OKC Thunder In the news – youngsters demonstrate growth, contributing to wins
OKC Thunder in the news for Monday October 9 focuses on the players other than the OK3 who’ve been demonstrating growth and contributing in preseason.
It’s a plot line the OKC Thunder will experience several times this season. An opponent without similar star power and slated as the under dog. Just like it’s commonplace for teams to raise their effort against top squads, similarly it’s not usual for teams to play down to their competition.
That’s what occurred Sunday when the Thunder faced the scrappy Australian team, Melbourne United. Prior to the game it seemed like the perfect opportunity for the OK3 to mesh offensively and develop better chemistry. That didn’t happen as the Thunder were in a battle right to the bitter end when they pulled out a last minute victory.
En route to their victory it was the OKC Thunder youngsters who became the difference. If there is a positive to pull from this match, it would be the play of several players not named Russell Westbrook, Paul George or Carmelo Anthony. Each of the OK3 had tough days at the office specifically in terms of their shot efficiency.
More from Thunderous Intentions
- Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
- Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
- 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
- Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
- Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder
Enter unlikely stars Andre Roberson, Steven Adams and Josh Huestis. The latter made two pivotal blocks which enabled the Thunder to snare the win. The timing for Huestis to showcase his assets and prove he can be a contributor could result in Donovan utilizing the forward more in season.
With that let’s look at the top stories about your OKC Thunder in the news.
Westbrook doesn’t want to answer chemistry issues daily:
As I noted in my column today Russ isn’t exactly in love with the media portion of his job. As much as fans want to hear from him, I get it. It’s a bit of an old school principal to witness players who compete every game let alone every possession.
That’s what makes Westbrook the rare alpha dog in this era. Given his competitiveness, it possibly explains his reluctance to discuss the chemistry issues. As for that offensive chemistry the team and coach Donovan note the OKC Thunder are utilizing the preseason to primarily focus on defense. Dissecting the squads three preseason games does point to overall success in this regard. Royce White of ESPN provides additional insight.
"The Thunder have one preseason game left — Tuesday at Denver — before nine days off to prepare for their opener against the Knicks. It’s all a work in progress. Although a close call against Melbourne United certainly wasn’t something they expected, nobody is sweating a few rough patches, especially because there is a belief within the team that they can be special defensively.“Our defense is good. That’s all that matters, man,” Westbrook said. “As long as we defend at a high level, offense is easy. Offense is easy. So we ain’t worried about that.”"
Patterson and Anthony make Bleacher Report top power forward list:
As the regular season approaches lists predicting the best players are plentiful. In Bleacher Report’s most recent contribution Dan Favale serves up his top 15 power forwards in the game. Notably two OKC Thunder players make the cut. At 14 Patrick Patterson makes Favale’s cut. One interesting ranking above Patterson is Ben Simmons who has yet to play a minute in the NBA regular season. :
"Oklahoma City can, and should, use him as a lineup supercharger. Combinations that feature him as a small-ball 5 will do some serious damage, but he switches smoothly enough on defense and swishes spot-up triplets at a high enough clip to remain effective as a full-time 4."
And at an arguably low ranked ninth Carmelo Anthony hits the top ten. Favale’s top ten list has reasonable entries, though placing Jae Crowder seventh seems like a stretch.
"A heavier spot-up role in tandem with this switch will recapture most of his Anthony’s mismatch appeal. He is unstoppable when coming around screens or just circling drives and launching off the catch.Eighty-one players finished 200 or more spot-up plays last season. Anthony’s 1.23 points per possessions ranked sixth. And that was while he played for a sorry Knicks team devoid of a first-rate playmaker. Both his volume and efficiency should—and must—climb next to Paul George‘s and Russell Westbrook‘s."
Josh Huestis makes a mark:
Recognizing it’s can be difficult to catch all 82 games the Thunderous Intentions writing team is your secret weapon. Each game our team will serve up a preview for the upcoming game, post game grades and Tony Heims 5 takeaways provide lessons learned from each match. Also Gideon Lim will offer his film recap segments for several games this season. All in all the TI team will keep fans well informed throughout the season. In his most recent 5 takeaways Tony Heim serves up a beauty:
"Huestis sealed the OKC Thunder victory with those two blocks in the final ten seconds of Sunday’s game. And those were only half of Huestis’ blocks in his 11 minutes of playing time. After playing with OKC reserves for most of the preseason, the 25-year old finally had a chance to show what he can do when surrounded by NBA players. He missed his two three-point attempts, but that was the only flaw from his game tonight. Billy Donovan has to give the kid a shot in Game One or the state of Oklahoma may riot."
To that end, if you missed the recent games make sure to check out:
- post game grades versus Melbourne United
- post game grades versus Pelicans
- 5 takeaways from match versus New Orleans
- 5 takeaways from Rockets game
That wraps up OKC Thunder in the news for October 9. Hope you enjoyed the featured articles today. Be sure to visit the site for compelling articles and interact with us on Twitter. Check back daily and make Thunderous Intentions your go to site for all things OKC Thunder.