Friday, August 21, 2009

Who's your second favorite?

ESPN’s Truehoop recently ran an article in which they polled a network of blogs on who their second favorite team in the NBA is. All of the blogs polled are dedicated to a single organization and ESPN wanted to know who they watch when their team isn’t on.

While KC Sports Media Rant is slightly miffed at our exclusion from the poll, we might as well chime in anyways.

It should be noted that The Rant’s hoop squad of choice is the Golden State Warriors – who received an overwhelming response as a second favorite team of choice to many of the blogs.

But undoubtedly when the Dubs aren’t running the floor we tune our NBA League Pass to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The primary – and obvious – reason is the great collection of young talent. Year after year losing squads are handed lottery picks and continually blow them. A case in point is the Milwaukee Bucks who in back to back drafts took Yi Jianlain (publicly didn’t want to play there) and Joe Alexander (freak athlete, no basketball skill). But that is not the case for OKC.

The Thunder have capitalized on early picks in their recent drafts. They took Kevin Durant with the second pick in 2007 and also swung a trade for versatile glue-guy Jeff Green. The next year they scooped up UCLA product Russell Westbrook, who since has silenced all doubters about his point guard ability. Just 2 months ago Oklahoma City landed James Harden – a good decision maker, passer, and scorer. Throw in young guards Thabo Sefalosha and Kyle Weaver and you won’t find another younger backcourt with more upside anywhere in the league.

Certainly there are some missing pieces, like a post scorer and paint defender or two, but keep in mind OKC has plenty of money under the cap to play with in the coming famed free agency of 2010.

So knowing we can’t always watch our Warriors firsthand, the Thunder are the second team of choice at this blog. They don’t always grace national TV, but The Rant jumps at the chance to see Oklahoma’s young talent develop right before our eyes.

Dr. Murphy out…

***This week’s trivia – drop your guesses/answers in the comments section

Only three players in NBA history have averaged 2 steals and 2 blocks for an entire season. The first 2 were David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon. Who is the third? (it is an active player - think Eastern Conference and expansion draft)

***Last week’s answer: David Robinson was the 4th player to ever record a triple double when he put up 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 blocks against the Detroit Pistons in 1994.

2 comments:

  1. i think dwayne wade did it last year

    ReplyDelete
  2. or maybe bosh? i dont know. Top five guesses, WAde, Bosh, Tayshaun, or Scottie Pippen

    ReplyDelete