Thursday Bolts - 12.18.08

• According to HoopsWorld, OKC is listening to offers for its big men: "The Oklahoma City Thunder have big men to spare, and are rumored to be listening to offers for Joe Smith, Chris Wilcox, and maybe even Nick Collison. The problem there is that the last thing they need is another small forward." - With Joe Smith not playing Tuesday night simply because there just wasn't room for him on the floor, I'm thinking something is going to happen soon.

• Rick Kamla of NBA.com says the coaching axe reminds him of a horror movie: "The Thunder's P.J. Carlesimo was the curmudgeon cop who harassed the young couple having fun in the back of the van. He gets ruthlessly rubbed out early in act one to establish that this boogeyman means business."

• I love these House of Hoops ads by Foot Locker. Here's the Kevin Durant one:

• Trying times for the young Thunder, writes Art Garcia: "The losses continue to mount and so does the frustration. On pace for the worst record in NBA history, with its head coach already fired, can anyone fault the Oklahoma City Thunder for sinking into the depths of basketball depression? Teams go through bad seasons. This is a disaster."

• Russell Westbrook stays in David Thorpe's top 10 rookies: "Being a phenomenal athlete alone is not enough to be a great defensive player in this league. It takes an active mind and a willingness to study. Consider this action by Westbrook in Dallas: He was defending the weakside, with J.J. Barea in his corner and Devean George on the wing, both behind the 3-point line, while Erick Dampier had the ball in the high post. Westbrook cut off the simple pass to George, going for a steal, and left open the corner pass to Barea. Did he do the right thing, considering the corner 3 is the easiest shot worth 3 points (based on distance)? Barea was shooting 40.9 percent from 3 going into the game, while George was at 35 percent. But it would be a mistake to just look at those numbers in the scouting report. Barea was just 1-for-4 from that left corner, up to that point, and George was 1-for-3 from the wing. Small sample sizes, yes, but nothing alarming enough to convince Westbrook to stay with Barea. So the risk was worth it. And even though Westbrook did not get the steal, Barea did miss the shot."

• Tom Ziller writes about Kevin Durant's silent breakthrough: "[Kevin] Pelton has all the numbers, and I encourage you to check them out. It's certainly a promising sign. From the cheap seats, Brooks' 1-12 record makes it seem like there's been no improvement. But quietly, Durant's becoming the player we'd dreamt of. And it's all because Brooks has put some other shooters on the floor with him."

• The Lost Ogle's gives us Peace, Love and Thunderstanding, moral victory edition: "I took a week off from writing a formulaic Peace, Love and Thunderstanding column and instead let Patrick post fifteen ideas for improving the Thunder experience. While that article was well received, the real reason for the delay was hope that the team might give me something to write about if I gave them an extra week to do something. Since the last true P, L & T ran, would anyone like to guess how many times the Oklahoma City Thunder have won a game? Here’s a hint, there have been seven games since that point."