[r377Participant]

Are you feeling ok today Scott ? You actually gave Jeremy Lamb a season high of a massive 12 minutes of court time….He went 2/3 from the field, 1/1 from 3’s and 4/4 ft to finish with 9 points.

I can’t remember the last time a talented rookie was so under-used…

He gets so little court time I cannot even find a good image of him in his Thunder uniform to post…

[frogmanParticipant]

He is talented but he isn’t going to help their team more than Sefolosha or Kevin Martin and OKC want to win it this year so it’s not the best scenario for a young kid with potntial to get minutes. Oh and I didn’t watch the game but he probably only got those minutes in the last quarter as the Thunder won by 30.

[drk3351Participant]

I would have loved as a suns fan if that rumor trade of gortat for Perkins, lamb and a it’s round went went through, but unfortunately it didn’t

[JoeWolf1]

This is the way Brooks coaches. James Harden only got 22.9 mpg as the #3 pick of the draft and a guy who could have probably dropped 15 ppg as a rookie for a bad team. I think Lamb is a guy they want to keep when Martin’s contract expires, but Brooks isn’t going to throw him, or PJII in the fire right away.

Their D-League careers are probablay both over, but I don’t expect them to make the playoff roster, but to travel with the team and learn. It may be a little frustrating for a young player chomping at the bit to hit the court, but Broks has a history of operating this way. I do think that both players are a part of OKC’s future, but probably not as soon as draft guys, like us, would like to see.

[SiggyParticipant]

Harden wasn’t good enough to get extended minutes his rookie yr. He was actually pretty bad and some were already writing him off after 1 yr. His 2nd yr was just OK, but he still didn’t deserve starter’s minutes.

Lamb isn’t good enough to be more than a 3rd string SG on that team yet. It’s as simple as that. I don’t think it has anything to do with Brooks’ style. Most coaches who have Thabo and K-Mart on the team would have them playing over Lamb, leaving very few leftover minutes. He’d probably play more if he could defend SFs, but he can’t.

[JoeWolf1]

True, but OKC is a team that uses the D-League. His strategy is play them there early, then give them garbage mins and let them travel with the team during the playoffs if they can’t earn mins. You’re right, they’re not good enough, but rather than bury them all year, like some coaches, he goes this route with players he can’t use all the time.

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

Harden’s TS% was 55% his rookie year. That is a good percentage (especially for a guard) and certainly better than Westbrook has ever done, by way of comparison. He was basically an efficient scorer from day one. In his second year he became elite. Now it may have taken Brooks time to figure that out. But this is a guy who still plays Perkins against Centers who can’t score and who aren’t trying to score, so who really cares what Brooks thinks. Maybe this year the rest of the world knows Harden is elite. But by his second year he was an elite scorer (60% TS%, Offensive Rating of 119), though he still didn’t do much more than just score. Mainly he just didn’t get a ton of plays called for him so his points per game wasn’t that high. But the ability was there and lots of people knew it.

KMart will be gone next year to free agency, so there will be plenty of time to develop Lamb. And one certainly can’t suggest that he should play over Thabo or KMart.

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