The New and Improved Oklahoma City Thunder Bench

For years, the Oklahoma City Thunder has been built the same way. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook start alongside a defensive-minded shooting guard with a scoring guard coming off the bench. It’s been a relatively successful formula, leading to multiple seasons of 50+ wins, two trips to the Western Conference Finals, and one NBA Finals appearance.

However, it hasn’t led to a NBA Championship.

The blueprint looked to be the same coming into this season. Durant and Westbrook would start alongside Andre Roberson, a defense-first (and only) shooting guard, while Reggie Jackson, a score-first guard, would come off the bench. Injuries muddled things up, but the plan was in place. It then fell apart as Jackson grew unhappy with his role. So Sam Presti decided to hedge. He traded for Dion Waiters to be that scoring guard off the bench, knowing that Jackson would soon be shipped out of town.

At this year’s trade deadline, Presti did indeed deal the trouble point guard, but who he brought in was a bit of a surprise. Instead of bringing in veteran players to fill out the roster, Presti finally built a bench in Oklahoma City.

In the years of the “scoring guard off the bench” strategy, OKC didn’t have much beyond that guard. The 2011-2012 team that went to the Finals had James Harden and that’s about it. Derek Fisher was on his last legs and Daquan Cook was the team’s fifth-leading scorer at 5.5 PPG during the season. The following year, Kevin Martin was the scorer off the bench, but once again, he was the only one contributing. Fisher was on his last leg and Jackson had yet to develop into the player you see today.

When Westbrook went down with an injury in the playoffs, hope was lost. Last year, Jackson provided that spark off the bench, but – say it with me – that was about it. Fisher was on his way toward retirement and Caron Butler’s long-distance service got cut off.

This year feels different. In trading Jackson and Kendrick Perkins, the Thunder brought back Enes Kanter, D.J. Augustin, Kyle Singler, and Steve Novak. Going forward, Novak likely won’t see the court unless the game is out of hand, but he’s that veteran guy that can help lead in the locker room. Singler is a valuable 3-and-D guy, but how much he plays when Durant returns is a mystery.

Augustin and Kanter are the two big pieces that solidify the Thunder bench.

To start the year, when everyone was healthy, the OKC bench consisted of Jackson, Anthony Morrow, Jeremy Lamb, Nick Collison, and Perkins as the five guys. Jackson and Morrow could provide points, but Lamb’s confidence has been destroyed over the past couple of years while Collison and Perkins might give you six points combined on their best night. As the season went on, Jackson became even more frustrated and his play suffered. When Waiters was acquired, it was clear that the two couldn’t co-exist and the bench was in shambles.

Now the OKC bench consists of Augustin, Waiters, Morrow, Collison, and Kanter (although he’s challenging for Adams’ starting spot with the way he’s playing right now) as the first five with Mitch McGary and Singler as reliable 11th and 12th players. On any given night, four of those five players could score 15-20 points that OKC typically got from Harden, Martin, or Jackson. And even if they don’t match that high level of production, all four are good enough to get at least 6-10 points a night.

OKC has never had this. They relied so much on their one bench scoring guard that if he wasn’t giving them 15-20 a game, chances are they would lose.

In the three games since the trade deadline, the bench has already paid dividends.

Against Charlotte, the Thunder starters scored 67 points while the Hornets starters scored 83 points. OKC won 110-103 because their bench scored 43 points while Charlotte’s bench was held to just 20 points. Five players came off the bench for Scott Brooks in that game. No one had more than 12 points, but no one had less than five.

Against the Denver Nuggets, the bench wasn’t quite as prominent as Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, and Kanter dominated the game from start to finish. But four of the first five off the bench scored eight points or more with Waiters leading the way with 17 points.

In their most recent game against the Indiana Pacers, the bench really showed their full potential. With 2:18 left to play in the third quarter, Westbrook and Ibaka checked out of the game with OKC leading 72-65. The five guys on the floor were Augustin, Waiters, Morrow, Collison, and McGary.

This is a Scott Brooks special. He loves giving his stars a rest at the end of the third and to start the fourth. Earlier in the season when he would do this, the lead would either evaporate or remain the same. This was usually due to the combination of Perkins and Jackson. Teams would attack the two with a pick-and-roll and get easy baskets as Perkins isn’t good at defending the pick-and-roll and Jackson isn’t a good defender – period. Unless Jackson was making up for it on the offensive end, which rarely seemed to be the case this year, the lead would be gone by the time Westbrook or Durant checked back in.

On Tuesday night, Westbrook and Ibaka didn’t need to check back in. Augustin ran the offense to perfection, racking up four assists and three points in just under five minutes to end the third and start the fourth to push the OKC lead from seven to 20. Once again, of the first five off the bench, no one had more than 14 points, but four of the five players had five or more. The only player who didn’t have five points, Augustin, had seven assists to finish the game.

This is the new Thunder bench. A bench that doesn’t rely on just one player to get it done. Augustin is a skilled playmaker who knows how to get his teammates involved, Morrow is the dead-eye shooter, Waiters is the guy who can create his own shot, and Collison is the savvy veteran who can do a little bit of everything. Singler will provide another capable shooter once Durant returns from injury. And whether it’s Adams or Kanter coming off the bench, there will be a strong rebounding and scoring presence inside.

Our two superstars have always been better than any other duo in the league. Now, finally, they have a deep bench to back them up.

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