The Thunder season starts tomorrow night in Oakland and in all candor I’m not jacked. I’m more of what you would describe as pleased that Oklahoma City will have an NBA team which should be competitive and fun to watch.
Last week I wrote OKC could maybe win 55-57 regular season games and maybe contend for second place in the West. That could possibly be me being overly optimistic given the fact LeBron now resides in the West and the fact Houston and Utah should be solid. The Spurs with DeRozan will be interesting and different as they enter a new era of Greg Popovich basketball. The Timberwolves with the Jimmy Butler distraction would seem to be in disarray. I wonder where Kawhi Leonard will be the day after the trade deadline. I do.
As far as the Thunder goes they have a nice roster, but I can’t really say it’s a roster which has me thinking this season will be all that much different from the last two seasons as far as playoff basketball success.
Since Durant’s departure to Oakland the Thunder are a combined 3-8 in two playoff series losses to the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz. In neither season did I witness Billy Donovan impose his will as a coach and his team respond with getting better and playing better basketball as April rolled around. What I witnessed was the ball not moving as much as it should, poor three point and free throw shooting, and the same mistakes being made over and over.
So as I sit here fully interested in the baseball playoffs and college football, quite frankly OKC Thunder basketball is third on my sports interest radar on the morning of October 15, 2018.
But I do realize Sam Presti has done his best to keep the Thunder relevant. The question for me is how relevant the Thunder will be as the season rolls into the trade deadline.
The new Big Three in OKC is now Westbrook, George, and Adams. That’s a nice core. Solid for regular season basketball. But for playoff basketball where everything is amped up and intensified there’s honestly nothing I feel right now which has me believing the Thunder will still be playing basketball in late May.
The Thunder’s poor three point shooting and the team’s inability to consistently move the basketball are my two primary concerns. Has anything really changed with Scott Brooks being dismissed and Billy Donovan replacing him? The only thing I see as different is that Kevin Durant moved to Oakland and Paul George moved to Oklahoma City.
But has the Thunder anywhere else on their roster really improved all that much since the Game 6 loss to the Warriors in 2016? Unless you think Dennis Schroder replacing Dion Waiters as the 6th man and Nerlen Noels becomimg the backup center are profound game changers as far as playoff basketball success I would say the Thunder are pretty much the same except Andre Roberson won’t be healthy enough to start the season.
There’s talk of Kentucky rookie Hamidou Diallo filling that role. We’ll see. There’s talk that perhaps Alex Abrines and Terrance Ferguson will come off the bench this season and make at least 38-40% of their three point shots and improve the Thunder’s woeful overall team three point shooting. We’ll see.
With Roberson on the shelf–I’d think the Thunder starting lineup would go something like….Westbrook, George, Adams, Patterson, and Diallo. I’d think the Thunder bench would go Dennis Schroder, Jerami Grant, Nerlen Noels, Alex Abrines, and Terrance Ferguson.
You’ll notice I’m deep into this and I haven’t yet mentioned Carmelo Anthony’s exit from OKC as being an enormous game changer for the Thunder as far as the outlook for the season. That’s simple, because while I do feel Carmelo wasn’t a good match in OKC—I don’t think Carmelo was the reason OKC’s season never took off. I’d put that more on OKC’s bad three point shooting, Russell Westbrook’s stubbornness to nuance his game in the final six minutes, and the fact I can’t really say I’ve seen Billy Donovan grow as an NBA coach.
Do any of us really think Andre Roberson’s injury is what kept the Thunder from being a first round exit versus being a Western Conference finalist? Unless you’re Brian Davis do you really believe this?
To me, it’s more to the point other teams know the Thunder can’t shoot the three and then clog the lane to keep Westbrook and Adams from playing pick and roll. The other coaches are simply saying you’re not going to beat me with Westbrook and Adams at the rim. ‘Show me you can make threes.’
So as this season gets underway we’ll see if Westbrook in his 11th season can nuance his game as did his mentor Maurice Cheeks. We’ll see if Billy Donovan in his fourth season of NBA coaching can get his team to play smart enough to be a legit contender. And we’ll see if guys like Abrines, Patterson, and Terrance Ferguson can make enough threes to change the Thunder from being one of the worst three pointing shooting teams in the league to something bordering league respectability.
But as I wind up here this morning, don’t think I’m being negative. I think the fact Oklahoma City has a nice NBA team and one which should rank in the league’s upper third is a nice thing. So I guess this is what sustainability is starting the second decade of OKC Thunder basketball.
Hamidou Diallo–Kentucky highlights
Hamidou Diallo preseason interview with Thunder team mom Nick Gallo holding mic.