Oklahoma City Thunder Bench Lacking Direction

The Oklahoma City Thunder bench was supposed to be a strong suit heading into the season. Led the their seventy million dollar man, Enes Kanter, they assemble a deep bench with a variety of skills. D.J. Augustin is a savy playmaking point guard, Dion Waiters is a streaky well-rounded offensive player, Anthony Morrow is a lights out shooter, Nick Collison is a veteran big, Mitch McGary is an energy machine, Kyle Singler is a solid two-way guard, and Kanter is a low-posting scoring machine.

It all looked so good on paper.

Yet for the last three games, the bench has letdown the team during their current losing streak. In the past three games, the bench has averaged 23 points, which doesn’t seem too bad until you realize that Kanter is accounting for 10 of those points and that number was far too low for a player of his caliber. That means only 13 points are being scored amongst the other four players on the court.

Right now, the bench has a complete lack of direction.

First off, the offense should be running through Kanter. The majority of his points are coming off pick-and-rolls and offensive putbacks. Billy Donovan simply isn’t giving Kanter enough touches in the post. Kanter averages 4.7 post touches this season. That ranks below the likes of Tyson Chandler, Robin Lopez, and Thaddeus Young. All good players, none as good as Kanter with their back to the basket. By comparison, Andrew Bogut, a guy labeled as a “one-dimensional post player” by many, averages seven post touches per game.

When Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant are on the bench, Kanter should be the focus of the offense. Even when Durant and Westbrook are on the floor, it’s not always a bad thing to throw the ball down low and let Kanter work, especially if the offense bogs down like it did against Toronto.

Instead, the OKC bench offense is primarily pick-and-rolls where Augustin over-dribbles or Waiters runs around the screen three times before settling for a step back jumper.

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Waiters has been the most disappointing player on the team through six games. The guy we saw in the preseason no longer exists. He’s not shooting the ball well nor is he getting his teammates involved. Waiters was brought in last year as the scoring guard off the bench, something Sam Presti has always loved since taking over as the Thunder GM. Waiters was never going to be James Harden, but he’s good enough to average double digits off the bench. The fact that he’s only reached double digits once in six games and is currently averaging 6.8 PPG is alarming. Meanwhile, Jeremy Lamb is averaging 14 PPG in six less minutes off the bench in Charlotte. Remember him? That’s the guy who was supposed to take over for Harden as the sixth man before Scott Brooks ruined his confidence and he was shipped away for nothing.

What’s almost as frustrating as Kanter’s lack of post touches is the lack of playing time given to Morrow and McGary this season. When Donovan was hired, everyone raved about his spacing on offense. So it’s pretty inexcusable that he keeps the best spacer, Morrow, on the bench for the majority of the game. Morrow is a low maintenance, high quality player. He doesn’t need a lot of touches to get involved in the offense. Just give him a couple of catch and shoot threes per game and chances are he’ll knock them down. His defense isn’t great, but he does seem to play inspired defense when things are going well for him offensively. There’s no reason why Morrow shouldn’t average at least six points per game. That’s two three’s, something he should easily get given his ability to get open and the talent on this team.

McGary getting no early season run is just as bad. This team has needed a spark in the last three games, yet their biggest spark plug was left unused. McGary slimmed down in the offseason and looked good in preseason. As much as I value the leadership that Collison brings to the team, Collison can lead just fine from the bench. At this point in their careers, McGary is the better player and deserves more playing time.

We’re only six games into an 82-game season. There is plenty of time for Donovan to fix the bench, and all the other problems the team is currently having, but early returns are not promising.