Tuesday night marked another win with Alex Abrines in the starting lineup due to Victor Oladipo being out with back spasms.
Even though it is a very small sample size, the Thunder are now 3-0 with Alex Abrines as the starter in Oladipo’s absence. In those three games, Abrines has scored 19, 13, and 11.
When you take a look at the season stats, Oladipo obviously is better in every category, but one stat that is very surprising is PER (Player Efficiency Rating). Oladipo’s PER is 14.04 but Abrines is not far behind at 10.38.
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PER has to do with how a player helps his team when he is on the court.
If Billy Donovan ultimately decided to bring Oladipo off the bench and start Abrines I think it could help but also hurt. If Abrines did start, it would definitely give the Thunder an instant shooter right out of the gate. With Abrines averaging nearly 40% on the season from three, it would help spread the floor to get the Thunder and Westbrook on an early roll.
Another benefit would be Oladipo coming off the bench with the second unit. Oladipo’s stats and efficiency would likely see a boost if he did come off the bench. Playing back-ups over tired starters could bode well for the Thunder’s bench scoring.
A bench of Norris Cole, Victor Oladipo, Doug McDermott, Taj Gibson and Enes Kanter would be the best bench lineup in the NBA no doubt.
With positives there are always negatives. A negative of Oladipo off the bench would be the starters don’t come out as strong and get down quick. Without Oladipo in the starting lineup, there would only be one superstar on the court.
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Another negative would be Oladipo could get a little frustrated if he was moved to the bench. Even though he would end up playing more minutes than Abrines over the game, I think he could still become frustrated that he lost his starting job to a rookie.
Overall, I think that Oladipo should still be the starter in the long run. You don’t give guys 80 million dollars to come off the bench. That is just my opinion. But, I would like to see Donovan possibly experiment a little. Once Oladipo does come back from his injury, maybe keep Abrines in the starting lineup for a few more games and ease Oladipo back in. Because back injuries are something that you definitely do not want to rush.
Come playoff time, Oladipo should definitely be the starter, but I would not mind seeing Donovan experiment some with his new weapons between now and then.