Oklahoma City Thunder: Staying Positive!
By Shawn Woods
Thunder general manager, Sam Presti, has always drafted well — even if he’s struggled in other areas — and that has continued in the recent history. Among the better, younger players on the roster, Adams has improved as much as anyone.
Although his per game numbers have dropped slightly from last season, the impact he’s having on the game is far greater. Adams’ offensive rating is 124, the second-highest number on the team, which is an estimate of how many points he produces while on the floor (although there is some noise in the data). Outside of his improved post game (keeping in mind there aren’t nearly enough possessions to draw an accurate conclusion), Adams’ improvement on offense is due in part to his passing ability. He isn’t the big man passer that Joakim Noah or Andrew Bogut is on offense, but he’s just a notch below them. Adams has the ability to hit a cutter on a back door, and can execute a dribble hand off, both things he couldn’t do as recently as last season.
The staff at Thunderous Intentions is starting to come around to Andre Roberson as a whole (I’d like to think that I have something to do with that), as he is another player that has improved this season. Offense will never be Roberson’s strong suit, but he’s greatly improved this season. His points per game, usage and efficiency have all improved, and instead of being “possibly the worst offensive player in the league,” he’s now just not very good. His defense has been stellar, but there’s little else that I can add that hasn’t been mentioned in the piece linked above.
Cameron Payne (or as frequently referred to on Twitter, “Campayne”) now has a larger sample size (although still not nearly enough to draw definitive conclusions), and he is still playing at a high level. Even in games in which he doesn’t score efficiently (using last week’s Nuggets’ game as an example), Payne finds other ways to contribute (in that game, it was his 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 4 steals). Payne appears to have a bright future in the NBA, and hopefully in Oklahoma City.
It is easy to overreact to a small sample of a few inconsistent games. But while there are a few reasons for concern, there are far more that should make fans feel good about this season.