Time for Billy Donovan’s mid term grade.
I consider myself infinitely fair with coaches, almost leaning to the coach’s side whenever possible. Can’t help it–it’s the Libra in me. Scales of justice and all that and some. I actually would have been okay with Scott Brooks coming back for his last season. In fact, all things considered–it’s probably the play I would have made if sitting in Sam Presti’s shoes. See what I mean.
This in no way is a judgement of Billy Donovan one way or another. Just the way I feel. I actually like Donovan and have enjoyed his pressers and some of the nuance moves he’s made with the team. He seems to be a players’ coach and his NBA demeanor so far seems acceptable. But here’s the thing—with Kevin Durant, OKC is 28-9. Without Kevin Durant, OKC is 3-4.
So, I ask the question aloud, has Billy Donovan in any way improved OKC’s won-loss results 44 games into this season? The answer is no, not so far. A healthy Thunder team with Brooks would have done at least this well, or probably better if you objectively evaluate the Brooks years when the Thunder weren’t decimated by injury like last season.
That being said, I do see two viable improvements with Donovan which I never saw with Scott Brooks.
1 Overall team ball movement. It’s obvious from watching the Thunder this is a mantra from Donovan and staff. Move the basketball. Swing the basketball. Touch, touch, touch….finish. I give Donovan credit on this as tangible improvement is obvious. I’ll go A on the report card.
2 Flexibility with lineups. Brooks drove me crazy in this regard with the ‘He only bought his underwear at K Mart in Cinncinati, Ohio’ approach. Donovan shows he has flexibility in this regard with his bench units, but I like the fact he’s fair and not a knee jerker in this regard. Case in points, Cam Payne. He gave DJ Augustin every opportunity, but when it became apparent a change was needed—the trigger was pulled.
Another case in point, he knows he needs more defense on the bench unit, hence he did a very unpopular thing by benching Anthony Morrow and giving Kyle Singler a second chance which is showing a dividend currently. If I’m Dion Waiters–I’d be watching this closely and not be unprepared if he finds himself in another city come February 21. I’ll go B on the report card.
3 Team defense. I’m going incomplete data so far on this one or a B. I need to see the Thunder play Golden State, San Antonio, and the LA Clippers with a larger sample to be fair. But from what I’ve seen so far—Brooks’ teams were better defensively when healthy. I’ll go B on the report with incomplete attached to the card.
4 Handling of players. I always liked Donovan at Florida and I think he’s made a nice transition in this regard at the NBA level so far. He appears to understand the NBA star caste system and his handling of the team as a whole in this aspect has been fine . I’ll go B on the report card.
5. Dealing with the OKC’s media. Donovan comes across as accessible, patient, and engaging. I’ll go B on the report card.
Mid term grade—I’ll go a solid, middle of the road B for Billy Donovan.
But here’s the bottom line, with the way Sam Presti has constructed this team — if you’re the coach, you’ll only perform as high as Kevin Durant’s health will allow you to perform at the end of the day.