WTLC Daily Loud Links: Friday, October 25th, 2013

We head into the final weekend before the regular season begins. Gird your loins, everyone. This ride is going to get a bit bumpy, but never fear, the Thunder shall persevere.

Berry Tramel at The Oklahoman writes about how Kendrick Perkins' case for contribution sits currently. Worst case scenario for him personally is that he regresses while Steven Adams surprises. That's kind of where we are.

"I believe it will be déjà vu all over again in 2013 with Steven Adams. On draft night, we all had fun coming up with new ways to say that he wouldn't be of any help to OKC this season. Someone joked that David Stern should have handed him a 66ers cap. I think Royce Young's wife was prepared to buy Adams a Pikepass. But turns out, the Thunder's enigmatic big man of 2013 just might be too good to keep benched all season.

Royce Young aspires to grade each Thunder player's pre-season. Shock of shocks, Kevin Durant scores highly on this exam. Derek Fisher...well...

Over at The Classical, Cavan delves into what it means for teams and players who make sacrifices for the betterment of the big picture. It starts this way, which is right up my alley:

"If only Superstar X took a pay-cut to play for Team Y, they’d totally win a championship!"

As Ball Don't Lie reports, any time that Gregg Popovich is required to interact with Craig Sager during an NBA game, even if it's pre-season, it is must watch television.

Hall of Famer Bill Sharman has passed away. Golliver gives you the details on a remarkable part of the NBA's history.

The Heat may have introduced Mike Miller to a con man? Well, that escalated quickly.