OKC Thunder In the news: Morrow verifies Westbrook not why KD left, Kanter proving he can play
Former OKC Thunder player Anthony Morrow confirms Westbrook wasn’t reason Durant left, Kanter gutting it out and Bill Self as a coaching option.
Former OKC Thunder verified Russell Westbrook was not the reason why Kevin Durant exited. Another former player Enes Kanter is proving what a warrior he is and that he can, in fact, play. While Kansas head coach Bill Self is examined as an option Presti should investigate to be the OKC Thunder Head Coach.
Anthony Morrow backs Westbrook:
It’s been an on-going narrative that Russell Westbrook took all the shade and blame when Kevin Durant bolted OKC to join the All-Star loaded Golden State Warriors. Since the summer of 2016, several former players have stepped up to state this was absolutely not the case. The curious timing of both Kendrick Perkins and Anthony Morrow discussing this in recent days does give pause.
Morrow’s comments were captured by Ben Stinar of Amico Hoops.
"Others have given Westbrook the blame for Durant bailing on being beloved Oklahoma City and heading for greener pastures with the Golden State Warriors, a team that is loose, shares the ball and has an elite coach. Durant is not intense like him, and others view him leaving as the belief that he couldn’t win a championship with Westbrook as his co-pilot.“It wasn’t as much to do with Russ as the media made it look like at all, I know that for a fact,” Morrow said.“He wanted to build on his legacy, he wanted to win. He felt like we tried, 10 years, it ain’t work… I could tell you that that’s how he was thinking about that.”"
Perhaps it’s just coincidence, but could it be the former Thunder players are coming out in support of Russ because they’ve been asked to? Following up on that theory perchance these players have been contacted to spin this news into the atmosphere to add some pressure onto Sam Presti which could lead to Billy Donovan getting the ax. Or maybe it’s simply a coincidence with Perkins and Morrow just responding to questions.
Whatever the reason the effect of these conversations does turn the spotlight on why Durant left. Some are stating it is just a matter of Durant wanting to win championships with a team offering the best chance. and to build his legacy. As far as how OKC Thunder fans and brass should view these comments, it opens the door for reasons to let Donovan go.
The following Morrow quote certainly feeds the fuel on Donovan being up against it right out of the gate and further cites his mishandling of the situation:
"His first time coaching in the NBA was one of the most challenging jobs in league history. Championship-or bust was the ultimate expectation having two of the top ten players in the world on his roster. Coaching college phenoms is a lot different than NBA superstars, and everyone knows that.Morrow doesn’t think he came into the fire as aggressive as he should have been on a team full of personalities. “A great guy. I love him,” he said.“I was just interested to see after a few weeks when stuff get bad is he really going to call people out? And he didn’t really do that. Not to the people that he should’ve been doing it, too.”"
Enes Kanter proving his mettle:
It’s not like I go looking for reasons to indict Billy Donovan‘s coaching they just keep presenting themselves. In this case, it’s the play of Enes Kanter for the Portland Trail Blazers. When Kanter was released from the Knicks it seemed like a logical player for the OKC Thunder to pick up given he knows the system, gets along well with the players and most importantly could’ve provided scoring, rebounding and helped initiate ball movement for a Thunder bench who frequently struggled to score.
But, I digress. The news today is on how impressive Kanter is performing in the second round. It’s hard to fathom Kanter played 56 minutes in the marathon quadruple overtime game. But, factor in he did so with a separated shoulder, an elbow injury and apparently other issues (his thigh I believe).
Kanter took to Twitter after the game to call out Nikola Jokic purposely hitting him in the shoulder which caused him further damage and his coach Terry Stotts called out Jokic for the shot. Hey, it’s the NBA, it’s the playoffs, these things will happen. I’m all for playing physical, aggressive basketball. Jokic isn’t a typically dirty player and unless he’s walking up and punching Kanter in the shoulder every set then it’s part of the game.
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Still, kudos to Kanter for absolutely bucking up and playing through what has to be an excruciatingly painful injury.
As for the OKC Thunder tie-in we discussed at TI how crazy it is “defensive tactician” Billy Donovan couldn’t find a way to keep Kanter on the court (or improve his defense).But in 23 regular season and eight postseason games Terry Stotts has seemingly found a way to recognize defensive improvements from the Turkish center.
Bill Self as an option?
In spite of the fact Sam Presti has yet to state Billy Donovan won’t return the TI team aren’t giving up our investment in forcing his hand. TI scribe Rylan Stiles looks at a local product Bill Self who likely won’t be the right fit but can’t be ignored given his ties to Oklahoma and command of both sides of the court.
That’s it for In the news on May 5. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and remember to visit us daily as we continue to dive into the OKC Thunder postseason.