Showing Line-up Creativity
After much scrutiny to start the season, Donovan must be credited with a clever wrinkle to his playing line-ups. The Thunder coach deployed a couple of interesting line-ups but one that caught the eye featured Schroder, Abrines, Diallo, Patterson, and Grant.
Schroder’s a natural ball handler and excellent in pick and roll sets. Here, Donovan surrounds him with an athletic big man (Grant), two very good 3-point shooters (Abrines, Patterson) and an athletic guard who attacks the glass (Diallo).
What makes this unit so special is the ability to move the ball and find the open man. In the play below, Schroder finds a rolling Grant at the rim for an easy alley-oop dunk.
Oklahoma City run the same play again only this time Grant finds a wide open Patterson for three.
Donovan adds some variation to the play by utilizing Abrines as the primary ball handler. Here, he makes the correct read by finding a wide open Schroder as Grant attracts attention rolling to the rim.
At some point, one thinks Westbrook will get a chance with this line-up or one loaded with shooters. The biggest takeaway from this line-up is Donovan is finally showing some offensive creativity and putting his players in positions to succeed.