So …here we are eighteen games into Florida Gators’ coach Billy Donovan’s debut NBA season and what to think. The Thunder are 11-7 so far and in all candor I really don’t see much difference from Scott Brooks’ Thunder and this North Florida version Thunder…except that Scott Brooks usually had teams who bought in defensively. Despite what Kevin Durant wants to think—this isn’t a great defensive team.
This is a team which has defensive lapses and doesn’t appear to have bought into the axiom that team defense wins championships. Don’t get me wrong, Billy Donovan seems to be a great guy and fairly interesting in his pressers, but I really don’t see anything in this team to date which makes me think they could beat either Golden State or Cleveland in a seven games series.
Several things in my opinion are still obstacles for OKC winning an NBA championship. I’ve already talked about the defense. This is very simple–it’s very rare for a team that doesn’t play top ten in the league type defense to win a championship. KD can bristle all he wants, but he’ll be without a ring for another season until these guys get it through their heads defense wins post season championships.
Another primary issue I see is that as good as Russell Westbrook is…he still can’t pull the throttle back in the last six minutes in close games against good teams and make players around him better when it counts. I’m not into counting shots or any of that, but how in the world No. 35 doesn’t get looks in the fourth against Atlanta is mind boggling. We’re talking about perhaps the greatest scorer in the modern era and he’s not getting shots.
I’m not talking Adams or Kanter or Morrow or Waiters—I’m talking about getting the best pure scorer in the game today his shots in the fourth period. Get the ball to your closer and let him close. Good lord.
The third issue I see with the Thunder is back to the third man issue. Who’s the best third man on this team? It should be Serge Ibaka. Durant and Westbrook have to show enough versatility in their games to allow Ibaka to thrive in this role.
As far as OKC’s bench–it’s all over the place if Durant and Westbrook aren’t on the floor. Probably a good idea by Donovan to make sure his two stars don’t rest at the same time against the better teams in the league.
I have OKC finishing as the No. 3 seed in the West in my Daily Thunder Western Conference Seeding Bracket Sheet, and quite frankly to date I haven’t seen anything which makes me feel wrong about that pick.
Mike Jackson