The OKC Thunder once had a stingy defense. With only 16 games left, do they have what it takes to get it back?
For much of this season, Oklahoma City has enjoyed a sharp defensive edge over their opponents. They were anchored by Defensive Player of the Year candidates Paul George and Andre Roberson on the wings, and further spurred by Russell Westbrook’s increased aptitude for steals. Before the All-Star Break, the OKC Thunder were within half a point of having a top 5 defensive rating.
Since the All-Star Break? 21st. It gets much worse when I mention they are within one point of teams that are tanking so hard that Adam Silver has had to make threats to get them to play their best players. For lack of a better word, the Thunder have gone soft defensively.
Although Thunder fans would be quick to point to January 27th – the day Andre Roberson ruptured his patella – as the point that the Thunder’s defensive woes began, it may not be that simple. In the 8 games following his injury, the Thunder were able to maintain a top ten defensive rating and hold the vaunted Warriors offense to 105 points.
Quotes tell a different story
Instead, I believe a case could be made that the Thunder are losing focus on the defensive end of the floor. Just look at this quote from Billy Donovan when asked about switching screens during Tuesday night’s game against the Rockets:
"“We weren’t switching. There was times we got caught up on some switches based on out switching partners, personnel-wise. And then there was several times when they’re kind of going back and forth and kind of forcing the switch. But once the switch happens, that’s where the team defense comes in. You can’t just put a guy on an island all by himself and expect him to guard a guy. I thought that when we did have some of those opportunities where we had some matchups that were a guard on a big, big on a small, we’ve got to do a better job, especially in dribble penetration, rotating than we did. And a couple times that we were late rotating, if we did take away a dunk, we were probably late getting to the corner.”"
Take this in context with Melo’s quote about the Thunder’s game plan last night:
"“I mean, regardless of what a team does, we’ve been successful when we stick to what we do best, when we load up, when we help each other, when we communicate. You know, when we’re executing our defensive schemes, that’s when we’re effective, and I thought tonight we kind of got away from that a little bit, of getting away from our defensive schemes and executing defensively at times. And it hurts.”"
So what’s the issue?
These quotes beg two questions,:are the Thunder incapable of playing great defense? Or, are they so absorbed with their offensive struggles that they have forgotten what made them so good in the first place?
Before Andre Roberson’s injury, the entire team except Terrance Ferguson had a defensive rating below 106.2. Since his injury? Only two players do (Josh Huestis and Patrick Patterson).
To all the people bemoaning Andre Roberson’s injury as the reason OKC’s defensive ceiling has come crashing down, explain to me how one player, whose 26.6 minutes per game barely eclipse half of a game, could change the defensive outputs of an entire roster by that much? I’m one of Andre Roberson’s biggest fans, and I know the answer to this question: he can’t.
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To say he did is an excuse. The Thunder can do better and they should expect more of themselves in their final 16 games. Will they return to where they were before Dre’s injury? Probably not. But they can do better.
They’ll need to – their playoff hopes hang in the balance.