OKC Has Problems

Writer: Caleb Akpan

When the NBA season began, there were a few super teams that seemed a cut above the rest. The Golden State Warriors looked even more dominant, Cleveland still seemed to be the best of the East, Houston added Chris Paul, and the Spurs were still the Spurs. All of these teams have proven their greatness so far this season, but there was another team included in that group that has yet to emerge as a true contender. Something’s wrong in Oklahoma City and the Thunder might not have the winning formula in their hands, despite having three of the best players in the league.

Credit: USA Today

GM Sam Presti had completely robbed the Pacers and Knicks to get Paul George and Carmelo Anthony according to most accounts this offseason. OKC had a true big three just a year removed from losing Kevin Durant to the Warriors, and many considered them the first challenge to the machine Golden State had built. Critics saw them as a true contender going into the season, but they have yet to prove they can even secure a playoff spot out West as every member of the trio struggles. Anthony is averaging career lows in points (17.7), assists (1.5), and field goal percentage (40%), which Paul George is also averaging a career low in (41%), aside from his brief playing time in 2014-2015 returning from injury. Russell Westbrook’s raw numbers (22.6 PPG, 9.9 APG, 9.4 RPG) still appear somewhat dominant, but his percentages are even worse than his teammates. Westbrook is currently shooting 38% from the field, 31% from 3, and 71% from the free throw line, numbers that are, for the most part, even worse than those from his rookie campaign. With their three stars struggling to mesh, it’s tough to see what more the team really needs.

A change could be required in the coaching ranks. Many have begun to criticize Billy Donovan, saying he lacks a true NBA system, but Donovan also had a much less talented OKC squad in the playoffs last year, along with Russell Westbrook winning an MVP. Can coaching really be blamed when OKC was successful with less pieces just months ago? Maybe the struggles have something to do with the bench. The Thunder traded away pieces like Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and Domantas Sabonis along with Victor Oladipo, who seems to be transforming into one of the best players in the league in order to get George and Anthony. They may not be as good as Melo and PG, but together they provided OKC with depth and worked well with ball-dominant Westbrook. Having three guys on the court that need the ball a lot in order to succeed has been one of OKC’s biggest issues so far. It’s getting to the point where losing one of the 3 might actually help things in the name of depth and flow of the offense.

The good news for the Thunder and their fans is that they’ve now won 3 of the last four games following a triple overtime thriller with Philadelphia Friday night. The bad news is that they’re still just barely in the eight seed out West and every one of those three wins was won in the final minutes. OKC needs to start really meshing and dominating games soon or it may be too late for any big hopes they had going into the season. There’s still time to recover and get a higher playoff seed, but not too much time. They need to figure out a solution to their issues, firing Donovan, trading George or Anthony, or just simply pulling it together with what they have. However they do it, it’s gotta be fast, or they might not even make the playoffs at all.

Update On Russ

Writer: Felicity Veliz

After working on a successful album, Russ is back gifting his fans a flurry of releases in a span of just a few days. He starts with releasing “Think Twice,” then “Prosper” and “Maybe” shortly after. For russ being known to be the only person to mix-master and produce his own music, he surprised his fans by trying something different when recruiting Scott Torch to handle all the production of each cut. He has kept the trend going with his newest project “Wife You Up.” Shockingly, this was not the only surprise Russ had for his fans. He also surprised his fans with John Mayer guitar feature. Although the feature with John Mayer did not include vocals, an appearance from a seven-time grammy award winner is always appreciated when looking for a career boost.

Merchnow

On “Wife You Up,” the subject matter doesn’t swerve much from Russ’s expressions for his significant other, showing his appreciation for the one girl that was with him from the start. He this all through his aspiring career as he promises to give up running around with other women for her sake.

“You was tryna know me/ When they didn’t know me/ Girl we fell in love we both worked at the mall/ Way before the rollie/ You were just my homie/ You were tryna love way before I had it all,” the Atlanta raised rapper says.

With “Prosper” and “Maybe” featuring a much more bouncy, upbeat atmosphere in both production and lyricism, “Wife You Up” partners up with this series’ opener “Think Twice” as it embraces a much more downtempo approach in delivery.

Most recently, Russ has been enjoying his success, especially since his album was announced a gold plaque for his There’s Really A Wolf debut album after selling the equivalent of over 500,000 units and a platinum plaque for his “What They Want” single, once it reached 1,000,000 benchmark.

With “Wife You Up” being the first song that features a big known artist, the song received a million plays the first 24 hours released and is currently one of his most trending songs as recently discussed on his twitter. The song itself has his fans buzzing and eager to find out what he has in store for them next.

Overall, I am happy to see Russ continue to feature talented artists in his songs that will help him get the publicity he deserves. I’m pumped to see where the Atlanta-raised artist will take his music the next few months.

THE LONE WOLF

Writer: Felicity Veliz

                                                                                                              Steven Taylor

Russ has made a successful career creating multicultural hip hop in which the Atlanta raised artists produces, engineers, and masters all his tracks in addition to rapping and singing all the hooks. Starting off as a popular soundcloud rapper, over the last couple of years, he’s built up a rabid fanbase that’s allowed him to pick up a pair of RIAA certifications with not much help from the mainstream until last year when signed a 50/50 deal with Columbia Records.

 

If you were unaware of his talent, then you’ll be surprised by the end of his debut album “There’s Really a Wolf” because it is essentially the album’s main focus.

 

His album opener, “I’m Here” is a great way to start the album when he has been “in the shadows for so long”. The song is featured over a two part piano loop and Kanye like vocal samples that repeats through one long verse. Russ had clear talent for capturing the fullness of his come up, alternating on his confidence, though he has not let the money change him. He raps, “Last June I was broke, this June I made a hundred, before and after, didn’t change me, though I stayed a hundred”. The song itself reflects on the costs of success, thus earning a feature on the new NBA Live 18 soundtrack.

The album then continues with “The Stakeout”, which reflects on how his journey to become where he is now was much like a stakeout. Featuring a subtle guitar loop, the energy of the song creates an arouse to get you on your grind, but reflective enough to make it feel like it’s made to motivate. In the song, there is a line that russ explains that he’s trying to pursue his dream to repay his mother back for what she does when he raps, “I wanna give my mom the world without worrying ‘bout the cost”, but he also understands that the dream does not happen overnight. It’s not about counting the days but making the days count.

 

Although his success is portrayed in most of his songs, he also showcases his softer side on his R&B songs such as “Losin’ Control, “Cherry hill”, or “scared”. The end of these songs are one of the best mixtures of his talent as he balances his naturally high singing voice with the nice bass.

“Losin Control” is one of Russ’s most popular songs and his highest charting single. It is also one of of the most cohesive stories on “There’s Really A Wolf”. The song focuses on an early unsuccessful relationship that happened during his teenage years and is one of the album’s best organized moments with “Scared” coming immediately after.

As great as the album was sequenced, there were several songs where his repetitiveness could’ve been replaced by artists that flow with the melody he creates through his songs. Being a huge Russ fan I believe that hearing features on the album would have been something nice and different for the fan base. Although Russ featuring artists in his music is rare, some of his best songs have features such as “Keep On Goin’’ which features Bas and his feature on Rexx Life Raj’s song “Waiting For You”.

Despite the success that Russ has received in the past couple years, there is still more doors open for his talent to grow. “Only time will tell but I been feelin’ like it’s my time, How long you gonna keep your star player on the sidelines?” he raps on the album’s final song “MVP”.

 

Although the album being feature free, “There’s Really a Wolf” provides catchy songs that can shoot up his stats as the successful artist he is such as “Got This”, “Do it Myself” or his platinum single “What they Want”. With some of the tracks being longer than others, it shows more than enough proof he is very talented. With being the five tool musician, he has been working on scheduling collaborations already (with artists such as Maluma— an urban latino singer) as recently discussed on his twitter.

 

Overall the album told Russ’s origin story in a successful way and was structured nicely to gain more support for what he does. I’m very excited to see what he will have in store for his fans next.

Rate:8/10