After watching some ten or so games this year, the Thunder is an improved team. Their defense has improved - both within the paint as well as the perimeter. They no longer have to double-team opposing power forwards and centers. Nazr, Kendrick, and Serge can hold their own one-on-one. This allows Durant and co. the luxury of focusing on the 3-point line.

Naz Muhammad was the best part of the trade so far. Agree that the Thunder is missing some inside scoring and they are pushing out harder on Westbbrook, Harden, and Durant. Also, none of our frontline players are scoring threats outside or inside. No kickouts or keeping the defense from sagging. Durant & Westbrook are taking much harder & more contested shots.

When Perkins gets a defensive rebound he needs to throw outlet passes much quicker. he looks like he's in slow motion and we are now always walking the ball up the court instead of getting mismatches and numbers.
Westbrook and Durant are open court players.

Slow day for the Picker I guess... they just beat the hottest team in the west at their place where they had won 10 straight. Perkins had 14 rebounds and, more than that, made sure Nugget bad boy Nene couldnt do anything he wanted to. Maybe Sam Presti is no one's sucker either. You can name the really good low post scorers in the NBA on one hand. As Kilgore said, the steal of the trade was Nazr Mahammed (sp?). Pick: who in the league has 4 legit big men in their rotation AND a two-headed superstar in the backcourt? With the emergence of Harden now that he is getting real minutes, the Thunder have all the pieces. It might not happen this year but KD is all of 22 years old...I think they have time on their side.

unfortunately, OKC cannot just go through the NBA and pick up who they want. have to trade for and/or pick up what is available. have they been perfect? obviously not, no one is. (my complaint has been and will continue to be harden/curry). was perkins trade bad? right up until they signed perkins to extension, yeah. had traded two offensive players, 1 they could not sign for 1 defensive player they had not signed (and boston could not sign).

as soon as he signed for long term. awesome. perkins still recovering from bad injury last year and minor scope this year. stamina will come. would nene have been better? sure, but not available. who else better and available--no one.

if westbrook learns how to pass consistently, perkins and nazr will score more. as long as he is committed to being an all star, regardless of team record, and takes air out of ball, they are limited.

okc larry: who is Steph Curry gonna guard? He weighs about 165 lbs.... Harden is playing great defense and is built like an NFL tailback and is averaging 17 ppg since the trade...

I see Perkins got his standard six last night.

Te question is this: Is the trade turning out to be as good as originally predicted? Versus the Lakers (and the Denver series is a toss-up!), won't some points be needed inside?

In the Masters, (come in Gene!), I'll take the Euros.

I have a considerable wager among gentlemen on Tiger going 0-4 in the majors this year, so all coins in the fountain will be approciated. The Masters will probably be his best shot.

IN regards to Sefolosha, is there an NBA starting 5 where all 5 are a threat to score?...didnt think so...

Since this picker perspective, the Thunder have beaten the Nuggets twice. The rebounding and defensive play of Perkins and Mohammed (not to mention the play of Ibaka and Collison) have raised the level of the Thunder. I like their chances of beating the Nuggets early and then getting a rest before taking on the Spurs. There is no better 2-deep rotation at every position in the league. I liked Krstic and Green, but the new "bigs" have given the Thunder a shot of getting to the finals.

Hey Picker, you should join Jim and Al on heehaw radio for the dominant duo. They're never right about anytnig either.

The Picker is obviously way off of the mark on this one, but I don't care that his opinion of the Thunder is absurd. Such uniformed opinions are innate components of an editorial column, like this one.

The thing that bothers me is that he writes factually incorrect things, and then offers no correction or retraction. The Sports Editor also does not correct such mistakes. The claim that Kendrick Perkins averages six or seven minutes is factually untrue.

If the Tulsa World continues allowing these errors to be published, I will not renew my TW subscription.