NBA Chat With Susan Bible 10/8/11

Please join Susan Bible for her NBA Chat each Saturday at 11:00 am EST.   Susan is a Newlines Editor and a member of the fantasy team at HOOPSWORLD.  She covers the Oklahoma City Thunder and the NBA at large.  Drop in your questions now.

  1. soldier

    Why do the staff here say that the Thabbet trade was not a bad trade for the rockets because thabbet can be a great player. What i have heard, thabbet hates basketball, his passion is soccer. and he has no nba skills. he is the highest draft pick to play in the d league.

    • Susan Bible

      It’s spelled “Thabeet.” He may develop into a serviceable center, but it’s going to take time. I understand he is maturing and taking his profession seriously now. Only time will tell.

  2. Giovanni Antonini

    hello my favorite Hoops-world writer. Who would you rather have on your NBA team if you had to pick and why? Kevin Durant & Russel Westbrook or Gary Payton & Shawn Kemp (in their prime of course)

    • Susan Bible

      Thanks Giovanni! Now that’s a great question…just one issue though. Durant, 23 and Westbrook, 22, haven’t hit their ceiling.

      But let’s look at last season: combined, Westbrook and Durant scored 49. 6 points, 10.9 assists, 11.4 rebounds, .861 at the free-throw line, 21.4 Win Shares, and they each had 23.5 PER.

      Now for Payton and Kemp, it seems reasonable to look at the 1995-96 season when the Sonics went to the Finals (lost 4-2 to Chicago), combined: 38.9 points, 9.7 assists, 16.0 rebounds, .745 in free throws, 22.7 Win Shares, Payton 19.6 PER and Kemp 22.6 PER. Kemp was 27 years old and Payton was 28.

      Does that help determine? Not really :) Being the anal stats person I am, I’d need more time to really delve into it…but I’d say P&K now, D&W later.

  3. AJ

    Assuming there are not huge systematic changes, and that Westbrook will get a lucrative extension…. Do you see OKC retaining Harden, Ibaka, and Maynor when their contracts come up? I can see a young team giving them, especially Ibaka and Harden, very large offer sheets.

    • Susan Bible

      It’s hard to speculate until we have a new CBA; that is, until we know the numbers. I know Westbrook would have been extended on July 1st had the lockout not commenced. It may well be difficult to keep them all, but with Presti’s mantra of “keeping the core group together to grow together”, I have to believe he’s going to figure out a way to keep Harden and Ibaka (and Westbrook, of course). Maynor may be expendable. What works in our favor (versus players being tempted to accept a higher offer) is the fact that OKC has become a viable contender – all these players want to win.

  4. Dwayne

    Hey Susan, do you think us fans are the only thing that can put an end to this ugly lockout in a timely fashion? I mean what if we stop visiting these sport sites, or stop purchasing the merchandise? What if we stood outside of espn boycotting the upcoming season (whenever it should start)? I mean who wants to keep reading about millionaires/billionaires argue over the money we’re giving them. Do they really not understand we provide 100% of the revenue they are bickering over? Do they not understand what is at stake here? I don’t care who gets 46% of BRI or who gets 54%, but I would normally pay you a good amount to see my Lakers play some ball or to have a “World Peace” Jersey you know? It’s just sickening

    • Susan Bible

      I hear you. Not sure how one could successfully organize a fan revolt, collectively, in 30 different cities. I’ve taken a lot of flak for my opinion, which is…”I don’t care how they work it out, just do it, so we can have a season.” But, don’t boycott our site! We still have plenty to share.

  5. Mario

    Hey,

    did you know Gordon Hayward is promoting Starcraft 2 (a video game, if you don’t know it)? He streams his games and did some clips and interviews to promote competetive gaming. He seems a pretty nice guy in those interviews, like a professional basketball nerd, very cool, you should check that out on youtube. Are there any other NBA players involved in gaming? Hayward named Fesenko for example.

    • Susan Bible

      I did hear about that. I found the video, and I agree, he seems totally down-to-earth and cool. It made me think about Paul Pierce recently taking part in the World Series of Poker or Russell Westbrook vs. Kevin Garnett in a recent Call of Duty event, but I haven’t heard of any others becoming professional gamers.

      You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard Thunder players making plans with each other in the locker room to play video games. Note – this only occurs after a win; when they lose, that place is like a morgue.

  6. LSO

    What Thunder players have gone overseas to play? When accord is reached and lockout over, why can’t the season start that day? I’m hearing that 1st few games w/b cancelled if no agreement by (is it?) Monday. I don’t understand this reasoning.

    • Susan Bible

      Morning, LSO! Each contract is different; some provide an “NBA Out” (meaning they can bolt as soon as the lockout ends), and some have signed overseas contracts for the whole season. Here’s a comprehensive list of players who have signed overseas: http://hoopshype.com/overseas.htm

      As for Thunder players, Byron Mullens and Robert Vaden have signed overseas contracts. Those who have expressed interest include Kevin Durant, Thabo Sefolosha and Serge Ibaka.

      NBA Commissioner David Stern said last week that if a tentative deal isn’t made by Monday, the first two weeks of the regular season would be cancelled.

  7. Dong of Dayton

    Hey Susan,

    Do you know if David West recovered from his knee injury last year. I’m trying to decide how high to rank him for fantasy basketball next season. Basketball monster projected him 24th in fantasy value, playing 78 games.

    • Susan Bible

      That ranking/value sounds about right. I did an article some weeks back about who wins in this lockout. (link: http://www.hoopsworld.com/nba-lockout-who-are-the-winners/) West was at the top of the list because the extra time to keep rehabbing is huge for him. West said in July that he’d be completely healthy in October. His physical therapist (who called the ACL tear a “clean injury”) is leaning more toward November. In any case, it’s great news, as initial reports indicated a January return.

  8. JC

    When looking across all teams, which position (1-5) scores the largest percentage of team points? I think its safe to say the 1 gets the highest percentage of assists and the 5 probably gets the highest percentage of rebounds, but it would be interesting to see how the scoring load is distributed.

    • Susan Bible

      I’ll bet you anything there’s some fancy website that provides this information with the strike of one key. However, I looked at the top twenty scorers from the 2010-11 and 2009-10 seasons, and here are the results of my VERY informal study:

      Forward – 20

      Guard – 12

      Center -3

      Forward/Center -4

      Guard/ Forward – 1

      I know this doesn’t exactly answer your question…..but it was fun to look at that. Looks like forwards scored the bulk over the last two years. (Note – As players handle multiple positions these days, it’s difficult to peg a concrete 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 position types, so for the sake of consistency, I took positions shown on NBA.com.)

  9. Renee

    What do the Miami heat need to do this offseason?

  10. tony

    Good morning Susan!!!

    I from Boston and I would love to see bos vs okc because of perks return…..should I wait to buy tickets because or the lockout or buy it now while the good seats are at a decent price?

    • Susan Bible

      Buy now…the teams will work out the details so that your money will apply to games, whenever they begin.

      Gotta tell you, I have really enjoyed getting to know Perk. He’s thoughtful and downright hilarious. He’s exactly the type of guy OKC needed, both in the locker room and on court. Much as I like Krstic, he wasn’t exactly an intimidating figure under the rim to opponents.

  11. Meagan Rosekrans

    where do you put the chances of no cancellation Monday? Of having a season at all? How do you see this playing out?

    • Susan Bible

      I still think we’ll have a season…albeit a shortened one. A January start is my bet.

  12. like a bull

    what wnba players can score with the best in the nba?

    • Susan Bible

      So sorry, I don’t follow the WNBA. I know certain names, but can’t answer that with confidence.

  13. justin

    Will there be a new cba this Monday?

  14. tony

    You guys understand how ridiculous it is to be this close to a deal and not do it right? I don’t think the owners care about fans period I think they want whats in our wallets but don’t care one bit about how we feel.

    • Susan Bible

      This morning I read the sides are roughly $120M apart — I agree, just get it done. Don’t risk the spurn of fans.

      Guys, thanks for participating! Now….OU/Texas! See you next week…