The Oklahoma City Thunder have clinched a playoff berth for the seventh year since their conception in 2008. Against Dallas, the Thunder also recorded a winning season for the eighth consecutive season. For all of the talk about the team’s probable drop-off after the events of the summer, capturing the sixth seed is nothing short of impressive. OKC is reaching heights that should warrant calling this season a success.
Billy Donovan, the Thunder’s second-year head coach, has done about as well a job as any fan could want. Donovan signed on to coach a Thunder team that featured Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. The Durant part of the deal no longer exists. However, even without his services, Donovan has kept his players in a winning environment. That environment is mostly fostered by the energetic play of Russell Westbrook.
Mostly is a pretty tame way of saying allall. Westbrook’s 41% usage rate is the highest the League has ever seen. Everything starts and ends with Westbrook. Westbrook takes 37% of the team’s shots and accounts for 60% of the team’s assists. However, despite what traditional knowledge would say, this isn’t necessarily a detriment to the team either.
The Thunder are an exceptionally young team by design. Sam Presti built a roster filled with young players that had malleable skills and controllable contracts. The idea was to have a roster that formed around two superstars and that would align with those stars’ primes. The roster was supposed to extend Oklahoma City’s championship window and in a way, that worked. The success that team experienced validated the plan. However, the team is no longer the same and this past offseason showed the drawbacks to the design.
After losing major players from the roster, The Thunder now have the second youngest rotation in the League at 24 years old, only behind the Philadelphia 76ers. They are overflowing with youth that isn’t usually a factor for successful playoff teams. For 64 games of the regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder started 20 year old power forward Domantas Sabonis. Right now, if not for being drafted into the NBA, Sabonis would be one game away from the end of his season with Gonzaga. On the other side of the court, the cornerstone for the Thunder’s 9th ranked defense is 23 year old Steven Adams. Jerami Grant, 22, was playing to lose during this time of year for the 76ers. Yet, with Donovan likely to tinker his postseason lineup, Grant could see a bump in minutes in an environment that pales in comparison to the one in Philly.
This is the team that is supposed to follow Russell Westbrook into the postseason.
Although very young, the team is rife with talent. The coaching staff has made great strides to place players in the right positions and lineups that allow for use of their individual skills. Those lineups almost always include Russell Westbrook. Westbrook’s -10.1 on/off rating is indicative of how the rest of the team struggles when he’s not on the court. There is a sense of tentativeness when the others are tasked with creating something on offense.
Donovan sets the second-unit up in a way that runs through Enes Kanter when there is no Westbrook. Lately, though, teams have become privy to Kanter and have started doubling him in the post.
Inherently, that leads to a scrambling offense without a plan in sight. Kanter’s usage has increased to a season high 29% but recently hasn’t yielded the results it has in the past.
Victor Oladipo, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s best playmaker outside of Westbrook, should be more than capable of handling business on the court when Westbrook is on the bench. That simply hasn’t been the case. In 423 minutes without the MVP candidate, Oladipo averages 4.4 points on four field goal attempts. His lack of free throw attempts show the lack of aggressiveness from Oladipo. Ironically, Oladipo is the one player outside of Westbrook the Thunder need to carry a playoff load. That is something he has never been a part of. However, Victor has shown that he can be capable of being the secondary scorer opposite Westbrook. In March, Oladipo is averaging 17 points per game on 45% from the field and 51% from three.
Victor is going to have to learn to be the alpha when Westbrook sits in the postseason; however, there won’t be many opportunities to improve on this.
There is going to be an increase of Westbrook minutes in the postseason. This is something that he will embrace. Averaging 34 minutes in the regular season, Westbrook has been able to produce a historic season without playing excessively. With what he’s going to have to do to carry this young team in the postseason, the minutes increase will be significant.
The Thunder only have five active players that have seen any semblance of playoff action. Westbrook, Roberson, Adams, Kanter, and Taj Gibson. McDermott, who’s had some postseason experience in Chicago, is only averaging 6 minutes a game.
The rotation will be shorter, and the margins slimmer. For the few minutes that Russell sits, this young team is going to have grow on the fly. It isn’t going to be pretty or easy. However, the trial by fire will give the Oklahoma City Thunder an opportunity to gain much needed experience.
