Forget the Ceiling, Where’s the Floor? Or, Can a Turd be Polished?

These are the questions I pondered as I walked out of the Thunderdome following a 108-88 loss by the Thunder to the, apparently not as hapless, Clippers. This was not very fun.

For the first 20 minutes the Thunder clearly were better than the Clippers. They played confidently and raced out to a 15 point lead. They passed well, they defended, they ran the fastbreak well off of turnovers, they played unselfishly and the scoring was coming from everywhere. Then, as if every Thunder player had downed a Silver Bullet and a couple Xanax bars before tip-off, lethargy kicked in at about the 4 minute mark of the 2nd Quarter. That 15 point lead had dwindled to 3 at halftime and had turned into a 15 point deficit with about 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.

It was truly painful to watch. At one point the Thunder were booed. I don’t believe in booing the home team but I don’t blame the people who did. There’s a difference between getting beat and being embarrassed. The Thunder players should feel embarrassed for their play during that stretch. To call it uninspired is being polite. Also, for the record, the boos happened one time right before a timeout and for the remainder of the game everyone was trying to help the team get back into it.

That said, this did not feel like a baby step towards progress. In keeping with the idea of being able to polish a turd, however, perhaps this is part of rebuilding (I will keep telling myself this over and over and over). Just throw questions such as, “Can this team win 20? 25? 26? or, Will we have an All-Star? or Will they make the playoffs in a couple of years?” out the window. Screw it. The question now is how far must they (nee can they) fall before pride, heart or something else wills these guys to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and do something about actually getting better.

So, here are some basic questions that have to be answered; Is there a leader? Is there chemistry? Do the players respect and buy into the coach and his system?

Is there a leader? LeBron, Kobe, D-Wade, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Chris Paul, Steve Nash and so on and so forth. More than just being exceptional talents these guys don’t let their teams lose. They get in the middle of the huddle and they demand and extract excellence from their teammates.

Today, Desmond Mason looks like he probably is and wants to be the rah rah guy. Regrettably he’s in street clothes during games (I say street clothes but his idea of street clothes and mine are different. His make him look like he could go up to a group of women and point out the ones he wants and say you’re coming with me. Mine do not. And yet I digress).

More important than a rah-rah guy they also lack a floor leader. Someone who makes the players around them better or makes the game easier for his teammates. Against the Clippers the Thunder had more turnovers than assists.

The team drafted Russell Westbrook with him in mind for this role. But the more you watch of him the more it looks like he would just be a huge beneficiary of someone else with these credentials. Even if it is Westbrook it’s not going to happen anytime soon. He’s a rookie, it’s KD’s team and he doesn’t even start yet. He’s not in a position socially to take over this team. Chris Paul did it with the Hornets his first year but as we will find out Friday there is but one of him.

Do they like each other? Well, they stand up and cheer for each other an awful lot. When someone comes off the bench they go down the line and high five everyone. KD, Jeff Green and Westbrook were at the OU-Davidson basketball game together on Tuesday night. They help each other off the floor. As the game winds down and the crowd gets louder they get more and more into it. So, yeah it appears that they like each other. It seems like this is the easiest part, and it is for this team, but it’s much harder to achieve than people realize. All this losing is going to test it also just watch.

Do the players respect and buy into the coach’s system? It’s just too hard to tell at the moment. First, what is the system? At times, the offense looks absolutely stagnant because the passing is either non-existent or lethargic. It makes a Kelvin Sampson offense look revolutionary. It’s obviously predicated on defense which, at times, looks pretty good. That’s why Uncle Rusty needs more time. However, those quarter or half-long stretches marred by a blatant lack of energy, lack of aggressiveness, scoring droughts, mental lapses and leads given up make you wonder how much is youth and how much is Uncle Rusty. We just don’t know yet. Until such time that it becomes obvious I will err on the side of youth but these lapses sure do call it into question.

The bottom line is this team hasn’t found it’s floor yet and that’s mildly depressing. I might need to call Dr. Rodriguez and get my meds upped if I’m going to sit through 30+ more nights like Thunder v. Clips. In the meantime I will keep polishing this turd and hope for the sake of my enjoyment of this ride that Thunder v. Clips was the bottom and now the rebound begins.

Other Notes

I ordered my Go Big Red shirt (shameless plug) yesterday and if Bobby Swift’s performance against Chris Kaman was any indication, it might have been premature. My friend Nate labels someone on the Oklahoma Sooners secondary as “Gas Rag McGee” every year. It’s for the person who gets lit up the most in pass coverage on a consistent basis and generally proves to be a defensive liability. Well, Robert Swift was Gas Rag McGee last night. He made Chris Kaman look like he should have been on the Olympic team. Kaman is not bad but geez the fire department needed to be there with those fire retardant blankets for ol’ Swifty.

Some woman named Kathy Kuck won the award for filling out the most All-Star Ballots by filling out 3400. There’s no way she could have seen any of the game and that might be a good thing. The thing about ol Kathy is she won on Monday also. She also got the same prize; a Thunder jacket and NBA2K9 for the Xbox 360. I will start to worry about Kathy if she wins again on Friday. She looks like she’s about 35 by the way. Maybe she’s trying to collect Christmas presents.

The halftime show was a locally based yet internationally renowned magician. Didn’t catch his name. Probably the lamest magic show ever. I love the cornball halftime shows at NBA games. There’s nothing quite like them.