Why Andre Roberson is a lineup nightmare

Andre Roberson is experiencing decreased minutes because his offensive struggles have become a problem his defense can’t help solve.

Andre Roberson just signed a three-year, 30-million-dollar contract to stay in Oklahoma City and is now playing with proverbial fire as his offensive abilities are once again being exposed.

Through five games at the time of this article’s conception, Roberson is averaging career worst numbers in all the main statistical categories barring his rookie season when he played an average of ten minutes a game. That doesn’t even start to include his atrocious 14 percent shooting from the perimeter.

It is clear to anyone who watches Roberson is an offensive liability when he is on the court. This leads to head coach Billy Donovan struggling to find lineups he can insert Roberson into where his defensive prowess helps more than his lackluster shooting hurts.

The main point of note is that through the last two games, Donovan has been limiting Roberson’s minutes even more. This is a combination of Roberson not helping space the floor and the budding rotational potential of Jerami Grant and Alex Abrines.

Roberson has started all five games for the Thunder, but both Grant and Abrines play more overall minutes, including Abrines being out on the court during crunch time for his three-point shooting and ability to hit free throws. Just another dent added to Roberson’s ride.

Watching the last few games, other than guarding the best wing player on each team, Donovan has been using Roberson in more off-ball screen plays where he ends up cutting to the basket for potential lay ins while the shooter he screens for runs to the corner or another motion play.

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This is likely to continue as Roberson is a competent finisher at the rim and an above average rebounder. The real issue comes when Patrick Patterson comes off of his minute restriction and sees an uptick in minutes.

The Thunder bench is an area of concern, no matter how good Grant and Abrines look early on and how competent a backup Raymond Felton is for Russell Westbrook. Patterson is a perfect player to run off the seats when they need to go small with him at five or if they want to space the floor with Adams running the middle.

Andre has already seen his minutes decrease from 30.1 minutes a game last season to just 17.4 this year, though this is likely more a byproduct of adding Paul George and Carmelo Anthony during the offseason. Should his offensive woes continue to escalate, I don’t see the lineup staying the same as the season rolls on.

Donovan will continue running out the starting five of Westbrook-Roberson-George-Anthony and Adams for now, but when Patterson is back and if Abrines continues to improve it could spell trouble for Roberson’s minutes and future on the team.