Tramel's ScissorTales: Thunder's defensive collapse means NBA Draft lottery odds are improving
In the glorious decade of the ‘10s, the Thunder allowed at least 132 points in regulation only six times.
In the last three games, the Thunder has averaged allowing 132 points – losses of 138-101 to Minnesota, 116-103 to Utah and 142-115 to Milwaukee, the latter Tuesday night in Paycom Center.
Where have you gone, Luguentz Dort? Or Kenrich Williams, for that matter.
Dort and Williams are part of the Thunder's injury brigade, and Dort won’t be coming back, not this season anyway, after having shoulder surgery. And the defense has collapsed without their defensive leader.
Only once before, last April 2, 3 and 5, has a Thunder team allowed at least 396 points in regulation over a three-game span. Last April, the Thunder lost to Phoenix 140-103, Portland 133-85 and Detroit 132-108 over the course of four days.
The Thunder’s defense has been quite solid most of this season. OKC is 30th, dead last, in offensive efficiency, averaging 100.9 points per 100 possessions. But the Thunder’s defense has hovered around the top 10 much of the season.
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Now OKC has dipped into a three-way tie for 12th in defensive efficiency, at 107.9 per 100 possessions.
And that’s not bad news. The defensive collapse figures to get the Thunder where it wants to go in this tanking season.
The Thunder is 20-45, good for fourth place in the upside down NBA standings. OKC wants as good a standing as possible in the NBA Draft lottery. And the Thunder’s chances look brighter than at any time this season.
OKC is 20-45. Indiana (22-45) is two games up in the win column. Detroit (18-47) has climbed within two games of the Thunder. So the Thunder is about as close to third as to fifth, and the bottom (top?) three teams have an equal chance of landing the overall No. 1 pick.
The Thunder was non-competitive earlier this season, but that had changed. OKC through the middle part of the season was playing tough. The Thunder produced a three-game winning streak starting January 1, then later knocked off the Knickerbockers, Pacers and Nuggets, the latter in Denver when the Nuggets were hot.
But this three-game losing streak has ensued with the defensive collapse. And that could mirror what happened a year ago.
Last April 2, the Thunder was 20-27 and had just the ninth-worst record in the NBA. Then came that defensive collapse, signaling a stretch run in which the Thunder would struggle.
OKC won only two of its final 25 games, finishing 22-50, tying for the fourth-worst record, though the lottery luck wasn’t kind. The Thunder settled for the sixth pick.
The same kind of defensive meltdown seems to have arrived, with good reason. No Dort. No Williams. Scant few sightings of Derrick Favors. The Thunder can’t match up with most teams.
OKC has been playing without four of its top five players: Dort, Williams, Josh Giddey and Mike Muscala.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been holding up the fort with incredible offense. But even a one-man show can’t counter this kind of defense.
It’s historically bad defense for the Thunder. And that’s good news for OKC’s lottery chances.
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Bud Wilkinson explains military football
All my life, I’ve heard the terms. Jacksonville Naval Air Station. Iowa Pre-Flight. Great Lakes Naval.
They were military training grounds during World War II that sported football teams, and they had a huge impact on the history of OU football.
World War II football is where Bud Wilkinson and Jim Tatum teamed up. After the war, they came to OU together, Tatum as head coach and Wilkinson as chief lieutenant, then a year later Wilkinson took over and launched the Sooner dynasty.
World War II football was a big thing. The final 1944 Associated Press poll included not just No. 3 Army and No. 6 Navy, but No. 2 North Carolina Pre-Flight, No. 4 Randolph Field, No. 5 Great Lakes Navy, No. 11 Iowa Pre-Flight and No. 15 Second Air Force.
Why were military teams included in college football polls? I don’t know. Why were military teams playing college football teams? Convenience, I assume.
But what exactly were these teams? Why did they exist? Why was Bud Wilkinson coaching football while a member of the U.S. military?
Wilkinson tells us why. The ScissorTales continues a series of Wilkinson interviews conducted by Georgia historian Loran Smith some four decades ago. Smith shared the transcripts with me, and I’m sharing them with you.
And Wilkinson today explains military football.
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“Well, we were just assigned (Iowa) Preflight. Bernie Bierman of Minnesota had been the coach the previous year, then moved on. I don’t know familiar you are with the B-5 program. Tom Hamilton sold a guy named Admiral Radford on the B-5 program. It was a totally different concept.
“The theory was that you’re going to spend an awful lot of money training a naval aviator, and if the guy wasn’t competitive and wouldn’t fight when he was out there in his plane, you had wasted your money. So we should have a program where we find out who’s a competitor before we start spending the money to teach them to fly.
“These kids all wanted to be a Naval aviator, so we had our pick of the best kids – college athletes, pro athletes, high school athletes. They were the cadets coming through the pre-flight program. It was total military, but the class work consisted of competitive athletics. They took boxing, wrestling and swimming – everybody had to do that. Soccer, football, baseball, the whole thing. They would go to, I think it was, four hours of class in the morning in these various sports and be graded on their progress.
“Everything was march to someplace. There was a drill in the afternoon, and they had three courses that were academic – one was recognition, which was the silhouette of Japanese airplanes; the other was meteorology; and the third was learn the Morse Code. Other than that, it was just this competitive program, and when the class day is over, now you went into your battalion teams and were in a competitive athletic program. Whatever the season was. Then at night, you studied and got up the next day.
“Toughest physical program that will ever happen. It was a 12-week program. We lost a battalion every two weeks and got a battalion every two weeks. Moon Mullins was another one of the coaches.
“Tatum, (Don) Faurot, two or three other people, but we three were the guys that were kind of in charge, Faurot really being totally in charge.”
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The List: Best quarterbacks to be traded
The Seattle Seahawks have traded Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos. National Football League teams clamor for a franchise quarterback, so it’s always stunning when a star QB gets traded.
But it once was much more common than it is now. Here are the 10 best quarterbacks to be traded in NFL history. The list is based on the quality of the quarterback AT THE TIME OF THE TRADE. In other words, a 40-year-old, shell-of-himself Johnny Unitas going from the Colts to the Chargers does not count.
1. Bobby Layne: The Lions traded Layne to Pittsburgh early in the 1958 season. The 32-year-old Layne had made all-pro lists four times, including 1956, and had quarterbacked Detroit to three NFL titles, including 1957. Detroit got young quarterback Earl Morrall (a good player) and two high draft picks. The Steelers were dismal franchise in the 1950s, but under Layne, they went 27-19-2. The Lions have won one playoff game since that trade.
2. Fran Tarkenton: Tark had quarterbacked the Vikings their first six years in the league, then was traded to the Giants. In New York, Tarkenton became a star, making four Pro Bowls in four years and all-pro in 1970 and 1971. But in 1972, the Giants traded Tarkenton back to Minnesota, for quarterback Norm Snead, halfback Vince Clements, wide receiver Bob Grim and two high draft picks. Tarkenton went on to quarterback the Vikes to three Super Bowls and made four all-pro teams.
3. Sonny Jurgensen: In 1964, the Eagles traded the 30-year-old Jurgensen and defensive back Jimmy Carr to Washington for Norm Snead (what was the attraction of Snead?) and defensive back Claude Crabb. Jurgensen had made all-pro in 1961. He became an even bigger star in D.C., making all-pro four times and leading a Washington football revival.
4. Russell Wilson: Wilson is 33, was all-pro in 2019 and is one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks. You don’t see trades like this anymore. Denver gave up quarterback Drew Locke (the new Norm Snead?), tight end Noah Fant, defensive lineman Shelby Harris, two first-round picks and two second-round picks.
5. Norm Van Brocklin: The Rams traded the 32-year-old Van Brocklin to the Eagles, for offensive tackle Buck Lansford, defensive back Jimmy Harris (of OU fame) and a first-round draft pick. Van Brocklin was a three-time all-pro. His performance had dipped a little, but it didn’t dip in Philly. Van Brocklin made the Pro Bowl his first two Eagle seasons, then led Philadelphia to the 1960 NFL title, was named league most valuable player and retired a champion.
6. Warren Moon: Moon was 38 when the Houston Oilers traded him to Minnesota in 1994, for two fourth-round draft picks. Moon was getting old, but he still produced three quality seasons with the Vikings.
7. Brett Favre: We now think of Green Bay trading the 39-year-old Favre as a no-brainer. But that’s with 13 seasons of Aaron Rodgers in the rearview mirror. Favre had made an all-pro list in 2007 and was an NFL institution. But in 2008, he was traded to the Jetropolitans for a third-round draft pick. Favre played three more mostly-successful seasons. Rodgers, initially vilified in Green Bay for chasing away Favre, eventually won over the Packer fans.
8. John Hadl: Hadl was an American Football League star with the Chargers and remained an elite quarterback in the days after the merger, making the Pro Bowl in 1972. But San Diego traded the 33-year-old Hadl to the Rams in 1973 for defensive end Coy Bacon and running back Bob Thomas. Hadl had a monster season for the ‘73 Rams, making all-pro, then his career went splat fast.
9. Jay Cutler: I know, Cutler soon became a punchline. And nobody remembers Cutler as a quality quarterback. But at age 26, he had quarterbacked Denver for three years, had made the 2008 Pro Bowl and was considered a rising star. Then the Broncos traded Cutler to Chicago for quarterback Kyle Orton and two first-round picks. Cutler was disgruntled because new Bronco coach Josh McDaniels had tried to acquire Matt Cassel in a trade. Everyone missed on this one. Cassel was not in Cutler’s class as a quarterback, but Cutler didn’t progress into stardom.
10. Roman Gabriel: An 11-year Ram, Gabriel had become a star, making all-pro in 1969. But in 1972, he played through an injury-marred season and the Rams got antsy. They traded for Hadl and sent Gabriel to Philadelphia for wide receiver Harold Jackson, running back Tony Baker, two first-round draft picks and a third-round pick. Gabriel made the Pro Bowl with the 1973 Eagles, but his skills quickly diminished.
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Kansas City travelblog: Seeing Porter Moser at Garozzo’s
Since Porter Moser was hired last April, I’ve been in his presence once. Last August, we sat together, quite by accident, at the state of Oklahoma basketball reunion hosted by John Hudson.
I thoroughly enjoyed getting to chat with Moser, who was incredibly personable. Very impressive.
Since then, none. All OU basketball press conferences are via Zoom, and I’m told that Moser doesn’t even see his interviewers. Plus, the media sits up high now at Lloyd Noble Center, so when I go to an OU game, there isn’t much chance for interaction.
The Big 12 Tournament starts Wednesday night, and while the locker rooms are closed via Covid, the press conferences are live. So we’ll at least get to talk to Moser live.
But OU writer Justin Martinez and I got a sneak peek. We ran into Moser at Garozzo’s, my favorite restaurant in the world.
J-Mart and I left Norman about 2:30 p.m., and J-Mart drove us to Kansas City. He joined our staff last summer. He grew up in San Antonio, went to the University of Texas, worked in the outposts of Minot, North Dakota, and Las Cruces, New Mexico, and now covers the Sooners for us.
I worked all the way to KC, and we drove straight to Garozzo’s, the iconic Italian joint in old Columbus Park, just off downtown. I’ve written about Garozzo’s many times. I hadn’t been since August 2020, so I was ready.
As we pulled up, we saw two buses, and I immediately knew it was basketball. Turns out, one of the buses was OU’s.
The Sooners were just leaving as we waited a couple of minutes for a table. So we got to say hello to Moser, who is new to OU but apparently knows the ropes well enough to take his team to Garozzo’s.
Kansas State’s team was eating upstairs. OSU has made Garozzo’s a tournament spot going well back to the Eddie Sutton day, though sadly, there will be no Cowboys in Kansas City this week.
J-Mart never had been to Garozzo’s, so it’s always fun to break someone in on steak modiga, to go with a side of pasta and a tremendous salad. The food, the ambience, the service. All outstanding, as always.
We then checked into our hotel, the downtown Courtyard, which is the new media host. They’ve moved us from the Marriott, I assume to get us away from teams and conference officials. But that’s OK. We’ll see them at the arena. Or even at Garozzo’s.
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Mailbag: Russell Westbrook criticism
Russell Westbrook is doubling down on his lightning-rod status. Westbrook foolishly took issue with fans chanting “Westbrick” the other night after another futile Laker game.
Cameron: “I understand the criticism. I don’t agree with all the criticism. He is a quality person raising a quality family. He plays with passion and is a credit to the human race. I am not talking about criticism from you, I am just saying I am a Westbrook fan, and think he has been done dirty by people. My one cent.”
Tramel: Sorry, I can’t agree. Westbrook is a lot like Bobby Knight. He demands respect from people but refuses to reciprocate. I have written about how I feel sorry for Westbrook, because of his eroding basketball status and how difficult that must be to deal with.
I feel even more empathy for Westbrook now, because of his clear character issues. Is Westbrook a quality person? I don’t know, and neither does Cameron. In many ways, Westbrook clearly is a jerk and a bully.
A former Thunder person called me yesterday, to talk about Westbrook’s incredible lack of self-awareness, and how the organization probably is to blame for exacerbating the problem. I would agree.
The good news? He’s somebody else’s problem now.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder defensive collapse improves NBA draft lottery odds
