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The writing was on the wall when Byron Mullens was on the bench in warmups and Cole Aldrich was wearing a suit, but now it's official. Cole Aldrich is going to the D-League.

Honestly, I think it's best for him. He won't see minutes here with Nick Collison healthy, and obviously he's got things to work on. It stinks that we spent $6M on Morris Peterson's carcass for little to no immediate return, but hopefully Aldrich will learn something in Tulsa and contribute later on.

http://www.nba.com/thunder/news/release ... 01124.html

Minutes are never a bad thing. And he wasn't getting any up here let him go down there and find his legs.

He will figure it out. This team needs to find it's identity though. I think the Thunder are still trying to figure out who they are as a team.

"The (Blunder) are set at center for the next ten years."
- A Wiffler classic

Dick Tate wrote:"The (Blunder) are set at center for the next ten years."
- A Wiffler classic

Dick you are so predictable, I knew you were going to say that, as soon as I saw that you stooped to this level to treat us with your presence.

Now if you would just get off the bar then I could buy another drink.




And can you please put a shirt on for Christ sakes.

wiff wrote:

Dick Tate wrote:"The (Blunder) are set at center for the next ten years."
- A Wiffler classic

Dick you are so predictable, I knew you were going to say that, as soon as I saw that you stooped to this level to treat us with your presence.

Now if you would just get off the bar then I could buy another drink.




And can you please put a shirt on for Christ sakes.

LMFAO

I think it's a good idea. I'm big about using the D-League as a farm system. I think it works. You give your players minutes and probably more one on one development.

I saw him do well against Al Jeff vs. UTA... whats the deal here? Every time I saw him I thought he did OK, fouled a little too much but as a backup C, that's usually OK.

FireNellieQuick wrote:I saw him do well against Al Jeff vs. UTA... whats the deal here? Every time I saw him I thought he did OK, fouled a little too much but as a backup C, that's usually OK.

A lot of Thunder fans are as confused as you are. He won't get time ahead of Nick Collison, but big man depth is never a bad thing; I'd rather have Aldrich available than Mullens.

There is some speculation that maybe he's goofing around too much. On another Thunder site, a fan pointed out that Aldrich was throwing up half court shots and goofing around pre-game. Considering his reputation at Kansas, I'm not sure I buy that theory.

Either way it's weird. Ibaka spent zero time in D-League last year, and Aldrich is at least as NBA ready as Ibaka was.

Maybe this is Brooks' call and he wants to reward seniority.

Is it because DJ White enters his 3rd season and cannot be assigned to D-League? But I've to say currently DJ White plays better than Cole.

im kinda on the fence on this one. i like it for the fact he is getting minutes and his not wasting away on the bench. but this team was all about defense last season and this guys wants to play defense yet we are not giving him a chance? i dont get it.

slick_watts wrote:

FireNellieQuick wrote:Either way it's weird. Ibaka spent zero time in D-League last year, and Aldrich is at least as NBA ready as Ibaka was.

Ibaka spent 1 year overseas after the thunder drafted him. He played in france i think , don't quote me on that . I think that the D-Leagues is good for cole to pick up the speed of the game. If he can go down there and dominate like Dj White did averaging 20+ pts and 11+ rebs in the D-League and now he is looking good in the rotation until he twisted his ankle last night. Cole will be fine and be called up in a few games or so if he takes care of business.

MoeRoadKill wrote:im kinda on the fence on this one. i like it for the fact he is getting minutes and his not wasting away on the bench. but this team was all about defense last season and this guys wants to play defense yet we are not giving him a chance? i dont get it.

Cole has to learn the Rotations , this is not college where he can camp out in the paint and just block everything. NBA is big on pick and roll so he has to learn how to slide his feet better so he won't foul so much. He fouled out of a couple preseason game in less than 20 mins.

Sounds like Aldrich is going to be recalled to the Thunder. Probably has a lot to do with DJ White's injury.

Thunder4 wrote:

slick_watts wrote:

FireNellieQuick wrote:Either way it's weird. Ibaka spent zero time in D-League last year, and Aldrich is at least as NBA ready as Ibaka was.

Ibaka spent 1 year overseas after the thunder drafted him. He played in france i think , don't quote me on that . I think that the D-Leagues is good for cole to pick up the speed of the game. If he can go down there and dominate like Dj White did averaging 20+ pts and 11+ rebs in the D-League and now he is looking good in the rotation until he twisted his ankle last night. Cole will be fine and be called up in a few games or so if he takes care of business.

He played for Spain, Le'Hospiatet or something. He played in their 2nd league for one year, then got drafted, then played for Ricoh Manresa.

I think the difference between the two is that Ibaka has that freakish athleticism that allows him to make mistakes and recover from them. Aldrich relied a lot on smarts and timing in college, so he'll need time to adjust to the NBA. Not unlike Joakim Noah, IMO.

Looks like we flipped him with BJ the eternal prospect

Cole with a 20/16 today in a loss. Only 2 fouls!!!! He has drastically reduced his fouls too, so he is learning. He is averaging 9.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.4 steals, and 2.4 blocks per game.

dream_catcher_9 wrote:Cole with a 20/16 today in a loss. Only 2 fouls!!!! He has drastically reduced his fouls too, so he is learning. He is averaging 9.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.4 steals, and 2.4 blocks per game.

It's great that Cole is doing better. But let's put those numbers into some perspective:

Dexter Pittman: 15 / 8 / 2 on similar minutes
Marcus Cousin: 15 / 8 / 1 on similar minutes

This is a league where Sean Williams is a star...

I hope Cole can continue to dominate the boards. I want him leading the league in rebounding per minute, or close to it. He's 15th in rebounding per minute among qualified players in the D-League.

The only thing that jump out to me at that post were the 2 fouls.
But frankly, his immediate concern should be on reducing fouls, defence and rebounding. As a defensive center he probably won't be taking too much shot to be averaging 10 points anyway.

To see it from another perspective, he's playing beside Latavious Williams at Tulsa, if he were to come over he'll be playing beside rebounding machine Jeff Green (to be fair he has been moving towards being acceptable from his 0 rebounding days). Shouldn't have any problem maintaining 8 reb a game or close.