Friday Bolts - 11.14.08

Slightly new look today, as the centered version was getting a little crammed and making stories stretch out too much. So we'll see how this new layout goes. 

• Kevin Durant status is still up in the air for tonight.

• Bleacher Report has its All NBA Embarrassment team. Coach Peej is heading the list: "Carlesimo has no business coaching in the NBA. Sure, he put up some wins as the Portland Trailblazers head coach, but the Blazers were already a solid team when he was hired. He was let go by the Blazers and the Golden State Warriors picked him as their next head coach. In a little over a season as the Warriors coach, he went a combined 46-113 during that time. Now he's coaching the Seattle Sonics/Oklahoma City Thunder and is off to the same way he started as Warriors coach. So far his record as coach of the team in just over a full season is 21-68. Talk about embarrassing for a NBA team to pick him as a coach."

• Check out SI's Ian Thompson's interesting answer to this question: Is there a possibility that another franchise will relocate after what happened to the Sonics? My guess is Memphis. --- Sanjeev, Perth, Australia. My guess is the Nets, who have been trying to move to Brooklyn. If that falls through as many believe it will, then it will be no surprise if they are sold and the team is moved to another market. The other vulnerable franchises include New Orleans, Memphis and Charlotte (which appear unlikely to break its leases), as well as Sacramento and Milwaukee (which can escape). "The Nets aren't going to be moving to the Barclays Center, that's not happening,'' a rival NBA owner said of their proposed move to Brooklyn. "And they're losing money.'' (Very interesting. Crazy to think about the chain reaction effect the Sonics move to OKC could have. And even crazier to think about if Oklahoma City would have been more patient, could it have had it's pick between all those franchises? How ironic would it be for the Hornets to move to Seattle and Oklahoma City demi-god Chris Paul is a Sonic? Oh, the irony.) 

• OKC has been playing from behind all season writes Mike Baldwin: "The most sobering statistic? In half of its games, the Thunder has trailed by 20, 14, 10 or 8 points after one quarter. "We can’t do what we did against Utah and what we did against Orlando,” said coach P.J. Carlesimo. "It’s encouraging we get back into games, but we can’t keep digging holes.”

• A little pre-game warm up from the Thunderguru: "Friday night the OKC Thunder go to the Big Apple to play the resurrected New York Knicks. I say resurrected because the Knicks have been a very craptastic team for quite some time; they haven’t had a winning season since Jeff VanGundy was their coach in the 2000-01 season. Now they have Mike D’Antoni calling the shots, bringing his run and gun, high power mojo from Europe via the Phoenix Suns."
  

And high school playoffs start tonight. Go Mustang Broncos!