test for the
effectiveness of these changes than the Suns.

Tonight we'll see KD mixing it up with Amare and Shaq, Westbrook against Steve Nash, Shaq against all comers. Not to mention Raja Bell, Boris Diaw, Grant Hill and the goofier looking Lopez twin, Robin (the real life inspiration for Sideshow Bob and pictured, at left).

Moving KD to the PF is something that's been talked about since last year.
The reason it's never happened is because he's built like Bambi and these are grown men he'd be thrown in against on a nightly basis. But if you're the Thunder you're staring 1-14 in the face. Is there a better time to start getting on with it than right now? While we're at it, if Scotty is going to be open to lineup tweaks, I doubt it's long before Westbrook is inserted into the starting lineup. He had 11 assists off the bench the other night and if he keeps that up how can you not make the move.
PS- Scroll down for my breakdown of the OU-Tech game. Looks like I forgot to drink my Sooner Kool-Aid when I made my score prediction eh? The Bedlam preview is forthcoming. Hint: You should be worried Cowboys fans.