OKC Thunder post practice notes from July 19th

OKC Thunder coach Billy Donovan, spoke to media after Sunday practice as did Terrance Ferguson and Kevin Hervey.

The second full weekend in the Disney bubble was completed on Sunday with the OKC Thunder again spending time on the practice court. Likewise, the team had head coach Billy Donovan and players speak virtually to the media.

This was the 12 day the team has been on the Disney campus and 10th since passing quarantine requirements. Of those 10 days all but one featured workouts for the team when they elected to take a day to allow players to recover from pushing their bodies in preparation for the restart.

OKC Thunder post-practice takeaways

Billy Donovan:

Thunder head coach Billy Donovan is getting accustomed to the question invariably asked after each practice and the player it is focused on. Did Andre Roberson play, and how is he looking?

Again, on Sunday Roberson was a participant and the bench boss offered some additional insight on his progress.

Of particular encouragement for Donovan is the level Dre is at defensively. He noted that while Roberson is not as the same pre-injury defensive level he believes he can get there stating ‘he is still very disruptive.’

More specifically, Donovan said it’s clear Roberson still possesses all the things that made Roberson such a strong defensive presence. Erik Horne tweet offers up Donovan’s specific quote:

In terms of offense (the biggest gap in Roberson’s pre-injury game), Donovan noted Roberson is really good at screening and slipping screens to find ways to score. The coach noted the challenge for Roberson is playing with so many new teammates. This is a valid point given it’s been over two years since Dre played meaning only Steven Adams and Terrance Ferguson are still on the squad he last played with.

Other notes from Donovan were he told reporters is ‘fully supportive’ of Dennis Schroder exiting the bubble to be on hand for the birth of his second child. As we noted last week, the due date is in three to four weeks.

Terrance Ferguson:

In his time with the media, Terrance Ferguson spoke about his daughter. If you’ve caught his social media you’ll know TFerg is face-timing with her daily and producing some of the cutest content in the bubble. TFerg confirmed this saying ‘She’s my world.m we blow each other up on the phone every day.’

Ferguson also noted that the season suspension was unfortunate but that he personally loved being able to spend so much more time with his daughter during this formulating time in her life. He bought her a bouncy house (blow-up house) and spent a lot of time playing with her in it.

While he enjoyed being with his daughter he didn’t neglect his team duties making sure to run hills and lift weights daily noting his increased strength would allow him to bump up against most NBA players — well, all except one on his own team.

Kevin Hervey:

For the first time in the bubble, the assembled media heard from Kevin Hervey who became the late replacement for Isaiah Roby who underwent surgery and could not attend.

Not surprisingly Hervey said he’s appreciative of the opportunity and plans on doing whatever is required of him.

For those wondering what that could mean for Hervey, I’ll note last season in the Raptors run to the title players like Jeremy Lin didn’t get much playing time but the role they played in preparing the starters and core contributors for each series was vital.

Hervey stated it hasn’t taken the team long to get back in shape and called the OKC Thunder practices ‘super-duper competitive.’

This wraps up the post-practice notes from Sunday.