Thunderous Thoughts: OKC Thunder will face less clutch situations

Welcome to Thunderous Thoughts, a weekly look at the OKC Thunder where THE PRESEASON STARTS NEXT WEEK!

Carmelo Anthony is in Oklahoma City with Paul George. Those are true words that I just typed that would have had me laughing at a year ago if I had typed them as a serious suggestion.

Everyone is wondering how Anthony will fit on the team alongside George and Russell Westbrook. George’s fit was easy. He slides into the starting small forward spot, plays off the ball with Westbrook, and runs the second unit. Anthony’s is a bit more complicated. He’ll start and end games as the power forward, check the weakest guard on defense, and still want his 18 shots a game.

The criticism of all three players is similar.

Westbrook is a ball hog who must get his shots up, George has to have the ball at the end of the game, Anthony is a ball stopper who forces shots.

This has led many to speculate that Oklahoma City will fall apart in the clutch as Westbrook, George, and Anthony argue over who takes the last shot.

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We all know it’s going to happen. The Thunder are going to lose games by one or two points where one guy takes the last shot and misses. The media will yell and scream about how that guy should have passed the ball instead of taking the shot. The two players who didn’t get the shot may express a bit of frustration that they didn’t get to shoot. It’s an 82-game season. These things happen.

But it won’t happen every game. In fact, it probably won’t happen all that often.

Oklahoma City lived and died on the back of Russell Westbrook last season. If the team could carry themselves to a competitive game with three minutes remaining, Westbrook could do the rest. OKC went 26-16 in clutch games last season. That’s literally 26 games Russell Westbrook single handily won on his own. They were 12-7 in games decided by three points or less. That’s 19 games where they were going to live or die by Westbrook. No team in the league had more close games than Oklahoma City.

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The additions of George and Anthony, along with minor moves made by Sam Presti, help ensure that these close games don’t happen as often. It’s basketball. It’s a game of runs. One team will have a great night and OKC will have an off night, leading to a competitive game that shouldn’t be all that competitive on paper. But when you have three All-Stars, the chances of everyone having an off night is decreased.

When Kevin Durant joined the Warriors last year, we heard the same arguments. “There’s only one ball to go around,” they said. The Warriors were 3-4 in three point games last year. They had a losing record in close games, and yet that didn’t matter because they barely played in close games.

Adding George and Anthony should mean more games that are close, but more comfortable. Their additions should increase the margin of error.

There will be those moments. All three guys were “the guy” on their respective teams last year and all three are going to have to sacrifice in order for this work. Who knows if it’ll happen. My guess is that it will take at least a month for them to figure it out. But great players who want to win typically figure it out.