OKC Thunder: Firing Billy Donovan won’t solve team’s biggest issues

Sure, Billy Donovan has made some questionable decisions as head coach of the OKC Thunder, but firing him now would just be putting a band-aid over a broken bone.

For about three years from 2013-2015, OKC Thunder fans were calling for then Head Coach Scott Brooks to be fired. They were sick of the predictable rotations, lack of ball movement, and poor adjustments. His answer to everything was always “play harder”. After the 2015 season, fans got their wish. Brooks was let go in favor of University of Florida coach Billy Donovan. This move, for the most part, was generally respected given his resume, highlighted by back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.

Now, less than four years later, after a disappointing 2018 and franchise worst 0-4 start to the season, the fire Donovan movement is piling by the masses. While some of the reasons might be different, such as the weird lineups and his obsession with Terrance Ferguson, the overlying issues that have haunted the Thunder the past decade still remain.

This begs the question, what would firing Billy Donovan actually accomplish? Firing the head coach is always the low hanging fruit. Heck, the fruit isn’t even hanging, it’s on the ground. But the fact of the matter remains, until the team works out its biggest problems, if they’re even fixable at this point, the same issues will remain no matter who the head coach is.