I know DW can be a great, great point guard. But anyone who looks at Westbrook and doesn't understand there is a player with the gifts of an MJ or Kobe... speed, elevation, vision, ARTISTRY .... I am telling you, Westbrook may wind up "taking the crown" from King James in a couple of years. Not now, but soon, Westbrook is MVP of that team and the league.

While I have been in OKC, and agree with Billy G... I mean it is hopelessly elitist I am sure, but should the NY Philharmonic play in NYC or Peoria?... but I did think it was a great moment when a few moments after the Thunder lost the last game... after some polite applause, the OKC crowd began to roar their approval and thanks to the Thunder plays still on the floor. It was sweet... quaint.... old school.

First of all, just because Mark Jackson says 5 times in the first 3 minutes of the pre-game that Deron is "on a completely different level" than Westbrook doesn't make it so.



Now this is just silly. Using that logic, Paul Millsap > Kevin Durant since Durant shot 25% over the last two games of the Laker series while Millsap is averaging 20/10 in the first two games of this series. The fact that Williams had an off game (one off game, mind you - his 24 and 8 in Game 1 could hardly be considered being "eaten up") has nothing to do with the fact that he's not as good as Westbrook and everything to do with the fact that the Lakers can afford to throw everyone and their dog at him defensively - they even had Artest on him for stretches - since the Lakers' bigs are incredibly superior to Utah's (see the +18 rebound advantage and 13 blocks in Game 2). Don't get me wrong - I'm not bagging on Westbrook - he's fantastic. But to say he's better than Williams based on 2 games, when Williams is the focal point of the Laker defense and Westbrook was left free to run circles around Derek Fisher is not fair.

That was great to watch. I had my tongue firmly in cheek in making that comment but I was half serious. The part of me that was being serious hates that it seems inevitable that OKC won't be able to keep that team together in the long run where maybe if they were in NY or some other major market, you could see a basketball equivalent of Jeter, Posada, Mo and Pettite playing together for 10 plus years winning multiple titles and playing basketball on a level that would be amazing to watch even as a fan of an opponent.

That was what I was getting at. You just said it better.

Yeah, I guess it is purposfully selected analysis. And obviously Williams had a great first game and is a great player by any standard. But it's like you listen to a band and instantly you know there is something special there. I have watched Williams for years and he is a great guard... but I watch Westbrook and there is a brilliance that is amazing... and is discrete in itself... it's like seeing a picasso and seeing a cezanne. Cezanne in an empty room and picasso in a room with other masterworks, doesn't alter that Cezanne isn't as good as Picasso. And while it's useless to compare, odious as they say, we do it, for the sake of a brief amusement during this fast slide to darkness and death.

Bogut misses out on either all defensive team.

He was easily the best defensive center in the league all year long.

Basketball isn't baseball though so there is a good chance they can keep such a team together.

To harry's point, it is quaint and I like it: I like the NBA cities where it's the only game in town like Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, OKC and to some extent, Orlando. The only shame I guess in the Thunder's case is that the Seattle fans had their team taken away, but that's not the fault of the Thunder's players or fans, only the owner.

No he wasn't.

Dwight Howard is the best, but Bogut is pretty good (maybe not quite 2nd Team good, though).

OKC finished the year 7th in the league in average home attendance (based on percentage of tickets sold) at 98.9%. Granted, it will be interesting to see if that excitement stays high after being in town for a few years, or if they start losing. But, as a born-and-raised Midwesterner, it is nice to see an NBA team anywhere near the middle of the country.

Translation: Deron Williams didn't go to UCLA.

(just busting your balls, harry)

I doubt it. To the extent that NBA rules do a better job at encouraging parity between large market teams and small market teams, they do it by making it harder for anyone to keep such a core together.

I also think you underestimate the role of:

(a) Players of that calibur wanting to play on the biggest stages
(b) The added financial opportunities (advertising, etc) for star players playing in bigger markets
(c) Whether anyone would really want to spend that amount of time in OKC. I seriously considered going to a high school football game when I was there. There weren't a lot of options.

Best thing about last night was actually getting to see all of a Western Conference game since it started at 9 Eastern. Those 10:30 starts are brutal.

love seeing the suns beat the spurs. they are playing at an incredibly high level right now.

I understand the point you are trying to make and would point to the San Antonio Spurs as the counter (and the New York Knicks while we're at it). Between the six month offseason and private jets, not to mention the fact that every game is on TV and the internet, I'm not sure it's as important that you be in a big market.

Yeah if they had Lopez healthy it could be worse for the SAS

hey guys.

There is a lot more to defense than highlight reel blocks on point guards...

Dwight Howard is purely a weak side defender, albeit one of the best ever, whereas Bogut can guard guys one on one.

During that late season run especially, he was disrupting entire teams' offenses by himself.

And if Russell Westbrook ever wins MVP, I'll eat my hat. Not saying the kid doesn't have talent, he does, he just isn't going to win an MVP.

There is a lot more to what Dwight Howard does on defense than blocks & rebounds. He's won Defensive Player of the Year two years in a row for a reason. There's a difference between disrupting an entire teams' offense versus a team having to plan a whole different offensive scheme just to play the Magic. And, I'm saying this as a Bogut fan. Of course, I'm a bigger Howard & Magic fan. But still. Bogut might be better one-on-one... might be.

C'mon...I know its not the same as the 50's but you're going to throw out the internet as an equalizer? How many people watch whole basketball games on the internet? I'm also not sure what the Knick's suckitude and mismanagement has to do with your point. The salary cap in basketball really penalizes teams that utterly refuse to rebuild like the Knicks have while the fact that half the teams make the playoffs encourages such a dumb decision.

San Antonio has had a nice run and they get a lot of national TV time as a result but it still doesn't compare to what a good, large market team gets. Only a couple of games a week get National coverage while the local channels broadcast practically every game. How many people watch the Spurs on their local fox sports channel vs. how many watch the Knicks, Lakers, Heat, Bulls, Celtics, Rockets, etc?

And what is this six month offseason that you refer to? The NBA regular season and playoffs run late October through the end of June. If a team goes all the way and you factor in pre-season and early workouts, what does a player get off? Is it more than July, August and part of September? That's a lot of time to spend in OKC no offense to any Oklahoma Obs.

You sort of missed my point(s) with San Antonio and the Knicks...You said that players don't want to play in small or wayward markets because they crave big market exposure and endorsements: My counter was that San Antonio is a perfect example of a team that has kept all of their stars for a decade. none feeling the need to flee to an LA, New York or Chicago. And further, when was the last time that the Knicks, attracted a big time free agent based on the cache of "playing in New York"? Never?

The bottom line is that players will play where they can A. get paid and B. win championships...It's a short plane ride to your home in Atlanta or Miami or wherever when you're making millions a year.

I didn't miss your point. The Knicks haven't been in any position salary cap wise most of the years since the later years of Ewing to sign a major free agent because they kept trading for once great players on the decline with terrible contracts in hope that they got the one guy to put them over the top. It's not a case of players turning the knicks down. It's true that Duncan was fine with and even preferred to play in a small market. I think its hard to extrapolate from Duncan to making general points though. I guess if you really think Parker and Ginobli are stars on the same scale I think Durant and Westbrook will be and Green and Ibaka have the raw talent to be, then its a good example. I just don't think those guys are really stars. They are very good players and even all stars even but you're not going very far in the playoffs if Parker or Ginobli are the best player on your team. They are happy (as they should be) to hitch themselves to Duncan.

Well, you can't really put them in the same pot since Parker is simply a role player/good third banana while Ginobli is a Hall of Famer and one of the upper tier player of this era.