Sunday, December 9, 2012

SFHM: Straight From the Horse's Mouth

Straight From the Horse's Mouth is a 3-part Q & A series with different Thunder journalists and their views on a couple of current Thunder topics. 

Part 1 of this series starts with Charles Chaney, who runs the Thunder blog, Thunder Obsessed. 

Q: What do you believe is the Thunder's greatest strength?

A: Just their offense in general. You have two MVP-type players in Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant on your team, you're always going to be an offensive threat. When Westbrook isn't on, you can always rely on Durant and vice=versa. Oklahoma City's ability to develop players is showing greatly with the offensive progression of Serge Ibaka. Ibaka's shot is just improving, which means his confidence is growing, very scary. I haven't even began to mention Kevin Martin's lethal three-point shooting gives Oklahoma City another source of points that hasn't always been there in the past. Watch out N.B.A.

Q: What, in your opinion, does the Thunder need to do to win a title?

A:  Rebound the basketball. I know, very curious why. In losses, Oklahoma city is allowing on average of 12.4 offensive rebounds contributing to 16 second chance points to the opposition. That means you're giving a team an extra 12 possessions a game, adding up to 16 extra points each contest. That's like starting the game down 16-0 and having to fight back. 

I could talk about the turnovers, but honestly that is just a product of being aggressive. We showed everyone last year that, come playoff time, Oklahoma City can take care of the ball when it matters. Not worried there.

Q: Do you believe the Thunder will win a title with the current lineup? Including coaches?

A: Part two of this question made me stop and really think. With the current line up? Oklahoma City can easily win a title if Miami was to be upset some how. However, I think the head coaching position is a weakness for Oklahoma City. I feel that if Oklahoma City is ever going to win a tight N.B.A Finals match up, they'll need solid coaching moves, I don't think Scott Brooks has the ability to do that. He's too stubborn in his way right now. He needs to realize that sometimes you have to buck the trend for the better of the team.

Q: What ceiling do you see for Kevin Durant? Multiple MVPs and Championships? 30,000+ points? Hall of Fame? One of the best players of all time?

A: I think Kevin can become one of the top 10 players of all-time. He's on pace for 31,890 points if he was to stay in the league for 16 years. That would put him at fifth all-time. I do believe he'll win an MVP or two, and hopefully a championship. However, take this in, Karl Malone, one of the best power forwards to ever pick up a basketball has zero NBA titles. He did win two MVP awards. One of them was without Michael Jordan being a threat. Kobe Bryant has only won one MVP award, and look at how great he is. So, I think he'll be a first ballot hall-of-famer, but hard to predict 'ships and MVP's with Lebron James in the league.

Next Up: Royce Young of the Daily Thunder. Check in often to see the second part of this three part series, Straight From the Horse's Mouth. 


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