Darko not enough as Thunder drop pathetic T’wolves

It happened! Kendrick Perkins scored in double figures! I knew if I prayed enough it would happen. The Perkulator was part of a balanced attack that was too much for the hapless fellows from Minnesota. He was one of 7 team members to score in double figures as the Thunder big men were able to score all day inside.

Even Nazr Mohammed and Nick Collison 14 and 13 points apiece only missing a combined 3 shots. My favorite team member, the new chocolate thunder, aka Dr. Nasty, aka Serge Ibaka had another double double for the 3rd time in the last 4 games and added a couple blocks. The Timberwolves made the the Perkins/Mohammed combo look like the twin towers for the old Houston Rockets team with Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon.

I’d love to see a set of modern day twin towers but the fact is there are not many legit centers with much skill anymore. How about something like Dwight Howard with Andrew Bynum? That would be a sight to see. Dwight Howard and Yao Ming, pre injury of course would have been incredible. Unfortunately we will probably see nothing like this again other then Perkins and Nick Collison on the court together.

I just read an excerpt out of Olajuwon’s autobiography saying that he had heard the Bulls wanted Ralph Sampson who was drafted in 83 for their draft pick which was number 3 overall. The Rockets declined, instead trying for the twin towers look. If the Rockets had made that trade they would have got Hakeem and Jordan in the same draft. I can’t think of a better set of players on any team in NBA history.

Back to the game. Minnesota was led by Anthony Randolph, who has had 2 monster performances in row, scoring 24 points and 15 boards. This guy got absolutely no run on the Knicks this year before the Melo trade? He has always been a freak athlete with incredible “length” and many people, including myself, thought he would be perfect for the Knicks offense. Of course he goes to Minnesota and kills it. I never understand this. How can a coach leave a guy with that much ability on the bench?

Michael Beasley chipped in with 20 and 8 but was only 8/18 from the field. He has steadily declined this year after a strong start. I’m always rooting for the guy but not sure if he will ever become an all-star level player. He smokes to much weed. This guy, for most of his freshmen season at Kansas state was considered to be the number 1 overall pick over Derrick Rose. Looks like Chicago made the right choice there. It must hurt getting shipped from south beach over to Minnesota, land of the largest mall in America, and not much else. Yep, they even have a roller coaster in that mall. Sweet.

Darko, Darko, Darko. The man who will always be remembered for being drafted ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade. I was speaking to my esteemed colleague D-rich today about how any general manager could ever make that decision. Detroit was a good team at the time with Tayshaun Prince at small forward. How could you pass on Carmelo in that draft? He had just carried Syracuse to a national title as a freshmen! Prince seemed like the perfect type of player to come off the bench. Dumars was given a lot of credit for putting together that team that won a title and made another finals the following year but should have been fired for making this move. Pass on a sure thing superstar for a teenage european player? I remember ESPN putting Darko on the cover of their magazine, saying us fans needed to know about this guy. Well we know now. There have been a ton of busts in NBA history but taking this guy over 3 possible future hall of famers must hurt Dumars worse then a bad case of hemorrhoids.

However, he somehow managed to score 16 points tonight on a supposed great defender in Kendrick Perkins. Maybe he will still end up better then Melo, Wade, or Bosh……or maybe he’ll end up back in Europe before the age of 30 going down as the biggest non injury bust in NBA history, and he wins that award in my book only for the players that where taken after him. Nobody though Wade would be as good as he is now so passing on him is understandable but Melo? Bosh was about the same size as Darko, just with more range on his shot, and guess what he’s not white! You know my rules about white guys in the lottery. The success rate must be below 5 percent. I’m going to do a study on it. I know he’s not an American white guy but still.

It was Oklahoma City’s 11th win in 13 games as they are rolling into the playoffs. The fact that Minnesota managed to stay close for 3/4 of the game worries me. Especially considering Kevin Love didn’t play. I’m thinking they where just playing down to their competition as they ended up dominating the end of the game.

Oh I forgot to mention Luke Ridnour used to play for this franchise when they were the Seattle Supersonics. You know before Howard Schultz sold the team to a guy he knew was going to move the team away. We’ll touch on that subject another day. Back to Ridnour. I’ll never forget the draft when the Sonics made the Cardinal sin of drafting not 1 but 2 American born white players in the same draft. Did they really think it would work out? To their credit there was nobody much better available except for maybe David West, who by the way just cost himself about 70 mill guaranteed by tearing his ACL last night. Peep this video for true white boy ballin. There’s still hope! Not really.

The Thunder need some butter because they are on a roll heading into the playoffs. I’m betting they make the finals this year. Thunder fans unite. If you take anything from this post, let it be this; Never bet on white.