OKC Thunder: Ranking the Most Intriguing Pick & Roll Combos

4. Russell Westbrook and Andre Roberson

The length and athleticism of this duo is enough to make this combination intriguing. Take into consideration Roberson’s significant leap over the offseason and you have the potential for a deadly pick & roll.

We saw an interesting dynamic from these two in last year’s playoffs. Roberson was fantastic at reading the defense for easy backcuts; Westbrook read the play every time and fed the 24-year old every time.

We saw the pair utilized in pick & rolls against Golden State; it resulted in easy buckets. Now all Billy Donovan needs to do is figure out how to harness that on a nightly basis. If he surrounds the pair with a  lineup of shooters-say Alex Abrines, Ersan Ilyasova and Domantas Sabonis-the spacing would be more than enough for these two to operate.

The combination won’t work if bigs are clogging the lane. They need proper space to work around the rim; points aren’t going to come off of jump shots from these two.

Once teams realize they HAVE to keep someone by the rim to stop a driving Westbrook it immediately opens up open jumpers for the other three on the court. Hence filling the court with shooters.It will be up to Russ to consistently make the correct read for this pair to work.