OKC Thunder: Examining 5 potential lineups Billy Donovan could utilize

Lineup 5: All bench lineups

• Point Guard: Dennis Schroder
• Shooting Guard: Raymond Felton
• Small Forward: Alex Abrines
• Power Forward: Jerami Grant
• Center: Nerlens Noel

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

Projected Offensive Rating: 112.1

Projected Defensive Rating: 113.1

Projected Net Rating: -1.0

Projected 3-Point Percent:: 33.70 percent

Last year, Billy Donovan made sure one of the big three always stayed on the court with the other role players. George specifically often played stretches of the game with the bench unit.

On the rare occasions the Thunder head coach tried to see what an all bench players unit could do the results wren’t as discouraging as imagined. In 184 minutes where none of Westbrook, Anthony and George were on the court, OKC outscored opponents by 1.4 points per 100 possessions.

This year, with a more suited second unit, Donovan could try to do the same and see what happens. But I’m warning you: projected ratings aren’t optimistic.

All Stats taken from Nba.com, Basketball Reference and Jacob Goldstein‘ spreadsheets