Durant Wins, but Barkley steals the show

Here's a video of Kevin Durant playing Rajon Rondo in Horse at the 2010 All-Star Game. This clip, is the last ten minutes of it. It's mostly the sudden death three point shootout that TNT said they had to have because the game was running over time. But Durant and Rondo don't miss for a really long time. Durant gets buckets. I think he knocks down like ten straight three balls. The real highlight is listening to Barkley root for the game to keep going, just to screw over TNT.

Who should the Thunder draft?

So with the Lakers taking care of the Thunder, the focus shifts to the off-season. The first order of business? The draft at the end of June. The Thunder will be picking out of the lottery for the first time since they moved to OKC, but they have four picks, two in the first round. There are no gaping holes, but the four picks give the team an opportunity to add depth to their bench, and shore up some of the weak points on the roster, like three point shooting.

They'll want to take a look at Guard, Thabo Sefalosha isn't the answer, but last year's first round pick, James Harden, may be. He was solid, and consistent. He averaged no more than eleven points a game in any month, but no less than nine. He also was the team's leading three point shooter at 37.5%.

The Thunder also aren't big enough yet to compete with the big boys out west consistently. Jeff Green has proven to be a solid NBA player, but he's similar to Cleveland Forward Antawn Jamison in that he's a college 4, not an NBA 4, and doesn't handle size well.

Serge Ibaka proved he can be a big contributor during the series against the Lakers. He helped Thunder overcome lack of size, by being such a force down low.

NBAdraft.net has OKC taking Gordon Hayward with their first round pick. I think its a bad fit. Another College 4 who needs to play 3 in the pros. Also, he's an overrated shooter. The Butler forward shot under 30% from three last year. How can he help the Thunder from the outside when the three point line is pushed back even more?

In the first round the Thunder have picks 21 and 26. There really aren't any spectacular three point shooters who seem like late first round picks. So the Thunder should probably add some front court depth. Florida State sophomore Solomon Alibi seems like a perfect fit at 21. The 7'1'' center is long and athletic. He already knows how to play defense too, unlike other long athletic players who never learned (Amare Stoudemire comes to mind). With such a strong defensive presence down low, this pick will take a lot of pressure off Kevin Durant on the defensive side of the court. He'll know that he can take some possessions off and won't have to pick up a cheap foul if he lets his man go by him. With Alibi down low, all of those lay-ups will be contested shots. That type of defensive insurance will help keep Durant fresh and out of foul trouble.

With the other pick in the draft, I think the Thunder should look to take a flyer on a foreign, similar to the way the Spurs did with late picks like Tony Parker (21) and Manu Ginóbli (57). So with this pick I like Nemanja Bjelica. He's a 6'10'' Small Forward from Serbia. Like almost all the other big Small Forwards from Europe, he can shoot the three. He could really open up the court for the slashing playmakers the Thunder already have. Also, he can develop in Europe for the next few years, and stay off the Thunder's cap while they try to add free-agent talent to their roster. If you think GM Sam Presti won't take a shot at a European late in the first round, you're probably wrong; he was the Spurs assistant GM before he came to OKC.

Oklahoma City has the 32nd and 51st pick in the second round, and I think they should go with shooters on these, because they need immediate three point help, something Bjelica probably won't give them. At 32, Jordan Crawford's the pick; he shot 39% from three last season, and came up huge in the NCAA tournament this year. He carried Xavier to the sweet 16. If you didn't follow him in March, know this, he's a gamer. He seemed to pull clutch shot after clutch shot out of thin air in the tournament (Oh, he did this too).

Jon Scheyer should be the other pick in the 2nd round. He shot 38% from three last year, but that was with every ACC team's best perimeter defender hanging all over him. He could be lethal on the Thunder. Doubling Durant and Russell Westbrook when they penetrate could get really risky with Scheyer spotting up for threes next year.

The Thunder team has all the pieces in place to make another really solid run next season. If these picks pan out, the team could really contend for the Western Conference title next year. They better, and quick. Durant can become a free agent after the 2011 season.