Five takeaways from the Thunder’s loss in Milwaukee
By Tony Heim
5. Stretch/athletic big men murk the Thunder virtually every night
You’re welcome, because this is a two-part takeaway. The first part of this is the fact that Oklahoma City has struggled against teams with non-traditional big man. And this is at both the power forward AND center position. The second part of this is that Jerami Grant has become the most important prospect in OKC.
Going back to Part One. The Thunder have been hot recently; their last two losses have come against the Memphis Grizzlies and the Bucks. The Grizzlies rolled out JaMychal Green at power forward against Domantas Sabonis (more on him later). Green’s athleticism was too much for the Thunder and he finished with 17 points on only 7 shots. Fast forward to tonight and a much more skilled Jabari Parker did even more damage.
Parker’s ability to stretch out to the three-point line took Steven Adams away from the paint, allowing Giannis Antetokounmpo to attack the rim with ease. Neither Adams, Sabonis, Enes Kanter and Joffrey Lauvergne (all of OKC’s traditional bigs) are athletic enough to stay close and in front of a player like Parker; it allowed Parker to knockdown a few jumpers that should have been more closely contested.
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Which brings me to Part Two. If you’ve watched the Thunder, you have seen that Jerami Grant is at his best when playing the stretch four. He’s got the wingspan and athleticism to make up for his lack of height, PLUS he’s developing a nice little three-point shot since joining OKC.
The more Grant plays, the more comfortable he looks in the Thunder’s system. In this day and age, you can’t rely on traditional big men to command most of your minutes at the 4 and 5 spots. Billy Donovan needs to keep playing Grant in crunch time like he did tonight; Jerami’s the only answer for opposing stretch four’s on this roster.