It is Now Time for Some Thunder Panic in Oklahoma City

Usually I am not one to worry about a NBA team only 20 games into a season. I said as much a couple weeks ago in a piece detailing the "hot" starts of teams like the Magic, Bucks and Clippers. I also said that people shouldn't be worried about some teams off to a "slow" start, like the Jazz, Grizzlies and Spurs. And, while some of those teams have fallen into place, the Clippers are trash and the Spurs are righting the ship, still without Kawhi Leonard, I do have to say that, if I am/was a Thunder fan, I'd be worried.

The Thunder have not seemed to figure it out, and they have 3 of the top 30 players in the NBA on their team. Where we stand today they are 8-12, and they could be much, much worse than that. I was extremely high on this team going into the season. I figured they could challenge for the second or third seed in the West. I was willing to put them in the Western Conference Finals. I assumed Russell Westbrook was only going to get better coming off an MVP season. Adding Paul George and Carmelo Anthony were both home run moves by the front office. Getting Westbrook to sign that massive extension was icing on the cake. But, a quarter of the way into the season, they have not even come close to playing how I envisioned them playing.

What is wrong in Oklahoma City? They play great defense. That all comes with Paul George. That dude is a solid defender. Probably one of the top defenders in the league. But, their offense is very lackluster, and they cannot close out games. Every time I check their box score on my phone, they seem to hold a decent lead going into the second half, and when I check it later to see the final score, they are always on the wrong end. I think their "big three" are having trouble meshing right now.

Right off the bat I have to say that I do not think this is all on Westbrook. I know that he is an easy target, and a lot of other writers seem to like to attack the way he plays. But, he is not the sole reason this team cannot close games out. He isn't playing the way he played last year, but he isn't playing like trash either. He is second in the league in assists. He is still scoring 20 plus points a game. And, he has put in effort on defense this year. So no, I will not put full blame on him because that is way too easy, and kind of hacky if you ask me. I will say about Westbrook though, he is not being as explosive as he should/can be. He is deferring to his new teammates to a fault. He is trying to hard at times to get Anthony, George and Steven Adams involved. He is the alpha on this team, and late in games, he needs to take over.

I think Paul George has fit in okay, but he is struggling with his shot right now. I've heard some people say that the Thunder are just stashing him in a corner and letting Westbrook dictate what to do, but I do not buy that. George isn't the type of player that would just be happy with sitting back and waiting for open shots. He is a rim attacker, and that allows his jumper to become open. Like I said, the problem with him is that his shot is not dropping right now. That is something that can be fixed, but it needs to happen now. They cannot get much further back in the standings before it becomes a devastating blow to their playoff hopes.

I don't know what in the hell Carmelo Anthony is doing. He is shooting nearly as much as he did in New York. He is not making many of those shots though. I have not seen him pass the ball once whenever I tune into a Thunder game. And his defense, well it is Carmelo Anthony, so defense is not really an option. I wanted him so badly to be Olympic Carmelo. He is the player of the "big three" that should be standing in the corner waiting for the pass for the open three. He is so deadly when he has time to set and shoot. He can also be hidden on defense on this team. He is literally there just to make open shots. He is not the first or second option anymore, and until he realizes that, the Thunder will continue to struggle.

The rest of the team, I think, is still trying it adjust to having these 2 new all stars. Steven Adams has not really lived up to the hype from a few years back when he looked like one of the best up and coming centers. He still gets rebounds and throws down some alley oops, but they need more from him. Alex Abrines is too young and too green for the NBA right now. Patrick Paterson, another free agent signing, is hurt. The rookie Terrance Ferguson, he is playing like a rookie. Their best bench player is Ray Felton, and that stinks. I like Felton, but he cannot be your best guy off the bench. That hasn't worked for any other team that has tried to do that.

What also irks me about their very slow start is some of the losses they have taken. If they were 8-12 with losses to the likes of the Rockets, Warriors, Spurs and Cavs, that would kind of be justified. But, they have losses to the Kings, Mavericks and just last night, the Magic. That should not happen with three players as talented as Anthony, George and Westbrook. That makes absolutely no sense to me.

I'm already preparing to eat crow for thinking this team would be great. Billy Donovan has proven to be a very low rent pro coach. He has been handed some of the best players in the world, yet he can't seem to draw up anything of value late in games. Westbrook needs to be more alpha dog and less, let me get the new guys involved. George, while killing it on defense, needs to start hitting his shots and being way more aggressive. And Anthony, he needs to be that lethal outside threat that this team lacked last year. They still have time, we are only 20 game in, but the Thunder have absolutely been the biggest bust of the first quarter of the season. Lets se if they can turn it around.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

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We Need to Be in Awe of Russell Westbrook

Watching Westbrook is like watching some awesome fireworks

Let's take a moment today to realize the greatness that is Russell Westbrook right now. I mean, he has been unleashed, and he is absolutely going off.

I know that the Thunder are 11-8, good enough for 6th in the West, and most teams have only played 20 games, at most, but he is currently averaging a triple double. Let me say that again, HE IS AVERAGING A TRIPLE DOUBLE! There is probably no way he keeps this up all season, but if there is one player that could do it in the modern NBA, it has to be Westbrook. I read a ton of stuff, listened to a lot of sports writers and media members say that Westbrook was going to put up big numbers now that KD is a Warrior, but this is just ridiculous. No one has averaged a triple double for a full season since Oscar Robertson did it in the 60's.

I definitely do not think he is going to finish the season with these same numbers, but as I already stated, he is the one guy that could. First reason, KD is gone. KD left, and now the Thunder are fully Westbrook's team. He is the alpha, the go-to guy, the man, whatever cliché you want to call him. Sure, Victor Oladipo, Steven Adams and Andre Roberson are good, but they are not Westbrook, and Billy Donovan knows this. Everything runs through Westbrook. He is the coach on the floor, he calls the plays and he ultimately decides what he wants to do with the ball. He can pull up and shoot, get to the rim, drive and kick, he can do whatever he wants to get the points and assists. He may also be the best rebounding guard in the NBA. He can jump so high, he sometimes grabs defensive rebounds away from 7 footers. He is also just as ferocious attacking the offensive glass as he is going to the basket, so he gets his rebounds.

Second reason, he wants to do this. He knows his stats every game, I would almost guarantee this. I bet he knows exactly how many rebounds he needs if he already has the points and assists. Same goes for all the other stats. He will chase this down. He will get as many triple doubles as he can, no matter what. This is a good and a bad thing. It is good because he is a wonder to watch because he puts up some great numbers, but he also hurts his teams chances at wins sometimes, chasing the stats. That is one of the main reasons they are 11-8.

Third reason, as I already kind of mentioned, Billy Donovan has no other real options. They have threats, but none are the threat that Westbrook is. Westbrook has become a super duper star in the NBA. He is one of the 5, scratch that, 3 best players in the league. He is way more athletic than Steph Curry. He plays harder than anyone, including LeBron James. He has no fear, which cannot be said for a lot of other stars in the NBA, And he is the alpha, something KD could not handle, hence his move to the Warriors. Billy Donovan knows, and hopefully, appreciates this, so Westbrook has carte blanche when he is on the floor. He will get his, come hell or high water.

And fourth, he wants to prove that the Thunder do not need KD to be a threat in the playoffs. He wants everyone to know that this team will be competitive, even though they lost a great, great player. He wants the OKC fans to know that they are in good hands for, at least, the next 2 years. He wants his teammates to know that he can do whatever they need him to do, so they can still win, most of the time. He wants to prove management right by giving him the extension he rightfully deserved. And he wants the rest of the NBA to know that he is a force to be reckoned with.

This first quarter of the season from Westbrook has been one of the best things to happen so far. I think his quest to average a triple double has been a better story than the Clippers hot start. I like Westbrook's story more than the Warriors 15-2 record because, people, myself included, expect the Warriors to be dominant. Westbrook's triple double story is better than any halfway decent start from James Harden, the baby Lakers or any other team over or underachieving. This is something that has not happened in a long, long, long time, and no one thought it would ever happen again. I still do not think he will finish the year with these crazy averages, but to average a triple double for the first quarter of the season is incredible. I think he is the clear cut favorite, and it should not even be close, that he is the undisputed MVP. He doesn't have a supporting cast like the Warriors, Clippers or Spurs, and I picked Kawhi Leonard as my preseason MVP. Westbrook is doing this without KD, and the next best player on his team is probably either Steven Adams, who is not much of a scorer, or Victor Oladipo, who is more known for his defensive ability.

I just think it is tremendous what he is doing, and I wanted to take my time today to point this out. Russell Westbrook is on pace for a historical season, and I think anyone that watches the NBA would agree with me.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He once had a quadruple double in his rec league, if you count 11 turnovers as part of the stats. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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The Rockets and Kings are Coachless and Uncoachable

If this was on fire, it would represent the Rockets and Kings

As it happens every NBA season around this time, coaches are being fired and hired. It always goes on during the playoffs and, more often than not, it's usually smaller named coaches taking jobs. Guys like Kenny Atkinson taking the Nets job or Earl Watson taking the Suns job. See, not that big of names. Sure, Thibodeau took the Timberwolves job and, to a much lesser extent, Scott Brooks took the Wizards job, but that's about as splashy as it gets this time of year. And yeah, Luke Walton took the Lakers job, which is a potential disaster worse than taking the Knicks job, but most teams wait until after the playoffs, or during the finals to really get into their head coaching search.

Two such teams currently searching for a coach that I want to talk about today are the Rockets and the Kings. Let's tackle the Rockets first. This team is an absolute dumpster fire. This team has absolutely no chemistry. James Harden is becoming a world class prima donna. Dwight Howard needs to leave that team as fast as possible, and, he's not really that good anymore. The other starters, guys like Terrence Ross, Corey Brewer, Patrick Beverly and Donatas Montejunas need to try their best and get out of there because Harden is no fun to play basketball with. Also, Daryl Morey needs to be let go. He put this team together through analytics nonsense and they are a complete mess because of him. Morey was the one that figured pairing Howard and Harden was a good idea. This was the guy, and I totally agreed with him at the time, that thought bringing in Ty Lawson was a good idea. This is the guy who trades away picks and young players with the "win now" attitude and it has not worked out. Sure, they miraculously made the Western Finals last year, after the Clippers epic collapse, but they got outworked, outplayed and outclassed by the Warriors. And the true James Harden showed up. The guy that shrinks the bigger the moment gets. The Rockets are a total mess. Even their interim coach, JB Bickerstaff said he'd rather be an assistant than the head coach of this team. Bickerstaff has been with this team for a long time, got his chance to be the head coach after they fired Kevin McHale 11 games into the season, and he looked and acted like he hated every single second of it. I would too if I were him. The coach of the Rockets is basically just a figure head that has to deal with players that aren't as good as they may think. Nowhere is it truer than the NBA where the coach, for all intents and purposes, doesn't matter. The only coaches that demand the respect and attention of their players are Gregg Poppovich and Steve Kerr, other than that, none of you guys really matter. If I were a coach at any level, be it high school, college or the pros, I would not touch that Rockets job with a ten foot pole. They are going to lose a lot of players, mainly Dwight Howard, and the new coach will have to deal with all the nonsense that comes with James Harden. Harden is uncoachable and that team is going to get blown up. The Rockets will be a rebuilding project, and an established coach will not touch that job. The Rockets may have to dip into the college ranks and we all saw how well that worked out for Fred Hoiberg and Billy Donovan. Sure, Donovan won 55 games, but he has Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant at his disposal and his "coaching" didn't really play any part in their success. And Hoiberg, the Bulls, with all the talent in the world, didn't even make the playoffs in the East. So, good luck to whichever low end NBA assistant or college coach that takes that Rockets job, it's going to be tough.

Then, there is the Kings vacant head coaching job. They have reached out to some big name guys. Guys like Kevin McHale, Mark Jackson and Stan Van Gundy, but they all seem to be turning the job down, and they all seem to turn it down for one reason. That one reason is Boogie Cousins. First of all, I love Boogie Cousins the player. I think he is a wonderfully skilled big man. He can play in the low post and run the floor with equal success. He is definitely a once in a lifetime good to great low post player, but he clearly has a very bad attitude problem and he is un coachable. Not one single coach that he has had in the NBA seems to last longer than one and a half season. Hell, if he had stayed at Kentucky more than one year, I bet he and Calipari would have ended up having problems. Calipari may be the one guy that can coach him, but he isn't leaving Kentucky for a NBA rebuilding job, so those rumors need to stop. I love love love Boogie Cousins, but I totally understand why all these coaches are turning down the job. I mean, George Karl, who made it work with strong personalities like Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton, couldn't reach Cousins. From the start, Cousins did not like Karl. Before they even met, he was down on Karl for some past accusations. It was a broken marriage from the jump. There have been other head coaches, but the only one that seemed to work, Mike Malone, was inexplicably fired after one season and 11 games into his second season. Malone was making it work, but Cousins went down with an injury and the Kings lost a couple of games in a row. That was enough, according to the front office, to fire him. It was a joke that Malone got fired so quickly when it seemed he was turning that team around. But, that's another problem with this franchise. The front office thinks that the team is better than it actually is. Vivek, the new owner, is an idiot. He is the one pulling the trigger so quick on coaches. He is the one that keeps drafting players that play the same position over and over again. One year he takes Ben McLemore, the next year he takes Nick Stauskas. One year he drafts Boogie Cousins. A couple of years later, he takes Willie Cauley-Stein. Vivek also said, on live national television, he wanted his team to play five on four so they could get quick fast break points because that's what his fifth grade daughters team did, and they were good. He compared an NBA team to a fifth grade basketball team. That's insane. No coach worth their mustard should touch this job with a ten foot pole as well. The Kings are a mess akin with the Rockets. The only selling point in the Kings favor is the fact that they will get a decent draft pick, but who really cares, that's just more rebuilding.

These two jobs are not good jobs. I don't think anyone with any sense is wiling to take either one of these jobs because these jobs are a stomping ground. There is no success to be had at either spot. Yes, the Rockets have James Harden, but he plays no defense, he is a ball hog, he holds the ball for 20 of the 24 second shot clock and he is a prima donna. The Rockets won't have much else going into next season. And yeah, the Kings have Boogie and Rondo, but what coach in their right mind really wants to deal with those two headaches. As I said, I love Cousins, but I would not want to deal with Rondo at all. He is past his prime and he may be a crazy person and he is too big a headache.

While other teams will fill their vacancies with relative ease, I think the Rockets and the Kings will have a long, tiring and troubling time trying to fill their head coaching jobs. Both teams are dumpster fires and no coach with a good head on their shoulders will give those jobs a second chance. Those jobs will be filled by lower level assistants, college coaches, or more likely, a crazy person.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He coaches pre K basketball and is ready to be called up by the Kings or Rockets. He fully expects to be fired in less than a year, like any other big time NBA coach would be. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.