My first and foremost hope is for this team to simply get better as the season progresses and play basketball the right way.
To peak at the goal achieving portion of the season and play up to their utmost potential.
This doesn’t mean I equate these things with a certain number of wins. It means I’m tired of watching sloppy basketball being played.
Making the NBA Finals is not what I’m talking about. Even making the Western Conference Finals isn’t what I’m talking about. Even beating out the Utah Jazz for the Northwest Division isn’t what I’m talking about.
What I’m talking about is the hope I see a team learn how to move the basketball and continue to move the basketball for 48 minutes regardless of the opponent. It’s the hope all five guys on the floor are dialed in defensively especially on the perimeter. It’s the hope this team becomes a much better free throw shooting team. It’s the hope either Alex Abrines or Terrance Ferguson step up as three point shooters. It’s the hope we see the Russell Westbrook all season long which we saw against the Spurs in the 2016 semis and for the first four games in the conference finals versus the Warriors in 2016. It’s the hope we see the Steven Adams which emerged in those two series. It’s the hope I see Billy Donovan take his team and win a playoff series without Kevin Durant on the roster.
What I really want to see is Russell Westbrook expand his game not just to notch more triple doubles, but to nuance his game as a point guard to make every other Thunder player around him a better basketball player.
I’ve seen enough triple doubles. I want to see nuanced play from Russell Westbrook.
I don’t write any of this with snarkiness attached. There are parts of Russell Westbrook both as a player and a person which I’ve come to love these past ten basketball seasons.
His commitment to his family. His passion for getting better. His toughness. His competitiveness. His life story. His loyalty to Oklahoma City. The fact he calls his mom every day.
But Russell Westbrook is thirty years old now. This is his team along with Paul George. This isn’t Billy Donovan’s team. NBA teams aren’t driven by coaches per se for the most part, they are driven by the stars.
This is Russell Westbrook’s bus with Paul George sitting in the co-pilot seat.
There are thirty teams in the NBA. Off the top of my head I can only name three NBA coaches who drive their team…Pop, Rick Carlisle, and Brad Stevens.
Billy Donovan isn’t driving this Thunder bus. Russell Westbrook primarily is the bus driver.
I want Russell Westbrook to not worry about triple doubles this basketball season. If they come, they come. But more of what I want to see are Paul George, Steven Adams, Patrick Patterson, Dennis Schroeder, Jerami Grant, Alex Abrines, Terrance Ferguson, Nerlen Noels, and Hamidou Diallo flourish as basketball players around Russell Westbrook.
I want to see Russell Westbrook take the best parts of Maurice Cheeks’ game and take his game as a point guard to the next level.
Dr. J and Moses Malone won an NBA championship with Maurice Cheeks in 1983.
The game of basketball has changed a great deal since Mo Cheeks won his ring in ’83.
But one thing hasn’t changed and that is the need for the point guard of a championship team to drive the bus, yet be a seamless extension of his coach.
This is what I hope I see this Thunder basketball season.
Russell Westbrook, I know you can do this.
Maurice Cheeks knows you can do it.