With the NBA season being suspended, let us take a moment to try and find something positive in this situation for the OKC Thunder.
On Wednesday, with the OKC Thunder poised to move ahead of the Utah Jazz and take over the fourth seed, instead, the season was suspended. We know this, and there is a huge hole in my life which will last for at least 30 days, I know I am not alone there.
However, I try and look for the positives in any situation and they are many for the OKC Thunder, assuming the season is allowed to restart. The first positive that I want to focus on is how the break is going to benefit Steven Adams.
Can't script it any better than this. #ThunderUp @CP3 ➡️ @RealStevenAdams pic.twitter.com/4Lp4RWpN1q
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 8, 2020
As we all know, Adams puts his body on the line every single night for the Thunder. He sets screens for his teammates which shake up the opposition. Even though he appears to be carved from granite, Steven Adams is only flesh and bone.
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Each screen that he sets must have an impact on his body. Therefore, when he makes it to the playoffs, his body is not what it was at the start of the season and he is not as effective. This has a huge impact on the OKC Thunder offense.
Adams is such a team man that he does not care about numbers. If he can get a player open for a better shot, he is happy with that. Also, if he can box out his player for one of his teammates to get the ball, he is happy to do so.
However, we saw earlier in the year when Adams was struggling with injury how big of an impact he has on the team. Taking last season as an example, Adams averaged 13.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per game.
During the playoffs last season, Adams averaged 11.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. He had a drop off in almost every category and last playoffs he was against Enes Kanter so it was not that he was being defended with any ferocity.
However, the biggest drop off is in offensive rebounding. Last season Adams averaged 4.9 offensive rebounds per game in the regular season. In the postseason that dropped to 2.4 per game. This is not a matchup thing, this is his body not being able to keep going.
Adams is going to be able to rest up during this break, he will probably enjoy training his dog some more like, he did over the4 All-Star break.
This means that we will have a fully fit Steven Adams when the playoffs come around. That is a good thing for the OKC Thunder.