A good two days for Sam Presti. The Rudy Gay deal didn’t happen, but Presti has reportedly signed Andre Roberson to a three year thirty million deal which will keep him in OKC thru 2020. Additionally, Presti signed 6’9″ power forward Patrick Patterson. But for today, I’m just talking Andre because I think him staying here is a big positive for the Thunder moving forward as a contender in the West.
This isn’t rocket science. To contend in the West you have to defend the perimeter against the Warriors and Rockets. The Thunder now have two elite defenders in their starting lineup. I look at it this way—Paul George on Durant, Andre Roberson on Klay Thompson.
Other than Roberson’s free throw shooting, he’s a talented player who runs the court like a deer, rebounds well, is an elite defender, muddies up opponents passing lanes, deflects passes, scores well in transition, and does a multitude of tough-minded teams things which would make you love him as a coach or a teammate.
Presti has now given Billy Donovan some nice tools to roll multiple lineups. Top nine off the top of my head would read Westbrook, George, Adams, Roberson, Grant, Patterson, Kanter, Abrines, McDermott, and whoever ends up as the backup point guard. If Presti can’t move Kanter, then just use him against teams where his defense isn’t an acute team liability for the time being. But with those first six players on the list, Billy Donovan has some things he can roll with against Golden State and Houston.
I’m happy Andre is staying. He seems like a young man with a great deal of character who brings much to the team table.
He obviously has to get better at the line and I think he will. If he can just raise his free throw percentage to around 65% that’s reasonable and Donovan can be more creative in utilizing offense to defense situational substitutions when needed with either Grant or Abrines.
Team is shaping up well.
2016 exit interview following series loss to the Warriors.