At some point, this might have to be written. Either Sam Presti or Billy Donovan should be fired. Either Sam Presti has no feel whatsoever for team building in the post Kevin Durant era in OKC or Billy Donovan is in way over his head in trying to coach at the elite NBA level. Forty-two games in and OKC is clearly the biggest underachiever in a thirty team league. Not even close.
I’m not melting down. I’ve never been calmer. I didn’t curse once at my 60″ flat screen one time during OKC’s abysmal 104-88 road loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. In fact I blew kisses at Antonio Davis during his post game standup routine…which BTW are much better than the games. I’d have a beer with that dude.
Before I get into this any deeper I need to write this. For all the talk of effort lately, Russell Westbrook played his ass off on Wednesday night registering a 38 point effort. He played hard. He was on the floor. He won the little battles. He never gave up on loose balls. Did things a hockey coach could live with. Only problem is, other than Ray Felton, none of his teammates thought they needed to do the same.
OKC just lost their second straight very important game in a row. It just lost the season series 1-3 to the Minnesota Timberwolves and I’m going to assume the T Wolves will go ahead and win the Northwest Division unless they are beset by injuries. I’m also going to assume the Thunder aren’t going to make any noise as far as climbing the Western Conference standings. At some point, in this case forty two games in–I’m making the assumption this is who these guys are. That being, a team not as good as last year’s rookie scale contract laden team which went 47-35 in the regular season and garnered the No. 6 seed in the West.
So… this is where I pause, reflect, and come to the conclusion I can’t fire Sam Presti at this point because he’s the one who is going to have to clean this mess up. It’s his mess. None of us thought bringing Paul George was a bad thing. I didn’t. I still don’t because at the time the Thunder organization had to show Russell Westbrook it would do everything possible to put a championship team around him. No one thought Paul George would play this inconsistently. No one as I can recall. Maybe Russell just plays too fast for Paul George. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe Carmelo is too far past his prime and quit caring about winning games in New York when his teams were always near the top of underachievement in the NBA.
But I know this, Sam Presti has some serious thinking to do between now and the NBA trade deadline on February 8th. The thinking isn’t about this season, it’s about the future of the franchise and the direction he should take in team building around Russell Westbrook, Steven Adams, and Andre Roberson moving forward.
I’m a fiscal conservative. I hedge. I never put all my chips in the middle of the table. I’d cut my losses right now and see if I could cut a deal with LeBron for some pieces in return. Cleveland should be the obvious landing point for Paul George. That lottery draft pick would be nice. Russ played college ball with Kevin Love…is that a possibility? Jae Crowder would be a nice piece.
But I see nothing to date which tells me Paul George should stay in Oklahoma City for the long haul. It’s not working. It looks awkward forty-two games in. I’m not sure what I’d do about Carmelo. That doesn’t concern me as much because OKC didn’t give up Oladipo and Sabonis for him. Those were the two future pieces of the team to go along with Westbrook, Adams, and Roberson—not Kanter and McDermott. That’s the piece of team equity Sam Presti has to make right.
There’s no way if I’m Presti I put all my chips in the middle of the table with the hope Paul George stays and gets acclimated to Russell Westbrook. OKC doesn’t have draft picks to reload. At some point—it’s about ownership equity. It really is.
As far as Billy Donovan? I’d let him finish the year with the understanding unless some sort of cataclysmic change takes place the organization is going to exercise the buyout clause in his contract. Twelve million or whatever it is isn’t going to be that big of a deal for this ownership group because remember West Texas Crude is headed for $72 a barrel in 2018 and the buyout clause shouldn’t be a big deal to the two billionaires heading north with extra liquidity in their portfolios. It’s all about staggered liquidity and owner’s equity. Rich guys almost always cover their asses first. As in always. Because that’s how they got rich in the first place.
Who would be the right coach for Russell Westbrook? You know who I would talk to first? Nick Collison. I’d have lunch with Nick Collison and pick his brain. I’d tell him I want a Thunder coach who brings out in my roster all the qualities I saw in Nick as a professional basketball player. That’s what I’d do. Now…I have no idea if Nick Collison sees himself as a head coach. But I’d have lunch with Nick and at least have the conversation.
Thunder in Charlotte on Saturday afternoon to play the Hornets.