The camp roster is set:
Nick Collison, F/C, 6-10, 255
Kevin Durant, G/F, 6-9, 215
Jeff Green, F, 6-9, 235
Johan Petro, C, 7-0, 247
Desmond Mason, G/F, 6-5, 222
Mohamed Sene, C, 7-0, 230
Joe Smith, F, 6-10, 225
Robert Swift, C, 7-1, 270
Earl Watson, G, 6-1, 185
Kyle Weaver, G, 6-6, 201
Russell Westbrook, G, 6-3, 187
DJ White, F, 6-9, 251
Chris Wilcox, F, 6-10, 235
Damien Wilkins, G/F, 6-6, 225

Why Sene is on the roster I have no idea … that guy will be not be ready to play … ever … My money is on Robert Swift staying healthy and being the starting center opening day. At least that is what I am crossing my fingers for … The Thunder don’t need another year of Petro in the middle ::shudder::

I have all my Thunder Gear ready and October 14 is fast approaching! That will be the first exhibition in the Ford Center with the Clips coming to town. OK, it won’t be the most exciting game in the world. I will mainly be watching Swift, Westbrook and White to see how they are working out … and getting used to the view from my new seats. Hopefully they will have the official jerseys for sale by then. :\

By The Way!

I am sure that you have all noticed that I have not done any of the re-design or commentary on the logo design that I promised. It really is not lethargy. I am excited about the Thunder and excited to post my opinions (and anything that I hear locally that might not make national news) … Life has just intruded quite demonstratively in my ability to do anything other than work.

So, in very quick order, here are a few of the more humerous examples I have run across poking fun at the Thunder Logo:

Hehehe … pretty funny … In all seriousness, I am not crazy about the logo. It is a good “corporate logo”, but not a good sports logo. I think that a group of very good businessmen put together a very good business logo that has very little appeal in the venue of sports. Sure, it will grow on us and we will accept it; but I don’t expect anyone to be doing backflips over it until the Thunder are consistently breaking the 40 win barrier.

IMO, this logo will be gone within 3 years in favor of a more sports-centric exciting logo.

Once I have the colors I will be doing a some recoding here … putting in the real layout and styling for my blog instead of this temoporary design; which I look forward to.

Also, it won’t be long now before I have my new Thunder gear; at least a cap. I am getting tired of wearing my old Hornets cap. I am ready to cheer for a real Oklahoma team.

The first thing to roll off the truck was a basketball with the NBA logo.

"It was a nice touch, wasnt it?" said Pete Winemiller, a team vice president for guest relations who helped oversee the move.

ESPN – Franchises move to Oklahoma City under way as trucks arrive – NBA.

Oklahoma City’s NBA team is expected to announce Thunder will be the nickname at 5 p.m. next Wednesday, Sept. 3, when it releases the team name, its mark, the four team colors and logo at a press conference at Leadership Square.

OKC NBA team nickname to be announced Sept. 3 | NewsOK.com.

Desmond Mason is a glue guy. He is someone that you can count on holding the team together. Consider the players that the ever increasingly impressive Sam Presti has added and subtracted in the offseason. Gone are big contract, under-achieving Luke Ridnour and broken down vet Donyell Marshall. In are Desmond and Joe Smith; 2 guys that will play solid minutes, work hard, and provide good role models.

It does not hurt that Desmond is super popular in Oklahoma either. The folks in OKC still remember his excellent play at OSU and for the Hornets. And the bonus is (as with Smith) that Desmond is in the last year of his deal. He will be able to be released at the end of the year. Oklahoma is going to have huge cap space to work with next year. Of course, Desmond could be resigned and would definately add value; but with all the big names that will be out there next year on the open market, Sam Presti will definately have options.

I have been hearing a lot of bitching and moaning that the ticket prices are too high … So, I was comparing the OKC Thunder ticket prices with the prices that the Hornets charged whent they were here. I have been looking at “end zone” seats behind the basket. When the Hornets were here those seats were $43 a game. The Thunder is charging $50 a game. The 3rd tier level “balcony” seats were $20 a piece for the Hornets and $30 a piece for the Thunder.

OK… That is a bit of a mark up; but come on! This is a permanent team now! This is our team! And those upper level seats at center court are WELL worth 30 bucks a game. And, if you have never seen an NBA game from behind the basket, then you have no idea what you are missing! It is well worth 50 a game.

Now, they did double the deep-pocket lower bowl tickets, but lets face it; the cats buying those tickets are filing their taxes as corporations.

There are 3500 $10 tickets! 50% of the middle tier are $50 or less! And they are reserving a big chunk of tickets for walk ups. That is pretty damn good! Bitchers go watch the D-League in Tulsa!

I am not worried about the stadium being sold out. The Ford Center will be full every single home game; it just pisses me off that a few “head in the sand” small minded red necks think that the best basketball in the world should charge no more than OU or OSU Basketball. Ridiculous.

The 14-year NBA veteran was waived Wednesday by the Oklahoma City franchise, which still hasn’t been renamed after its relocation last month.

Marshall was acquired by the franchise from Cleveland in a three-team trade in February that sent Wally Szczerbiak and Ben Wallace to the Cavaliers.

He averaged 3.8 points off the bench in 15 games with Seattle and was sidelined by a sore right knee late last season.

Adrian Griffin, who was the other player sent to Seattle in that trade, was shipped to Milwaukee last week as part of a deal that brought forwards Desmond Mason and Joe Smith to Oklahoma City.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

ESPN – Veteran forward Marshall waived by Oklahoma City – NBA.
^^^ Credit where credit is due!

Interesting move by the team.  Westbrook, a hard working defender: IN; Desmond Mason, a hard working defender: IN; Donyell Marshall, a statue: OUT.  I think that are seeing a definate trend with the type of team that GM Presti is putting together.