SB Nation - D.J. White

Loud Links: 10.11.09

daddydai — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:00:29 -0000

More photos » by Rich Pedroncelli - AP

about 1 month ago: Oklahoma City Thunder Kevin Durant, right, and Jeff Green walk off the court during a time out in their 101-98 loss to the Sacramento Kings in an NBA basketball game in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

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Scroll Down for Zorgon's preview of tonight's game

Clippers vs. Oklahoma City - Game Preview - Clips Nation
Oklahoma City lost in Sacramento last night in a game that came down to the buzzer. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green all played big minutes in that one, so the Clippers caught a break there. The Thunder have been pretty solid so far this season. Until tonight, their losses had come against good teams, and they've mostly been close, including taking the Lakers into Overtime. Nonetheless, after winning their first two games of the season, they've lost four out of five. The Thunder are the only team the Clippers beat three times last season - but all those good memories were completely washed away by the 41 point beatdown they put on the Clippers in the final game of the season, on LA's Fan Appreciation Night. I for one did not appreciate it. Kevin Durant has become one of the toughest players in the league to defend, and Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook have talent. But it seems to me these guys are still a couple years away from competing. [Very good preview of tonight's game by Clips Nation. Remember that blow out last season. Be careful Thunder, the Clippers may be out for revenge tonight.]

ESPN's NBA Future Power Rankings: Teams 1 to 5 - ESPN Insider
[ESPN ranked the future of NBA yesterday. Guess where the Thunder landed?] Oklahoma City may not make the playoffs this year, but for the three years that follow, the Thunder's hopes seem as bright as any team's. It starts with a rapidly improving roster that includes star forward Kevin Durant and rising talents like Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Jeff Green, as well as several intriguing prospects -- Thabo Sefolosha, B.J. Mullens, Serge Ibaka and D.J. White among them. Oklahoma City also ranks high in the money category, having more than $10 million to spend this summer on a free-agent splurge to cement its already strong nucleus while maintaining a very good cap situation for future seasons. The only question is whether owner Clay Bennett will commit to spending once the time comes. But thanks to the strong moves made thus far by GM Sam Presti, OKC earned a ninth-place ranking in the management category. The Thunder also scored well on the draft, owning both their pick and an unprotected choice from Phoenix in next year's draft before their likely ascension to the back end of the draft in future seasons. One area in which they didn't fare as well, however, was in the market category. Oklahoma City is the smallest NBA market and plagued by some wild weather, two factors that combine to put it well off the radar for most prospective free agents. But there's hope: The Thunder have an excited fan base, and Oklahoma City might look like a pretty good destination if the Thunder start winning big.

THUNDER: Wednesday Night: Thunder at Clippers
L.A. Clippers center Chris Kaman. This guy gets a lot credit for helping the Clippers to the cusp of .500 through the early season. With the team struggling with injuries, conditioning and chemistry, Kaman has been consistent. The Clippers center posted 20 points or more in six straight games this season. He leads the Clippers in scoring (21.9 points), field goal percentage (57.3%) and rebounding (9.4). Kaman played in just two games against the Thunder last season, averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds. Expect to see Nenad Krstic, Etan Thomas and Nick Collison get their crack at Kaman.

NBA PM: All-Star Ballot Debate - Basketball News & NBA Rumors
[Some interesting thoughts about the All-Star ballot. Oh yeah vote!!!] Predictably there is some outcry about players being left off and to be fair there are some notables missing, such as center Chris Kaman of the L.A. Clippers (as noted in yesterday's post, the reigning Western Conference Player of the Week). There are also some curious choices, such as picking Chicago Bulls center Brad Miller to be on the ballot over teammate Joakim Noah, since Noah is the starter. [Did you read that? Kaman was the Western Conference Player of the Week. Isn't the American who decided to play for the German national team in the Olympics?]

Kings notes: Nocioni makes Durant work for points | Sacramento Bee
It ended a tiring night for Durant, the Thunder star who was hounded by Kings small forward Andres Nocioni from beginning to end. Durant had 37 points, but he hit just 9 of 23 shots. He had it easy at the free-throw line, though, hitting all 18. "No, he didn't bother me," Durant said of Nocioni, who scored 16 points for the Kings in 35 minutes. "He tried to be physical and push me around, but he got me to the foul line, and I like those kinds of easy points. It was challenging. It was tough. He plays hard, but it didn't bother me at all."

Early in the season, it's important to assess your league's standings and the values of your players - ESPN
[This fantasy B-ball article mentions RW0.] Another interesting example is Russell Westbrook, who was shooting an amazing 48 percent -- just like Roy did last season -- from the field before a rough night Tuesday. It's amazing because as a rookie Westbrook topped 46 percent from the field in just one month and completed the campaign with an embarrassing .398 field goal percentage. Personally, I expected a significant jump in his shooting percentage this season, perhaps to the mid-40s. Considering his history last season, we shouldn't expect his field goal percentage to be any higher than its current 45 percent, although I don't think it will drop all the way to the low-40s.

66ers Team Colors To Match Oklahoma City Thunder - OurSports Central
The team's official website, tulsa66ers.com, will feature a new orientation of the Thunder Blue, Thunder Navy, Thunder Yellow and Thunder Red color combination that will enhance many of the features on the site. The website not only has updated content regarding the 66ers, as the team gets ready to tip off the 2009-10 season, but also ties into many of the great features on the Thunder website at thunder.nba.com. The new home uniform, will be a white jersey and shorts, with navy piping around the neckline, along with navy three-stripe piping down the sides for each. The 66ers wordmark is highlighted on the front with numbers in the light blue and outlined in red. Road uniforms will be light blue, with orange piping around the neckline, and navy three-stripe piping down each side. Tulsa is featured on the front of the jersey in white lettering with navy trim and the numbers will also be white digits with navy trim. Both home and road uniform shorts will feature the 66ers secondary logo on the left thigh and the Thunder secondary logo on the right thigh.

Thunder's All-Star marketing plan: Vote early and often | NewsOK.com
To help push three of the NBA’s rising stars to their first All-Star Game appearance, the Oklahoma City Thunder will encourage fans to "Vote Thunder. Vote Often." It’s a marketing campaign that is in line with the team’s "Rise Together" motto, which avoids putting one player over another even though Kevin Durant is widely considered the league’s next big star and projected by some to earn a selection to this year’s All-Star Game, set for Feb. 14 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

66ers Announce Bundle Ticket Pack With Thunder-Cavs Game Included - OurSports Central
[For our Tulsa readers, if there are any... Mr. P. you out there?] Tulsa, Okla., November 11, 2009 - The Tulsa 66ers announced today that 10-game ticket packages are now on sale. The 10-game bundles sell for only $99 and include the Oklahoma City Thunder versus Cleveland Cavaliers match up at the Ford Center on Sunday, Dec. 13. Fans can see nine tremendous 66ers games from 100-level seats, in their inaugural season at the Tulsa Convention Center in downtown Tulsa, while also sitting in the "Loud City" section at the Ford Center to see Cleveland's LeBron James, along with Kevin Durant and the rest of the Thunder during the Cavs only trip to Oklahoma this season. Many of the nine select 66ers games will feature extraordinary halftime acts, and amazing entertainment. As a ticket plan holder, any unused tickets can be exchanged for future 2009-10 regular season games.

Winner of the free NBA League Pass broadband account - Ball Don't Lie
"I am a disheartened, disappointed, and disenfranchised (literally) Seattle Supersonics fan. I have been a loyal fan through the high days of the Glove and Reign Man, and the low days of "this might be my last Sonics game ever." However, unlike most bitter Sonics fans I have converted into an Oklahoma City Thunder fan.

Last Night in the Preseason

Jon L — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:00:53 -0000

More photos » by Noah Graham - NBAE/Getty Images

8 months ago: LOS ANGELES - APRIL 15: D.J. White #3 of the Oklahoma City Thunder goes up for a dunk against the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center on April 15, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)

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The preseason is beginning to wind down, as there were just three games last night. And pretty uninteresting ones too for our purposes. A lot of guys playing two or three minutes. Let's get to it, I guess.

Atlanta Hawks 113, Washington Wizards 95

Paul Davis has played better in the preseason than I expected, and last night he shot 3-4 from the field and 2-2 from the line, and finished with eight points, three rebounds and a steal in a little under seven minutes. Courtney Sims played about eight and a half minutes and a finished with six points (on 2-2 shooting both from the field and the line), but had no rebounds and a pair of fouls. He's been scoring pretty well and pretty efficiently for Atlanta, but hasn't offered much else.

Houston Rockets 105, Oklahoma City 85

D.J. White had a pretty good game, shooting 4-6 and finishing with eight points, four rebounds and a block in 16 minutes. Efficient Pops was back in this one, as Mensah-Bonsu made five of his six field goals (though only three of his six free throws). He also grabbed four rebounds in a little over 16 minutes, though he also had a pair of turnovers.

Game Recap: Oklahoma City Thunder 110, Phoenix Suns 105 (OT)

Mr Pappagiorgio — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:20:52 -0000

This Thunder team came out of the locker room ready to play tonight. Perhaps energized by playing in front of their home fans for the first time, or maybe it was the two pre-season losses last week. Whatever the case, the Thunder came out extremely aggressive defensively and jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the very first minute of the game. Thabo Sefolosha, playing in his first pre-season game, lead the defensive charge early and was really the catalyst for the defensive effort tonight which was pretty much off the charts all night long. They weren't shy about crowding the passing lanes or playing pressure defense in one on one situations. It didn't really matter whether it was the starting rotation on the floor or guys fighting for roster spots, the intensity and defensive aggression was strong tonight, and if they take anything from tonight's win, its that defensive aggression leads to points, and eventually a win.

We saw Thabo make the difference defensively so many times last season after being acquired from the Chicago Bulls mid-season. Then with the drafting of James Harden, one would expect that his time as the starting shooting guard for this team became just a matter of how long it takes to develop Harden into a and everyday starting player. I think Thabo came out tonight and delivered a message to the Thunder coaching staff, James Harden, and the fans in the Ford Center. The message was, "My name is Thabo Sefolosha, and I'm the starting shooting guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder." He played 26 minutes tonight and scored 12 points on 5-6 shooting (including 2-2 from downtown), and had 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks to go along with that. Yeah, I don't really think James Hardens 9 points on 3-11 shooting (0-3 from downtown, 3-7 at the line) with 3 boards, 2 assists and 1 steal in more minutes than Thabo is going to get him into the starting lineup anytime soon, as long as Thabo stays healthy. Of course we aren't bagging on James Harden here, he is still just a rookie, but more of trying to convey how great of a game Thabo had tonight. We've got more thoughts on tonight's game inside, so make the Jump.

Even bigger news than the game tonight might have been the 15,000+ fans that showed up at the newly renovated Ford Center for a PRE-SEASON game. I mean, I'll be honest, with 82 Thunder games to watch and comment on, I don't really watch a lot of non-Thunder regular season games, much less non-Thunder pre-season games. Point being, I have a REALLY hard time imagining too many teams in the NBA drawing 15,000+ fans for a pre-season game. It just goes to show how much the fans here have embraced this team, and how much support they are willing to give them, even during the pre-season. Anyway, enough about how great all of you guys are, we already know Loud City has some of the best fans in the Country, so lets get back to more impressions on the game tonight.

Kevin Durant....Yes, KEVIN FREAKIN' DURANT! You might have seen all the hoopla on the net about the Kevin Durant "Conundrum" or whatever the hell it was. In all honesty, I didn't even waste my time reading it because its nothing we haven't heard before from some nay-saying journalist. Guess how much of that story you saw here? None, we haven't even mentioned it until now, because just like when he was injured for a few games last season and this type of talk started to surface, we blew it off knowing that it was complete idiocracy to think and believe this team would be better of without Kevin Durant. Just to prove his point, even though its pre-season, Kevin Durant went off tonight, and take a look at his stat-line. First of all we'll get his shotty +/- stat out of the way since it was only a measly +24 tonight, the highest of anyone on the team. KD scored 30 points in 31 minutes and was 10-16 shooting (5-5 from downtown, and no you didn't misread that, and 5-5 from the line) and pulled down 11 boards. All pretty impressive stats to say the least. Of course we couldn't list all the positives without the glaring negative stat for KD tonight, which was turnovers, and he had plenty of them, 7 in fact. I think thats forgivable though when you take over the game in the third quarter and build the team 20 point lead nearly single handedly.

We haven't even mentioned Russell Westbrook yet, and we're going to go ahead and just throw him onto the All-Star team as a starting point guard right now because dude is sick. Okay, so he may not be the best point guard in the conference this season, but if his progression can continue the way it has, he's well on his way. RW0 was 1 assist away from a TRIPLE DOUBLE tonight. Russ had 10 points, 10 boards, and 9 assists to just 3 turnovers. He continues to prove that not only can he play the point guard position, but he can do it well, while at the same time, continuing to do some of those other things that really set him apart from other point guards, namely his ability to battle in the trees for boards, and tonight's 10 rebound effort just further backs that up.

As for the rest of the team, well, they blew a 20 point lead so what can you say really? Aside from having a very young core of starters, this bench isn't very deep at all. At least its not in terms of them all being on the floor at once and being able to stay competitive. Now as far as working some of these guys into the rotation, sure there is depth, but just like the previous two games, it was the reserves on the court late in the game that blew the lead. Serge Ibaka was the one reserve today that stood out a bit as he looked great defensively, swatting balls like a Madman. Other than that, there was not a whole lot to get excited about. D.J. White was not able to continue he stellar performance from last Wednesday, and Shaun Livingston wasn't nearly as productive as you'd like him to be, especially considering he should be back near as close to 100% as he'll probably ever be able to get. He's not even wearing a knee brace anymore, and I for one don't know if that's scary or a good sign that the knee is solid.

For the most part it was a great night for the Thunder, even though it was just pre-season, it was still a win, and still a win in front of a large 15k crowd. The played aggressively and proved that they know how to get after and play defense. There is still a lot of work to be done before the season rolls around (someone please fix Uncle Jeff's shot), but tonight was a definite step in the right direction.

Thunder Gameday: Phoenix Suns at Oklahoma City Thunder

Mr Pappagiorgio — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:56:05 -0000

So the Oklahoma City Thunder will make their 2009-10 home debut tonight in the Ford Center as they take on the Phoenix Suns. Thus far the Thunder are 0-2, with both losses coming last week on the road. All in all the Thunder have been able to take a lot of positives and negatives from each of their first two games. In reality, The Thunder probably should have won both those games as they let 4th quarter leads slip away to big runs. Tonight will be another important step in getting this team ready for the regular season, and being as its the first home game, perhaps head coach Scott Brooks has a plan to get us a win.

The starters have yet to play much more than 25 minutes in either game last week, but perhaps being the first home game, guys like Durant, Green, and Westbrook can get into the 30's (minutes) for the first time this pre-season, in an effort to not only get them a little bit closer to regular season type minutes, but to also re-energize Thunder fans as they make their way back into the Ford Center for the first time since last spring. In the process it could very well give this team a much needed win and a boost as we head closer to the regular season opener. I also apologize for not getting this up sooner and being as late as it is, we'll skip the long winded game preview that usually gets posted, and instead let you take a quick look at the roster as you're probably already about to head down to Bricktown for a little wining and dining before trotting on over to the Ford Center for tonight's game. So make the jump and take a peak. Tipoff is 7pm, and we'll have an OPEN THREAD posting 30 minutes prior as we usually do for commenting and such.

Oklahoma City Thunder Roster

	#	Pos.	DOB	W	H	College
Ryan Bowen	40	F	11.20.75	218	6-9	Iowa
Nick Collison	4	C	10.26.80	255	6-10	Kansas
Kevin Durant	35	F	9.29.88	215	6-9	Texas
Jeff Green	22	F	8.28.86	235	6-9	Georgetown
James Harden	13	G	8.26.87	220	6-5	Arizona State
Mike Harris	-	F	6.15.83	240	6-6	Rice
Serge Ibaka	9	F	9.18.89	220	6-10	None
Tre Kelley	6	G	1.23.85	188	6-0	South Carolina
Nenad Krstic	12	C	7.25.83	240	7-0	None
Shaun Livingston	14	G	9.11.85	185	6-7	Peoria Central HS
Byron Mullens	23	C	2.14.89	260	7-1	Ohio State
Kevin Ollie	7	G	12.27.72	195	6-2	Connecticut
Malik Rose	9	F	11.23.74	255	6-7	Drexel
Michael Ruffin	51	F	1.21.77	248	6-8	Tulsa
Thabo Sefolosha	2	G	5.2.84	215	6-7	None
Etan Thomas	36	C	4.1.78	260	6-10	Syracuse
Kyle Weaver	5	G	2.18.86	201	6-6	Washington State
Russell Westbrook	-	G	11.12.88	187	6-3	U-C-L-A
D.J. White	3	F	8.31.86	251	6-9	Indiana

Phoenix Suns Roster

	#	Pos.	DOB	W	H	College
Louis Amundson	17	F	12.7.82	225	6-9	U-N-L-V
Leandro Barbosa	10	F	11.28.82	202	6-3	None
Earl Clark	55	F	1.17.88	220	6-9	Louisville
Dan Dickau	12	G	9.16.78	180	6-0	Gonzaga
Goran Dragic	2	G	5.6.86	180	6-4	None
Jared Dudley	3	F	7.10.85	225	6-7	Boston College
Channing Frye	8	C	5.17.83	245	6-11	Arizona
Taylor Griffin	32	F	3.16.89	238	6-7	Oklahoma
Grant Hill	33	F	10.5.72	225	6-8	Duke
Robin Lopez	15	C	4.1.88	255	7-0	Stanford
Steve Nash	13	G	2.7.74	178	6-3	Santa Clara
Carlos Powell	11	F	8.29.83	225	6-7	South Carolina
Emir Preldzic	-	G	6.9.87	220	6-8	Bosnia
Jason Richardson	23	G	1.20.81	225	6-6	Michigan State
Amare Stoudemire	1	F	11.16.82	249	6-10	None
Raymond Sykes	4	F	7.3.86	220	6-9	Clemson
Alando Tucker	29	G	2.11.84	205	6-6	Wisconsin

Thunder Gameday: Oklahoma City Thunder at New Orleans Hornets

Mr Pappagiorgio — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:30:22 -0000

The first thing you need to know about tonight's second pre-season game is that it isn't "tonight's" game at all, its actually an EARLY afternoon game, which tips off at 1pm Local time. Once again, the game won't be televised, and you're only chance to watch this one is going to be listening to WWLS, The Sports Animal, on FM 98.1 / AM 640 in the Oklahoma City area, or on 97.1 FM in the Tulsa Area. Again if there is anyone out there with a little bit of pull or power that wants to push for all the pre-season games to be televised next season, we'd certainly appreciate it, and I think just by me watching the game it'll have better ratings that "Matlock" and "In the Heat of the Night" which apparently was more important for KSBI to broadcast than showing a Thunder pre-season game. So if you can get that taken care of for us, I'm sure all us die hard Thunder fans would appreciate it.

As the Oklahoman points out in this article, essentially four players are battling for one roster spot. Those guys are Ryan Bowen, Mike Harris, Tre Kelley, and local boy Michael Ruffin. In the Thunder's first pre-season game the other night against the Memphis Grizzlies, Ryan Bowen got a nice chunk of playing time to show what he could do, while the other 3 guys watched from the bench. Bowen got 21 minutes of playing time which he used to take just 2 shots, both of which he missed (1 of which was a 3 point attempt), grab 3 rebounds (1 offensive), block 1 shot, and turned the ball over just once. All in all, just looking at the stat-line its hard to judge his performance, especially when we didn't get to see the game since it wasn't televised, but he didn't have too bad of a game, considering he's making an attempt at being the last guy on the bench, so to speak. From the article linked above, it was his hustle that really stood out, and I think one thing all Thunder fans love, and me especially (which is why I love Nick Collison so much), is hustle. Today's game should give one of the other three an opportunity to prove what they can do. Click the jump link to hear some more about today's game and what we are hoping to see.

The first thing I'm looking for in today's game is Russell Westbrook, and whether that 10 assist effort the other night was a fluke, or if he's improved his style of play so much this off-season that he's already going to be one of the leagues better point guards this season. He took just 4 shots, and racked up assist after assist to go along with 4 rebounds and only turned the ball over twice. Sure, we're used to RW0 racking up at least double digits in points, but with the addition of James Harden to the mix, perhaps that pressure for him to score upwards of 20 points per game is being lessened, significantly. If that's the case, imagine how many double doubles the kid is going to have this season, seriously! If he can keep up distributing the ball like this he'll be pushing the double digit assist mark all season, and I think we can pretty much bet that he'll be at least double digit in score on a nightly basis as well, and that's not even mentioning his rebounding which can sometimes pop up there into double digits as well.

The next thing I'm looking for is Jeff Green, and a much a improved outing for him. In Wednesdays game he had probably his work game, at least statwise that I can ever really remember seeing from him. Again, its hard to know what else he was doing on the court just from listening to the game, but, in 26 minutes of play, he managed just 6 points on 3-10 shooting to go with only 2 rebounds and 2 steals. This is not the Uncle Jeff we know and love, and this is not the guy we expect to see on a nightly basis this coming season. So it'll be interesting to see how he responds today and what kind of game he has. I'm banking on a 16-20 point performance with 5-7 boards today for Jeff Green. Let's see if he can do it.

Thirdly, is that even a word? I guess so since spell-check didn't change it, anyway, we're going with it. Thirdly, I want to see more of the young guys, Serge Ibaka, James Harden, D.J. White, and Kyle Weaver. I want to see what Ibaka can do with 20-30 minutes if he was able to score 4 points (2-2 shooting) and grab 2 rebounds in just 4 minutes of playing time. I want to see if D.J. White can continue to perform at such a high level in back to back games, and against good competition. Perhaps throw DJ out there early in the first quarter to get him some time against Nola's starters and see what he can do. Of course to do that, you'd likely have to cut into Jeff Greens time early, but hey its pre-season, why not start D.J. and throw Green out there late in the first and let him work the remainder of the 1st and most of the 2nd before bringing D.J. back in with the rest of the starters to clean up the end of the half? Look at me trying to be coach here. Anyway, I'm just intrigued by the way D.J. played on Wednesday and want to see what the kid can really do, as I'm sure Uncle Jeff's performance was just a fluke, we all know what he's capable of.

Finally, I'm just interested to see what Brooks plans on doing today. Is he going to give starters 25 minutes of playing time again? Is he gonna play with the rotations more? Work some of the young guys in with the starters to see how they will work with our premier players and against better competition? What's he gonna do? How is he going to continue to get this team prepped for the season opener which is already less than 3 weeks away! Can you believe that? just 18 more days until live regular season Thunder basketball! Man I'm excited, so turn that radio (come on guys, its the Hornets!) on at 1pm today and Thunder UP!

Oklahoma City Thunder Roster

	#	Pos.	DOB	W	H	College
Ryan Bowen	40	F	11.20.75	218	6-9	Iowa
Nick Collison	4	C	10.26.80	255	6-10	Kansas
Kevin Durant	35	F	9.29.88	215	6-9	Texas
Jeff Green	22	F	8.28.86	235	6-9	Georgetown
James Harden	13	G	8.26.87	220	6-5	Arizona State
Mike Harris	-	F	6.15.83	240	6-6	Rice
Serge Ibaka	9	F	9.18.89	220	6-10	None
Tre Kelley	6	G	1.23.85	188	6-0	South Carolina
Nenad Krstic	12	C	7.25.83	240	7-0	None
Shaun Livingston	14	G	9.11.85	185	6-7	Peoria Central HS
Byron Mullens	23	C	2.14.89	260	7-1	Ohio State
Kevin Ollie	7	G	12.27.72	195	6-2	Connecticut
Malik Rose	9	F	11.23.74	255	6-7	Drexel
Michael Ruffin	51	F	1.21.77	248	6-8	Tulsa
Thabo Sefolosha	2	G	5.2.84	215	6-7	None
Etan Thomas	36	C	4.1.78	260	6-10	Syracuse
Kyle Weaver	5	G	2.18.86	201	6-6	Washington State
Russell Westbrook	-	G	11.12.88	187	6-3	U-C-L-A
D.J. White	3	F	8.31.86	251	6-9	Indiana

New Orleans Hornets Roster

	#	Pos.	DOB	W	H	College
Hilton Armstrong	12	C	11.11.84	235	6-11	Connecticut
Earl Barron	55	C	8.14.81	268	7-0	Memphis
Bobby Brown	6	G	9.24.84	175	6-2	Cal State Fullerton
Devin Brown	23	G	12.30.78	210	6-5	Texas-San Antonio
Darren Collison	2	G	8.23.87	160	6-0	U-C-L-A
Ike Diogu	1	F	9.11.83	250	6-9	Arizona State
Sean Marks	4	C	8.23.75	250	6-10	California
Emeka Okafor	50	C	9.28.82	255	6-10	Connecticut
Larry Owens	25	F	1.8.83	210	6-7	Oral Roberts
Chris Paul	3	G	5.6.85	175	6-0	Wake Forest
Morris Peterson	9	G	8.26.77	220	6-7	Michigan State
James Posey	41	F	1.13.77	217	6-8	Xavier
Darius Songaila	9	F	2.14.78	248	6-9	Wake Forest
Peja Stojakovic	16	F	6.9.77	229	6-10	None
Marcus Thornton	5	G	6.5.87	205	6-4	L-S-U
David West	30	F	8.29.80	240	6-9	Xavier
Julian Wright	32	F	5.20.87	225	6-8	Kansas

Grizzlies Beat Thunder 91-99, Kevin Durant Likes The Team's Work Ethic, and Kyle Weaver who?

Mr Pappagiorgio — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:01:08 -0000

The Thunder saw their very first live game action of the 2009-10 (pre)season last night, and unfortunately ended up on the bottom side of the scoreboard. They were still able to take away some positives from last nights game as you probably read in our game recap last night, and if you didn't, well good, because we got you covered in todays edition of Loud Links which includes about five different game recaps plus our own. If you are just looking for the score, I'll even make it easy on you by telling you the Grizzlies won 117-89, but then you'd look stupid when talking to your friends about the game last night, so I suggest you read on, and make the jump so that you can actually know the real score of the game, as well as some details while at the same time helping our little blog out, ya dig? Thanks.

Outside of last nights game, todays edition of loud links hits on Kevin Durant (What's new?) and how he likes the work ethic of this Thunder team, and also Dime Mag lists Kevin Durant at #15 in their top 30 "Go to" players in the NBA. Darnell Mayberry (The most unenthusiastic journalist on television) thinks Kyle Weaver is the forgotten man, and he may be right. The NBA is going to televise the NBA D-League draft, so get ready to wait, and wait, and wait until picks #16 and #17 to see who joins the Tulsa 66ers for the 2009-10 season. The addition of the Thunder has helped push Oklahoma City to #37 on the list of best sports cities. Finally Lakers blog continues their "Know thy enemy" series with their Oklahoma City Thunder Preview. So take a flying leap and check out todays Loud Links.

Grizzlies Take Over in 4th, Thunder Play Well for 3 Quarters, Lose 91-99 - Welcome to Loud City
Well, I gotta be honest here, it wasn't a whole lot of fun listening to a basketball game on the radio, but what are you gonna do? This game was apparently not broadcast anywhere on TV, so the only option Thunder fans had to get in on the action tonight was to listen to the game on the radio.

Preseason: Grizzlies beat Thunder - Straight Outta Vancouver
WIN, WIN, WIN. The rivalry is settled -- the Grizzlies proved they are exactly eight points better than the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Grizzlies won the game 99-91 after posting a spectacular 4th quarter blowout. Sam Young played the hero by scoring 15 in the 4th quarter, rallying the Grizzlies behind a slashing attack that got him to the free throw line almost at will.

Young's big 4th carries Grizzlies past Thunder - NBA - Yahoo! Sports
Kevin Durant(notes) scored 17 for the Oklahoma City, which was playing its preseason opener. D.J. White(notes) had 16 for the Thunder, and rookie James Harden(notes) finished with 12. Nenad Krstic(notes) and Shaun Livingston(notes) contributed 10 apiece.

Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Memphis Grizzlies - ESPN Recap
Kevin Durant scored 17 for the Oklahoma City, which was playing its preseason opener. D.J. White had 16 for the Thunder, and rookie James Harden finished with 12. Nenad Krstic and Shaun Livingston contributed 10 apiece.

Memphis Tops Oklahoma City, 99-91
I’m honestly just relieved we made it through this thing with everyone alive. After Dez Bryant being declared ineligible today, I wondered if this sports year was just cursed in Oklahoma. What was built up to maybe be the biggest year of sports ever in this state has now seen Sam Bradford get hurt, Jermaine Gresham get hurt, Ryan Broyles get hurt, OU lose two games, OSU unexpectedly lose to Houston and now Dez Bryant out for the season potentially. I honestly feared for Kevin Durant’s life tonight. One down. 88 more to go.

Pre-Season Game 1 Recap: Memphis 99, Oklahoma City 91
Well, I'll be honest, I only heard the last few minutes of this game, and without any footage to watch, there's not much to say. The Thunders' starting five kept a fairly consistent lead over the Grizzlies until the 4th quarter, where we put in our scrubs (Harden, Livingston, White, Bowen, Mullens) and they got completely dominated. The people who are known quantities produced pretty much as expected.

Q&A: Kevin Durant likes team’s work ethic | NewsOK.com
I’ve noticed in these two years that I’ve been in the league every time I work out after practice I have a good game the next day so I kept going with that. I want to get better. That’s the thing I’ve been taught ever since I was young. Always get better so that’s why I do it.

The NBA’s 30 best go-to players (#15: Kevin Durant) | Dime Magazine
Durant may have more natural scoring ability than anyone — yes, anyone — in the NBA. But those skills that seem like his birthright overshadow the real reason why he’s on pace to run this League: He also has a ton of learned scoring ability. Durant couldn’t drop 25 a game with an entire defense planned around him if it was as simple as throwing a ball into a basket on instinct. He does it because he’s a student of the game, with the work ethic of a Shaolin monk.

Kyle Weaver: The Forgotten Man | Thunder Rumblings
But that’s the predicament Weaver finds himself in as the Thunder opens its preseason schedule tonight in Memphis. Against the Grizzlies, though, Weaver might finally catch a much-needed break. Sefolosha sustained a mild concussion in Monday’s practice and did not travel with the team. That leaves an open spot at the starting shooting guard position that Weaver is itching to fill. It’s an opportunity for playing time that Weaver must take advantage of and show Thunder coach Scott Brooks he’s worthy of minutes. Fail to do so and Sefolosha and Harden are waiting in the wings to turn a three-man battle for minutes into a headache-free, two-man rotation.

NBA TV To Televise 2009 NBA D-League Draft On November 5
Tulsa, Okla., October 7, 2009 - The Tulsa 66ers and NBA Development League announced today that its 2009 Draft will take place from the NBA TV studio in Atlanta, GA on Thursday, Nov. 5. The live selection show highlights the ninth-annual draft which offers NBA D-League teams the opportunity to build their rosters from a pool of promising players. The draft will be televised on NBA TV and streamed live online on NBA.com (www.nba.com/dleague) beginning at 6 p.m. (CST).

Oklahoma City jumps to No. 37 on list of best sports cities | NewsOK.com
"Jumping into the major professional sports scene with the arrival of the Thunder is a big deal for Oklahoma city when it came to our 12-month city snapshot," Sporting News chief of correspondents Bob Hille said in a statement.

Know thy enemy: Oklahoma City Thunder | Lakers Blog
Oklahoma City Thunder Last Season: 23-59 (.280, 5th in the Northwest Division, 13th in the Western Conference) Key Additions: Drafted James Harden, BJ Mullins, traded for Kevin Ollie, Etan Thomas Key Subtractions: Earl Watson, Damien Wilkins. I'm willing to wager that a healthy portion of NBA teams- lottery and playoff squads alike- would trade their lot in life for what the Thunder have cooking in their big cast iron, high plains basketball kettle. A killer core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green, none older than 23, with more potential added in first rounder Harden. Scads of draft picks...

Grizzlies Take Over in 4th, Thunder Play Well for 3 Quarters, Lose 91-99

Mr Pappagiorgio — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:05:51 -0000

Well, I gotta be honest here, it wasn't a whole lot of fun listening to a basketball game on the radio, but what are you gonna do? This game was apparently not broadcast anywhere on TV, so the only option Thunder fans had to get in on the action tonight was to listen to the game on the radio. As you might imagine, or as you might have experienced tonight, its not really a whole lot of fun, or easy to listen to a basketball game on the radio. Maybe its just me, but not being able to see the guys playing together for the first time was almost infuriating as I had to sit there and just listen. Anyway, enough complaining, the Thunder did actually play a game tonight, so lets get right to it.

First up a couple of notes on the game in case you missed our preview earlier today. Allen Iverson sat this one out for the Grizzlies after suffering an injury on Sunday, and also Thabo Sefolosha didn't play for the Thunder tonight, so James Harden got the start in his place. He didn't waste any time making his presence felt either, but not necessarily in a positive way by picking up 3 fouls in the first 6 minutes of the game, but had a nice 3 pointer to go with that. To his credit though, he made it into the fourth quarter before he picked up his 4th and 5th fouls. Nenad Krstic also got into a bit of foul trouble early by picking up 2 fouls in the first five minutes of the game, which pretty much set the pace for the Thunder all night long in terms of being in foul trouble. The Thunder racked up a whopping 36 fouls with every Thunder player who got in the action having at least 2 fouls. Make the jump for more thoughts on tonights game...

Both teams came out tonight with their starters (barring injured players) and stayed with those guys for about 10 minutes into the first quarter before putting in some reserves and then bringing the starters back in shortly before the end of the first half. Sprinkled in the middle with those guys were a lot of guys trying to prove their worth and show that they can play with the likes of Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook. Speaking of Russell Westbrook, he looked, err, he sounded really good tonight despite shooting 0-4 from the field, he was able to finish with 5 points and found himself in double digits with 10 assists and only 2 turnovers. Who the hell said the kid couldn't be a true point guard anyway? I maintain that as this team continues to add more scoring threats, RW0 is going to look more and more brilliant at the point and his assist totals should continue to go through the roof as long as he stays focused on what he needs to do to run this offense.

Kevin Durant lead the team in scoring as he so often does, but with only 17 points and on 4 of 9 shooting (not bad for 26 minutes), but the big surprise nipping at his heels was DJ White with 16 points in just a shade under 23 minutes. DJ shot 8-13 and also pulled down 5 boards to go with 1 assist, a pretty impressive game for the unsuspecting 2nd year player. As nice of a surprise as DJ's play was, the same could be said in a negative fashion about Jeff Green tonight who shot just 3-10, scored only 6 points, and had just 2 rebounds in 26 minutes, which was very un-Uncle Jeff like. Nenad Krstic and Shaun Livingston also shot well tonight and surprisingly, to me at least, Serge Ibaka only got 4 minutes of playing time, but he did a lot with those 4 minutes by scoring 4 points on 2-2 shooting with 2 rebounds.

All in all there was a lot of good and bad tonight. The good was the Thunder being aggressive and controlling the game for three quarters while on the flip side the bad was giving up an 11-3 run with 8 minutes left to go in the game when the score was tied at 80 apiece. To be fair though, none of our starters where in the game at all to start the fourth quarter, and if I'm not mistaken, only James Harden got playing time in the fourth quarter. I wish I could give you a little bit better impression of exactly what happened tonight, but again, when you listen on the radio its hard to pick up a lot of the details, so for tonight and the three other non-televised pre-season games to come, your just gonna have to deal with it. Anyway, its just the pre-season, nothing to panic about, and the best news of all is that Thunder Basketball is back, and we had a nice group of people commenting in the game thread, so I look forward to more of that as the season pushes closer. Next up is New Orleans on Saturday night....another radio only game :-(

...oh and here is the box score. SBNation doesn't have our nicer ones ready to go for pre-season, so for now this will do.

Oklahoma City
Starters		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
J. Harden	G	29:08	4-11	1-6	3-5	-15	0	4	3	1	2	0	1	5	12
R. Westbrook	G	24:39	0-4	0-1	5-6	+6	2	4	10	2	1	0	0	2	5
N. Krstic	C	14:09	5-7	0-0	0- d0	+3	0	3	0	1	0	0	0	3	10
K. Durant	F	25:59	4-9	1-2	8-9	+4	0	3	0	3	1	0	0	3	17
J. Green	F	25:55	3-10	0-2	0-0	+4	0	2	0	0	2	0	0	3	6
Bench		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
S. Livingston		26:26	5-7	0-0	0-0	-9	0	1	3	4	0	2	0	3	10
D.J. White		22:44	8-13	0-0	0-2	-11	1	5	1	0	0	0	2	3	16
R. Bowen		21:22	0-2	0-1	0-0	-13	1	3	0	1	0	1	0	2	0
E. Thomas		17:46	1-2	0-0	2-2	-7	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	2	4
K. Weaver		15:47	2-4	0-1	2-2	+2	0	1	4	0	2	0	1	5	6
B.J. Mullens		11:41	0-1	0-0	1-2	-7	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	3	1
S. Ibaka		4:24	2-2	0-0	0-0	+3	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	2	4
N. Collison		DNP - Coach's Decision
M. Harris		DNP - Coach's Decision
T. Kelley		DNP - Coach's Decision
K. Ollie		DNP - Coach's Decision
M. Ruffin		DNP - Coach's Decision
T. Sefolosha		DNP - Coach's Decision

Totals			34-72	2-13	21-28		5	30	21	14	10	3	4	36	91
Percentages:			.472	.154	.750		Team Rebounds: 8

Memphis
Starters		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
M. Conley	G	26:07	1-7	0-4	6-6	0	0	0	5	3	1	0	0	3	8
O.J. Mayo	G	23:48	4-10	0-3	2-2	-3	0	3	2	1	1	0	0	1	10
M. Gasol	C	21:03	3-5	0-0	4-6	-2	2	7	1	1	0	1	0	1	10
Z. Randolph	F	24:24	1-5	0-1	4-4	-5	3	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	6
R. Gay	F	23:21	6-10	2-5	4-6	-1	1	4	1	6	2	0	0	3	18
Bench		Min	FG	3Pt	FT	+/-	Off	Reb	Ast	TO	Stl	BS	BA	PF	Pts
D. Carroll		26:02	2-5	0-0	0-0	+8	2	7	1	0	0	0	0	4	4
H. Thabeet		25:34	3-3	0-0	0-2	+11	2	7	0	2	0	1	0	2	6
S. Young		19:52	4-7	1-2	13-16	+11	1	2	1	1	2	0	1	2	22
M. Williams		18:05	1-5	1-1	1-2	+7	0	3	4	2	0	0	2	4	4
T. Gilder		15:33	3-4	1-2	1-2	+13	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	8
S. Hunter		11:00	1-2	0-0	1-1	+1	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	1	3
M. Taylor		3:47	0-1	0-0	0-0	+1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
H. Haddadi		1:23	0-0	0-0	0-0	-1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
D. Arthur		DNP - Coach's Decision
T. Gardner		DNP - Coach's Decision
A. Iverson		DNP - Coach's Decision
M. Jaric		DNP - Coach's Decision
L. Rodgers		DNP - Coach's Decision

Totals			29-64	5-18	36-47		11	40	18	18	6	4	3	24	99
Percentages:			.453	.278	.766		Team Rebounds: 13

Preseason: Grizzlies beat Thunder

djturtleface — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:40:48 -0000

More photos » by Lance Murphey - AP

2 months ago: Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay (22) tries to block a dunk by Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant (35) during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Lance Murphey)

Browse more photos »

WIN, WIN, WIN. The rivalry is settled -- the Grizzlies proved they are exactly eight points better than the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Grizzlies won the game 99-91 after posting a spectacular 4th quarter blowout. Sam Young played the hero by scoring 15 in the 4th quarter, rallying the Grizzlies behind a slashing attack that got him to the free throw line almost at will.

Over the jump is your basic summary based on read-outs, box score, and the radio feed:

Zach Randolph had an ugly game, but *GASP,* adjusted and essentially took himself out of the offense.
Sam Young and Rudy Gay killed it. This is no surprise, as people are beginning to learn that Kevin Durant kind of sucks on defense -- his adjusted plus/minus is actually worse than the Thunder's backups, and the other Thunder forward was some goofball named Ryan Bowen.
Hasheem Thabeet limited his fouls, played within himself, and looked pretty damn good.
In fact the Grizzlies' second unit of Marcus Williams, Trey Gilder, Sam Young, DeMarre Carroll, and Hasheem Thabeet actually posted the best plus/minus on the team. This is encouraging, though its worth noting that the Thunder are pretty thin.
Only 18 assists tonight, mostly because Rudy Gay and Sam Young were isolating effectively.
O.J. Mayo shot the ball poorly again, as did Mike Conley. Both guards played solid defense, however.
DeMarre Carroll and Zach Randolph struggled to handle the Thunder's big men like Nenad Krstic and D.J. White. It sounds like Thabeet struggles to help on bigger players, though he's defending the rim against slashers pretty effectively.

OKC Thunder @ Memphis Grizzlies OPEN THREAD

Mr Pappagiorgio — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:30:17 -0000

TV: None | Radio: WWLS (98.1 FM, 640am in OKC, 97.1 FM in Tulsa)

Opponent Perspective: Straight Outta Vancouver

2009-10 Oklahoma City Thunder Pre-Season Roster
NUM	PLAYER	POS	HT	WT	DOB	FROM	YRS
40	Ryan Bowen	F	6-9	218	11/20/1975	Iowa	9
4	Nick Collison	F-C	6-10	255	10/26/1980	Kansas	5
35	Kevin Durant	F-G	6-9	230	09/29/1988	Texas	2
22	Jeff Green	F	6-9	235	08/28/1986	Georgetown	2
13	James Harden	G	6-5	220	08/26/1989	Arizona State	R
	Mike Harris	F	6-6	240	06/15/1983	Rice	1
9	Serge Ibaka	F	6-10	235	09/18/1989	Congo	R
6	Tre Kelley	G	6-0	188	01/23/1985	South Carolina	R
12	Nenad Krstic	C	7-0	240	07/25/1983	Serbia & Montenegro	5
14	Shaun Livingston	G	6-7	185	09/11/1985	Peoria Central HS (IL)	4
23	Byron Mullens	C	7-0	275	02/14/1989	Ohio State	R
7	Kevin Ollie	G	6-2	195	12/27/1972	Connecticut	12
51	Michael Ruffin	F-C	6-8	248	01/21/1977	Tulsa	9
2	Thabo Sefolosha	F-G	6-7	215	05/02/1984	Switzerland	3
36	Etan Thomas	C	6-10	260	04/01/1978	Syracuse	7
5	Kyle Weaver	G	6-6	201	02/18/1986	Washington State	1
0	Russell Westbrook	G	6-3	187	11/12/1988	UCLA	1
3	D.J. White	F	6-9	251	08/31/1986	Indiana	1

2009-10 Memphis Grizzlies Pre-Season Roster
NUM	PLAYER	POS	HT	WT	DOB	FROM	YRS
00	Darrell Arthur	F	6-9	235	03/25/1988	Kansas	1
1	DeMarre Carroll	F	6-8	212	07/27/1986	Missouri	R
11	Mike Conley	G	6-1	185	10/11/1987	Ohio State	2
31	Thomas Gardner	G	6-5	225	02/08/1985	Missouri	2
33	Marc Gasol	C	7-1	280	01/29/1985	Spain	1
22	Rudy Gay	F	6-8	222	08/17/1986	Connecticut	3
2	Trey Gilder	F	6-9	185	01/24/1985	Northwestern State-Louisiana	R
15	Hamed Haddadi	C	7-2	265	05/19/1985	I.R. of Iran	1
45	Steven Hunter	C	7-0	240	10/31/1981	DePaul	7
3	Allen Iverson	G	6-0	165	06/07/1975	Georgetown	13
55	Marko Jaric	G	6-7	224	10/12/1978	Serbia	7
32	O.J. Mayo	G	6-4	210	11/05/1987	USC	1
50	Zach Randolph	F	6-9	260	07/16/1981	Michigan State	8
21	Leon Rodgers	F	6-6	217	06/19/1980	Northern Illinois	R
24	Mike Taylor	G	6-2	165	01/21/1986	Iowa State	1
34	Hasheem Thabeet	C	7-3	267	02/16/1987	Connecticut	R
5	Marcus Williams	G	6-3	205	12/03/1985	Connecticut	3
4	Sam Young	F-G	6-6	220	06/01/1985	Pittsburgh	R

Thunder Gameday: Oklahoma City Thunder at Memphis Grizzlies

Mr Pappagiorgio — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:00:42 -0000

Finally, finally, finally! The Oklahoma City Thunder get their 2009-10 season underway tonight, in Memphis, against the Grizzlies! Who cares if its only the pre-season? Thunder Basketball is back, so get ready to Thunder Up! Sadly enough, at the time of this writing (Last night), we don't have any update as to whether or not this game will be televised anywhere that Oklahomans will be able to see, but at the very least we should all be able to listen on the WWLS, The Sports Animal, which should be carrying the game (although I haven't confirmed that yet either). I'm sure you are quite tired of hearing me complain about the game not being televised, but let's face it, if you are reading this blog on a regular basis, chances are you are a pretty big Thunderhead yourself and just as pissed off. So hey, I'm being your voice, and you just never know who is reading. I griped and moaned all season about games that weren't broadcast in HD and a quick look at the TV schedule for the upcoming season will show that perhaps someone was listening as every single game is listed as being in HD this season.

It is still just a pre-season game, so why should you even care? Well, I'm gonna take a few minutes and hopefully give you enough reasons to be interested. First and foremost is your Thunder Roster is very different than it was just a few short months ago as the team closed out its inaugural season. When you make the jump, you'll see the entire pre-season roster which will be cut down substantially before the season begins. Gone are the likes of Robert Swift, Malik Rose, and Earl Watson, and inserted in their place are a host of new players that you should be just as anxious to see such as Etan Thomas and Kevin Ollie. As young as this team was last season, it may have gotten even younger this year as James Harden joins the mix along with some other terrific young players including Serge Ibaka, and Byron Mullens, amongst others. So go ahead and make the jump to see the full roster, along with our continued preview which will have a few more reasons to be interested in tonight's game, because there are a few more, I assure you.

If you can remember back a few short months, there was some extremely heated debate regarding who the Thunder should take, Hasheem Thabeet, or James Harden. Regardless of who we wanted or who we would have picked (although it does seem pretty clear that Harden had emerged as our guy shortly before the draft), the Grizzlies went ahead and made things a bit easier for us by picking Hasheem Thabeet with the #2 overall pick. So tonight will be our first chance at seeing these two guys match up head to head, even though they'll rarely be close to one another on the court since Harden plays guard and Thabeet is six million feet tall.

Another reason you are going to want to tune in is to check out Allen Iverson in his new home. We all know him, we all um, okay, so we all don't love him, but you still have to respect the guy on the court, no matter his flaws. For now he doesn't even seem to be a clear cut starter on the team, but it'll be interesting to see if that's a motivating factor for him in the pre-season. It'll also be fun to see how he works and interacts with guys like O.J. Mayo and Rudy Gay. Oh wait, that's what you could have looked forward to if he didn't get himself injured on Sunday, so I guess we'll have to look forward to seeing that later on in the year. The Grizzlies are quite possibly the most exciting young team in the league outside of our own beloved Thunder, so this game will definitely be intriguing as two of the leagues better, up and coming, young teams, square off head to head. I tend to think we're a bit further ahead in our cycle than they are and should come away with a win, even if it is just a pre-season game, but the fun part will be watching, err, listening tonight.

Also, we will have a Live Game OPEN THREAD for commenting tonight as I'm sure one way or another a lot of us will be either listening to or watching the game. Hell, if we are listening, there is no reason to not be on the site commenting, so you better get your ass into the thread by tipoff so we can get some nice live game commenting going. Also, we'll update this post and the live game thread with anymore information on TV and Radio Coverage as the information becomes available.

2009-10 Oklahoma City Thunder Pre-Season Roster
NUM	PLAYER	POS	HT	WT	DOB	FROM	YRS
40	Ryan Bowen	F	6-9	218	11/20/1975	Iowa	9
4	Nick Collison	F-C	6-10	255	10/26/1980	Kansas	5
35	Kevin Durant	F-G	6-9	230	09/29/1988	Texas	2
22	Jeff Green	F	6-9	235	08/28/1986	Georgetown	2
13	James Harden	G	6-5	220	08/26/1989	Arizona State	R
	Mike Harris	F	6-6	240	06/15/1983	Rice	1
9	Serge Ibaka	F	6-10	235	09/18/1989	Congo	R
6	Tre Kelley	G	6-0	188	01/23/1985	South Carolina	R
12	Nenad Krstic	C	7-0	240	07/25/1983	Serbia & Montenegro	5
14	Shaun Livingston	G	6-7	185	09/11/1985	Peoria Central HS (IL)	4
23	Byron Mullens	C	7-0	275	02/14/1989	Ohio State	R
7	Kevin Ollie	G	6-2	195	12/27/1972	Connecticut	12
51	Michael Ruffin	F-C	6-8	248	01/21/1977	Tulsa	9
2	Thabo Sefolosha	F-G	6-7	215	05/02/1984	Switzerland	3
36	Etan Thomas	C	6-10	260	04/01/1978	Syracuse	7
5	Kyle Weaver	G	6-6	201	02/18/1986	Washington State	1
0	Russell Westbrook	G	6-3	187	11/12/1988	UCLA	1
3	D.J. White	F	6-9	251	08/31/1986	Indiana	1

2009-10 Memphis Grizzlies Pre-Season Roster
NUM	PLAYER	POS	HT	WT	DOB	FROM	YRS
00	Darrell Arthur	F	6-9	235	03/25/1988	Kansas	1
1	DeMarre Carroll	F	6-8	212	07/27/1986	Missouri	R
11	Mike Conley	G	6-1	185	10/11/1987	Ohio State	2
31	Thomas Gardner	G	6-5	225	02/08/1985	Missouri	2
33	Marc Gasol	C	7-1	280	01/29/1985	Spain	1
22	Rudy Gay	F	6-8	222	08/17/1986	Connecticut	3
2	Trey Gilder	F	6-9	185	01/24/1985	Northwestern State-Louisiana	R
15	Hamed Haddadi	C	7-2	265	05/19/1985	I.R. of Iran	1
45	Steven Hunter	C	7-0	240	10/31/1981	DePaul	7
3	Allen Iverson	G	6-0	165	06/07/1975	Georgetown	13
55	Marko Jaric	G	6-7	224	10/12/1978	Serbia	7
32	O.J. Mayo	G	6-4	210	11/05/1987	USC	1
50	Zach Randolph	F	6-9	260	07/16/1981	Michigan State	8
21	Leon Rodgers	F	6-6	217	06/19/1980	Northern Illinois	R
24	Mike Taylor	G	6-2	165	01/21/1986	Iowa State	1
34	Hasheem Thabeet	C	7-3	267	02/16/1987	Connecticut	R
5	Marcus Williams	G	6-3	205	12/03/1985	Connecticut	3
4	Sam Young	F-G	6-6	220	06/01/1985	Pittsburgh	R

SB Nation - D.J. White

Loud Links: 10.11.09

***Scroll Down for Zorgon's preview of tonight's game***

Last Night in the Preseason

Game Recap: Oklahoma City Thunder 110, Phoenix Suns 105 (OT)

Thunder Gameday: Phoenix Suns at Oklahoma City Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder Roster

Phoenix Suns Roster

Thunder Gameday: Oklahoma City Thunder at New Orleans Hornets

Oklahoma City Thunder Roster

New Orleans Hornets Roster

Grizzlies Beat Thunder 91-99, Kevin Durant Likes The Team's Work Ethic, and Kyle Weaver who?

Grizzlies Take Over in 4th, Thunder Play Well for 3 Quarters, Lose 91-99

Preseason: Grizzlies beat Thunder

OKC Thunder @ Memphis Grizzlies OPEN THREAD

Thunder Gameday: Oklahoma City Thunder at Memphis Grizzlies

Scroll Down for Zorgon's preview of tonight's game