Oklahoma City Thunder: What We Learned in the Playoffs
The Oklahoma City Thunder season came to an unfortunate end on Monday night. It’s taken me almost a week to come to grips with what exactly happened. On one hand, the team made it to a Game 7 against the best team in league history, which is something to be very proud of. On the other hand, the team had a 3-1 series lead and a Game 6 lead at home, but wound up blowing both in elimination. Prior to the playoffs, we would’ve said the team would be very fortunate to be one game from the Finals. Now that it’s over, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed with how it all ended.
So, what exactly did we learn about the team and the players during the playoffs?
Kevin Durant wasn’t quite Kevin Durant. At least on offense.
Durant’s numbers look solid to the naked eye. 28.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists. Not bad. But look at his shooting numbers. 43% from the field and a dreadful 28% from three. That 28% from three really hurt because Durant has long been OKC’s best long range shooter and the team pretty much lost the series behind the three-point line. Defensively, Durant was as good as he’s ever been, and maybe that contributed to his offensive slump, but in a series where the Klay Thompson and Steph Curry got hot at the right moments, Durant’s flame never got past a spark.
Russell Westbrook is still Russell Westbrook.
I’m not saying that as a bad thing. The Westbrook we saw during the regular season was the best Westbrook we’ve ever seen. No one, outside of “hot take experts,” look at him as a point guard who dominates the ball and doesn’t get his teammates involved enough. He’s now seen as one of the most complete point guards in the league, trailing only Steph Curry. Unfortunately, he still has his faults, all of which could be easily controlled. The ill-advised threes and the defensive lapses are just about inexcusable. I can forgive the out of control turnovers because the out of control style of play is just who Russ is. If he’d just take 2-3 less threes a game or make them at a better clip, he’d be almost unstoppable.
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The Improvement of Dion Waiters, Steven Adams, Andre Roberson, and Enes Kanter.
The four players mentioned above are all 24-years of age or young. All of them are already good NBA players with some possessing elite skills. Waiters found himself a nice role in the playoffs. A one-on-one defensive hound who could knockdown threes and get to the hoop all postseason until David Ramil and I jinxed him with our twitter exchanges. Adams went from being the defensive anchor in the paint to being a threat on the offensive end, showing a soft touch around the rim and turning into an extremely reliable free throw shooter. Roberson, who I’ve often criticized for being overrated as a defender, validated Shawn Woods’ love for him by proving my criticisms wrong and showing a little diversity on the offensive end. And Kanter was a rebounding and put-back machine who went from “unplayable” to “playable in spurts” on the defensive end. The growth of all four was extremely fun to watch and were very positive signs for the Thunder moving forward.
Billy Donovan turned out to be pretty competent.
We all criticized Donovan throughout his first season. The questionable rotation decisions, the night-to-night effort lacking, the use of his timeouts, the late game offense. There was no reason to believe that he would be any better in the playoffs. But, as it turns out, Donovan had some tricks up his sleeve. He started to figure out what worked and what didn’t work in the playoffs and made the proper adjustments. The San Antonio series was eye opening. He outcoached the great Greg Popovich and almost followed it up by out-coaching the even greater Steve Kerr. He still has his flaws, but I have no doubt that he’ll look to improve on this season during the offseason.
Next: Three keys to OKCs offseason
4th quarter issues are still a problem.
We all know about the blown 4th quarter leads during the regular season. Things got better in the playoffs, but they reared their ugly head again in Game 6 against the Warriors. The turnovers, the lack of ball movement, the forced shots. It all looked too familiar. Part of it is coaching, but the bigger part of it is the bad habits of Durant and Westbrook. They’re so used to doing everything their way and with ISO ball, that they just can’t help themselves in crunch time. Whether or not they can reign things in next year remains to be seen. We saw some positive signs throughout the playoffs, but old habits die hard and it might take John McClane to kill the habits they picked up with Scott Brooks.