Late Season Reflections

Some reflections and musings on a Sunday morning:

As thrilled as I am to have a professional team to call my very own I must admit it's been a little difficult keeping up with them this past month. Spring is in bloom, spring training started and there was March Madness. It felt like there was two weeks between home games at the end of March. I'm looking forward to the home stretch.

I hope DJ White plays tonight.

The Point Guard situation is getting interesting. Earl Watson hasn't played for about as long as I haven't blogged (~month). Shaun Livingston was picked up, another low-risk, high-reward move. Kyle Weaver was sent down to Tulsa where he picked up 11 assists in one game's worth of action. My guess is the Thunder carry three PG's next season; Russel, Livingston and Weaver. Possibly Chucky but he should be some kind of player-coach.

Last game against Portland, a woman two rows below me wasn't paying attention and got hit right in the boobs by the t-shirt cannon. She was alright and, sadly, this along with the mascot action provided most of the highlights for the night.

My growth as an NBA fan continues. I learned the other night what it looks like when a team is getting ready for the playoffs. They fine-tune their game like Portland did. They play at a high level. The Thunder, conversely, looked they were feeling out roster spots for next season.

On The Oklahoman's Comparison of the Hornets and Thunder.

The NBA season kicks off tonight and we're one day away from the Thunder's debut. I can't believe it's finally here. I'm so proud of this city and hope we represent the team as well as they hopefully represent us. We're all in this together.

Here's an article from Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman comparing the first Hornets team to this first Thunder team.

I agree with everything except Bostjan Nachbar vs. Johan Petro being a Hornets advantage. Nachbar's stint was short lived and he was a sharpshooter. However, Petro is going to fill a huge void right away. He can run the floor, shoot and grab some boards. He was easily the best surprise of the preseason for the Thunder. I don't remember ever thinking, "Damn, I sure am glad the Hornets have Admiral Nachbar." That nickname was his single biggest redeeming feature. I also think that even though they weren't compared in the article, Petro is this team's David West. The 2005-2006 version of David West. Let's not get carried away.

I also would tend to disagree that Brandon Bass vs. DJ White is an advantage for the Thunder. We've never seen White take the court due to his jaw problem and we won't for months. And saying Bass was a wide-eyed rookie prone to mistakes, while true, is not really a valid argument given that he was at the very least a usable body. That alone makes him better than DJ at this point. White isn't even useful for a practice punching bag.

Hopefully this will change.