Not that anyone is counting days, but’s it’s now been three weeks since the Kevin Durant exit from Oklahoma City. For the time being, the Thunder are going to do everything possible to keep Russell Westbrook and build the team around him.
In truth, it would be a nice fit because OKC has two bigs in Steven Adams and Enes Kanter who can pick and roll effectively with Westbrook, plus the addition of hybrid guard Victor Oladipo. A nice defensive guard in Andre Roberson, a talented backup point guard in Cam Payne, a promising rookie big to succeed Nick Collison in Domantus Sabonis, and an interesting stretch four in veteran Ersan Ilyasova who can provide some offense.
With the departures of Durant and Ibaka, OKC loses around 41 points a game and loses their two most consistent three point shooters. So a tough decision had to be made in regards to three point shooting, and the Thunder’s ultimate decision was to rescind the offer they made to Dion Waiters and instead sign their Euro stash shooting guard Alex Abrines.
Abrines is a 6′ 6″ shooting guard who the Thunder picked with the 32nd pick in the 2013 draft. Actually that pick came from the James Harden trade so we’re still not done evaluating the Harden trade. Abrines is a 40% three point shooter with an overall good offensive game which could help Russell Westbrook as far as giving him some one to kick the ball out to behind the arc.
The main concern with Abrines is his defense, as in will he be able to defend anyone at the NBA level.
Also, with this move not to retain Waiters, the Thunder have enough room to offer Russell Westbrook an extension if he and his agent feel so inclined at some point.
With this team, OKC would most likely be somewhere around a #4 thru #6 type of team and extremely entertaining to watch. Another very good player would need to be added to put OKC back on the championship contender radar, but with some luck and a kiss from the basketball gods it could happen.
So…three weeks removed from the Durant exit to the Oakland Super AAU Team, from my perspective all in OKlahoma City have accepted the hand which was dealt and have moved forward in a positive manner.
Moving forward.