Thunder Rumors & News

Sportsnaut "NBA trade rumors will soon start picking up steam now that what promises to be an event-filled offseason is on the horizon. Some teams will look to move off expensive stars as a way to save cash. Others are going to go all in with their championship windows still wide..." May 16

Fadeaway World "There are many things that go into winning a basketball game. But at the core of the game, you have to score more points than the opposing team. Scoring is one of the most important skills in basketball, and the ability to get buckets in a variety of ways is crucial to being a good..." May 16

Bleacher Report "The much-anticipated class of 2020 was finally enshrined in a ceremony at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday.  Boasting arguably the most star-studded enshrinees in history, the nine-person class was headlined by Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. They were..." May 16

The Score "While only one day remains in the 2020-21 NBA regular season, a lot still needs to be settled. The top spot in the Western Conference remains up for grabs, and the play-in tournament matchups aren't locked in yet. Nearly all of Sunday's games have significant..." May 16

CBS Sports "Zion Williamson had played 70 NBA games before the New Orleans Pelicans' coaching staff decided it was time. He had already evolved into a perimeter playmaker, even initiating the offense in certain situations. On April 9, though, with Lonzo Ball out with a hip injury,..." May 16

NBA.com "The Oklahoma City Thunder has signed guard Charlie Brown Jr. to a multi-year contract, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti. Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not released. Brown signed his first 10-Day Contract with the Thunder..." May 16

Hoops Rumors "Ahead of Sunday’s official announcement, two names of the 2021 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class have been reported: Ben Wallace and Paul Pierce. Sources told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated that the legendary defensive stalwart Wallace will be..." May 15

Larry Brown Sports "After over five decades of calling NBA action, Marv Albert is calling it a career. According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, Albert has decided to retire from his broadcasting duties at the end of the NBA Playoffs. A formal announcement is expected soon from Albert, and..." May 15

CBS Sports "With just a few days left in the regular season, and all but two playoff seeds still up for grabs, most of the NBA is focused firmly on the here and now. But it's never too early to start looking ahead to the future, and the league office is already making plans to address some key issues..." May 15

Hoops Rumors "Throughout the season, Hoops Rumors takes a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents this off-season. We examine if their stock is rising or falling due to performance and other factors. This week, we take a look at players from the Northwest..." May 15

Bleacher Report "Can the Los Angeles Lakers move up to the No. 6 seed and avoid going to the play-in tournament? Or will the Portland Trail Blazers hold them off, giving the defending NBA champions a longer path back to the postseason? That's the biggest question remaining following..." May 15

Hoops Rumors "The NBA and its players union are considering changes to the league’s health and safety protocols after an announcement this week from the Centers for Disease Control, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The CDC issued a statement Thursday that “fully..." May 14

The Athletic "I love Ethan Strauss’ recent series of columns on NBA ratings for a few reasons. First, they’re always fun reads because Strauss has an entertaining style of prose. Second, I’m a media nerd so I inhale any and all information in this realm. And third, it’s..." May 14

Fadeaway World "It’s decision time. Each NBA team will make severe tough choices over the 2021 offseason that could determine the direction of the franchise. Some of the decisions are more critical than others, but that’s just the nature of the business. Read..." May 13

Sports Keeda "Russell Westbrook only recently recorded his 182nd triple-double to become the all-time leader in this category. Westbrook's showing no signs of slowing down either, making it feasible for him to exceed 200 or even 250 triple-doubles before he decides to officially ride off..." May 13

Pro Basketball Talk "After its worst week with coronavirus in two months – four new cases, which followed weeks of three and two – the NBA has returned to a more manageable number. NBA release: Of the 497 players tested for COVID-19 since May..." May 13

ESPN "The NBA has created a new award in honor of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the league's all-time leading scorer and a noted civil rights activist, that will recognize a player who best embodies his strive for social justice and racial equality, the league announced Thursday. The winner..." May 13

Bleacher Report "The NBA trade deadline is, in hindsight, often a land of what-ifs and regrets. Sometimes teams get in trouble by acquiring the wrong player, overpaying on the trade market or choosing the wrong direction for their franchise's future. For other teams, though, the worst..." May 12

Blazer's Edge "The lead up to the 2021 NBA Draft will feature an in-person combine this year. Unlike last year’s virtual combine, the top prospects in the 2021 class are set to take center stage in Chicago near the end of June. The Athletic’s Shams Charania provided an..." May 12

Bleacher Report "Entrenched stars are not typically saddled with the burden of proof during the NBA's regular season. Their value amongst one another can be divisive, but it's a given overall. Issues with their games are, usually, matters of split hairs; otherwise they wouldn't be..." May 12

ESPN "It's time for the 10th Annual Luke Walton All-Stars, honoring journeymen and guys who have fought to stick in the NBA. Bruce Brown, Brooklyn Nets (captain) Brown walked into the Detroit Pistons practice facility in November when his..." May 12

Fadeaway World "It is not easy for former All-Star players to accept a bit-part role. We have seen throughout NBA history that players don't respond to that well, and it often goes bad. We have seen how a legend like Allen Iverson failed to accept a smaller role and that effectively ended his time in the..." May 12

Hoops Rumors "When Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer shared his early All-NBA picks this week, he rightly pointed out that limiting the field to 15 players will leave a number of worthy candidates on the outside looking in. O’Connor had to exclude worthy contenders such as Devin..." May 11

Clutch Points "Russell Westbrook just became the triple-double king by surpassing Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson for the most triple-doubles in NBA history. Albeit coming in a tough 1-point loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, the Washington Wizards star notched career triple-double no. 182 to take..." May 11

Hoops Rumors "Although the races for the final playoff positions in the Eastern and Western Conference will generate more excitement during the last week of the NBA’s 2020/21 season, the jockeying for lottery positioning near the bottom of the league’s standings may ultimately be more meaningful..." May 10

NBA.com "NBA referee Tony Brown will not officiate the rest of the regular season nor during the 2021 NBA Playoffs after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last month. “Tony is a beloved member of the NBA family, and in particular, our officiating family,” said Monty McCutchen,..." May 10

Total Pro Sports "This is the type of content social media was created for. On Sunday, Twitter user @DaMightyChiefs took to the popular social media site and created a hilarious thread comparing some of the biggest NBA players to popular porn stars For LeBron James, he compared to Abella..." May 10

Sportsnaut "Regardless of what happens moving forward on the season, the Golden State Warriors will be looking to pull off a blockbuster trade during the summer. With Klay Thompson slated to return to full health during the 2021-22 campaign and Stephen Curry playing at an..." May 09

Bleacher Report "After winning the NBA title last season, the Los Angeles Lakers are in a bit of trouble as this year's playoffs draws closer. And if they don't turn things around soon, their appearance in the 2020-21 postseason could be brief. The Lakers fell to the Portland Trail Blazers on..." May 09

The Oklahoman "Back in a wild November when the Thunder had 20 or more names listed on its roster, Kenrich Williams wasn’t a lock to make the team. Or at least it didn’t seem that way.  Williams came to Oklahoma City primarily as salary filler in the four-team mega trade..." May 09

Hoops Rumors "The NBA’s rookie scale, which determines how much first-round picks earn during their first four NBA seasons, also dictates how much the qualifying offers will be worth for those players when they reach restricted free agency after year four. However, the value of those..." May 07

ESPN "IT WAS NOV. 5, 2017, game nine for the newly formed superteam in Oklahoma City. After a bumpy 4-4 start, the Thunder were in Portland to take on a division rival. Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts had taken his spot in the narrow hallway of the Moda Center pregame to talk with..." May 07

The Score "It's tough for the average fan to keep up with all 30 NBA teams at any point in the season, especially in these final days when some teams are clearly out of the race and playing for nothing. But while you're ignoring some of those afterthought clubs, you might miss the start of a..." May 07

Basketball News "Over the years, the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament has given thousands of NBA hopefuls an opportunity to showcase their game in front of executives from all 30 teams. The event has featured NBA legends such as John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, Tim Hardaway, Dennis Rodman, Rick Barry and..." May 07

Fadeaway World "The Los Angeles Lakers are a team that may be looking at some changes this summer. They have a lot of players who will be free agents during the summer, and point guard Dennis Schroder is one of them. If he leaves, then the Los Angeles Lakers would need to find a good replacement, one that..." May 06

Bleacher Report "Young talent is the hottest commodity in the NBA. It's cheap, it has upside (which means hope for the fanbase), it's easier to control for long periods of time, and it comes with built-in retention advantages—like larger raises on new deals and matching rights in..." May 06

The Score "Only 1% of defensive three-second violations have been called correctly in the final two minutes of close games since the start of the 2015-16 NBA season, Owen Phillips writes for The F5 newsletter. Using publicly available data from the league's last-two-minute reports,..." May 06

ESPN "How does the NBA play-in tournament work and which teams will participate during the 2020-21 season? The league first tested the play-in round during the 2020 NBA restart in Orlando, Florida, with the Portland Trail Blazers topping the Memphis..." May 06

Bleacher Report "Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander suffered a "significant tear" in his plantar fascia, according to head coach Mark Daigneault. "It's not something that you should really mess around with," Daigneault told..." May 05

Yardbarker "While some high-profile players and team owners have griped about the NBA’s newly introduced play-in tournament, the format is working “spectacularly well” and has virtually no downside, contends John Hollinger of The Athletic. As Hollinger..." May 05

Welcome To Loud City "The Oklahoma City Thunder have signed Charlie Brown Jr. to a second 10-day contract, the team announced in a statement on Wednesday.  Brown Jr. originally signed with the Thunder on April 25 for his first 10-day contract. Since then, he has played in three games for OKC and is..." May 05

Hoops Rumors "Of the 492 NBA players tested for COVID-19 since April 28, four players have registered new confirmed positive tests, the league and the players’ union announced today in a press release. The NBA and NBPA don’t publicly disclose which specific players test positive..." May 05

The Athletic "As the NBA playoffs near and the offseason looms ahead, several head coaching situations are perilous. Others, meanwhile, are less precarious but wrought with the kind of complicated internal dynamics that make them worth monitoring. This has been an unordinary season due to the..." May 05

Sporting News "Brace yourselves, basketball fans. The 2021 NBA playoffs are almost here. There is an added level of intrigue this year with the league implementing a new version of the play-in tournament, which was first seen inside the Florida "bubble" amid the COVID-19..." May 05

Bleacher Report "Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander suffered a "significant tear" in his plantar fascia, according to head coach Mark Daigneault. "It's not something that you should really mess around with," Daigneault told..." May 04

Sportsnaut "The 2020-21 NBA regular season is slated to come to a culmination here in less than two weeks. It’s been a drama-filled past several months with the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers looking nothing like a title contender. Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics are on the hot seat down..." May 04

Bleacher Report "Entering a season knowing your favorite NBA team is rebuilding is one thing. Fully expecting a playoff run only to end up with a spot in the lottery is quite another. No franchises have been as disappointing this year as the Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors,..." May 04

The Athletic "It’s amazing how opinions on the play-in tournament change once a team realizes it might be them in the seventh or eighth seed. Both Mark Cuban (earlier this season) and LeBron James (two days ago) expressed disgust with the NBA’s play-in tournament at..." May 04

The Athletic "When “The Marvel Game” was announced, the general reaction around NBA fandom, at least as much as Twitter is representative was “Who is this for?” We’ve been calling for more basketball in basketball broadcasts for years, and this is going the other way. But the..." May 04

USA Today "This NBA coach has a winning percentage this season of .677, third-best in the conference. In the games he has coached this season, his team has the third-best fourth-quarter net rating and his team has won 85% of its games decided by five or fewer points. And his team, after..." May 03