Five takeaways from the Thunder’s buzzer-beating loss to Timberwolves

Andre Roberson’s minutes are quickly shrinking

The Lowkey MVP (shoutout the Day Ones) is making it hard for me to defend him. In the season opener takeaways I talked abut how Alex Abrines may make a play for some crunch-time lineups. It turns out that it’s a combination of Abrines’ improvement and Andre Roberson’s “decline.”

Let me get this clear: Roberson has not declined as a basketball player. His defense simply isn’t as important with Paul George in the fold. What’s worrisome is we got a sense during the first two games – it took this Minnesota game to solidify that sentiment.

Unlike the Knicks and the Jazz, Minnesota is the rare team with two above-average/elite wing scorers in Andrew Wiggins and Jimmy Butler. With Roberson and George the Thunder have the defensive weapons to slow the duo down, but that didn’t happen last night. Wiggins went off for 27 on 50% shooting. Butler had a solid 15 and 6.

Roberson’s 22 minutes last night actually brought his average up to 19 minutes per game. When teams don’t have Wiggins and Butler-like talent Billy Donovan has no reason to play the Second-Team All-Defender.

Throughout his career George has guarded the opposition’s best player while also being the #1 option on offense. Asking him to do that in OKC, but as the #2/#3 scoring option, is still a lighter workload than what PG is used to.

All this talk about defense, and we haven’t mentioned the elephant in the room. Roberson’s offense.

MUST READ: How to make Andre Roberson an offensive weapon

Through three games the 25-year old has struggled mightily. Last night was the apex. Roberson badly airballed both of his free throws and missed a wide-open layup – both may have been the difference between a win and a loss. If Roberson isn’t going to be able to make the simple offensive plays the Thunder don’t need to play him.

Having Paul George affords them that luxury.