Oklahoma City Thunder Regular Season 2015-2016 Part 2

[spearsy23]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Thunder_Digest/status/685740708498571264[/tweet]

Our expected W-L should be 28-9 according to BKRef.

Man, what a game. At least Dion got benched.

That isn't bad considering the context (Durant injury, Ibaka injury, new coach).
.

Ibaka injury?

And part of the context is also a fairly easy schedule and 8-8 against teams over .500

[getrichordie]

Our expected W-L should be 28-9 according to BKRef.

Man, what a game. At least Dion got benched.

That isn't bad considering the context (Durant injury, Ibaka injury, new coach).
.

Ibaka injury?

And part of the context is also a fairly easy schedule and 8-8 against teams over .500

Maybe I am mistaken but wasn't Ibaka injured toward the end of last year? Ah, just looked it up to confirm. He missed the team's last 18 games last year due to undergoing a knee surgery.

And true, that is part of the context, but I wonder if there is a way to see how previous years 'strength of schedule' stacks up compared to this one.

[spearsy23]

That isn't bad considering the context (Durant injury, Ibaka injury, new coach).
.

Ibaka injury?

And part of the context is also a fairly easy schedule and 8-8 against teams over .500

Maybe I am mistaken but wasn't Ibaka injured toward the end of last year? Ah, just looked it up to confirm. He missed the team's last 18 games last year due to undergoing a knee surgery.

And true, that is part of the context, but I wonder if there is a way to see how previous years 'strength of schedule' stacks up compared to this one.

What does his injury last year matter though? He came into camp as "the most improved player" according to Presti.

[getrichordie]

Ibaka injury?

And part of the context is also a fairly easy schedule and 8-8 against teams over .500

Maybe I am mistaken but wasn't Ibaka injured toward the end of last year? Ah, just looked it up to confirm. He missed the team's last 18 games last year due to undergoing a knee surgery.

And true, that is part of the context, but I wonder if there is a way to see how previous years 'strength of schedule' stacks up compared to this one.

What does his injury last year matter though? He came into camp as "the most improved player" according to Presti.

Fair point, my fellow comrade. I recant my original statement including Ibaka's injury, then. I would still argue that the firing of long-time coach Scott Brooks and Durant's comeback is enough to impact a team by 2 wins. When you compare this season to the other seasons, you have to factor those reasons in when talking about the Thunder's shaky start (according to our diehard fans). Also, you have to think that Durant's return has drastically impacted Kyle Singler's role on the team, who was thought to be an addition (not subtraction) to the rotation when the trade took place. So not only has Kyle had play a significantly different role AND play in his 3rd offensive system in a year in a half, but so have Kanter and Augustin. Understanding of offensive systems, defensive schemes, building of chemistry between player and coach and new team members... these things take time.

When putting the Thunder underneath a microscope, sure, we could be a hell of a lot better, and ideally we would tweak things here and there and improve the Thunder automatically. And no one is saying that the Thunder shouldn't be under the microscope when you have, arguably, two of the top 5 players in the game and you are under pressure to impress your superstar because of his impending free agency.

Now, within that context, maybe we should be freaking out and picking the Thunder apart as they have had some uneccessarily close games and have definitely lacked energy in a lot of games. But I think if you take a step back and view the Thunder as a whole, the team is improved and shows signs that it will continue to improve. Our offense isn't as stale as it was under Brooks. We are starting to get some more ball movement and more importantly, some more off-the-ball movement.

With that being said, I have faith in the Thunder to win it all this year and believe they will rise to the occasion!!

[bondom34]

I love this team, but GSW is killing people and OKC just beat LAL by a nailbiter. Barring injury, they're just not at that level and Donovan has given me zero faith he's the guy to get them there.

[KD35Brah]

I love this team, but GSW is killing people and OKC just beat LAL by a nailbiter. Barring injury, they're just not at that level and Donovan has given me zero faith he's the guy to get them there.

I was mad about last night, but the Lakers were on a 3 game winstreak and playing inspired ball. I'd rather be the winner instead of the loser.

The Warriors played Brooklyn tightly in all the games they played against them. The Spurs had a tough game against the Lakers too.

The funny thing is if Donovan drilled into these guys that they have to put a hand up on a jump shooter every time no matter the situation we would be such a better defense team. He needs to tell everyone if a player is shooting a jumpshot anywhere near him he needs to atleast put a hand up to affect their shots.

[bondom34]

I love this team, but GSW is killing people and OKC just beat LAL by a nailbiter. Barring injury, they're just not at that level and Donovan has given me zero faith he's the guy to get them there.

I was mad about last night, but the Lakers were on a 3 game winstreak and playing inspired ball. I'd rather be the winner instead of the loser.

The Warriors played Brooklyn tightly in all the games they played against them. The Spurs had a tough game against the Lakers too.

The funny thing is if Donovan drilled into these guys that they have to put a hand up on a jump shooter every time no matter the situation we would be such a better defense team. He needs to tell everyone if a player is shooting a jumpshot anywhere near him he needs to atleast put a hand up to affect their shots.

Yeah, that probably was a little harsh on my part, but they're not quite there IMO and Donovan hasn't inspired me. I agree on last nights game, esp considering they killed the Lakers the other 2 games, but Donovan's rotations have just completely baffled me. Why the hell he didn't put Adams and Robes in sooner was just beyond confusing.

[getrichordie]

I think it would do us well to understand that this is a process. I personally believe the defense will come along. It's hard as a coach to point out everything everyone is doing as wrong and harp on all the negatives. You have to slowly correct certain aspects of an individuals and a teams game. Donovan is probably really focused on getting the offense flowing so it isn't one dimensional and he isn't bottlenecking our stars come playoff time, but instead, giving them more options to work with. Lately, from listening into the huddles, I've seen him start to really push more towards giving up runs. I think OKC is getting better at that. I also believe that OKC is the kind of team that kind of plays to its opponent at times and while that isn't a good thing, it happens.

Good 'tester' games:

01/17...vs. MIA...talented team that can beat almost anyone when hot (no pun intended)
01/29...vs. HOU...while mediocre lately, HOU can light it up...interested to see how we handle HOU at home
02/07...@ GS...definitely a true test for us when going up against the reigning non-hungover champs at home after coming off of 3 days of rest
02/19...vs IND...at home vs. a Pacers team with good defense. definitely will watch this one.
02/21...vs CLE...for obvious reasons

will definitely be watching this 4-game stretch:

03/02...@ LAC
03/03...@ GS
03/06...@ MIL
03/09...vs LAC

[bondom34]

I think it would do us well to understand that this is a process. I personally believe the defense will come along. It's hard as a coach to point out everything everyone is doing as wrong and harp on all the negatives. You have to slowly correct certain aspects of an individuals and a teams game. Donovan is probably really focused on getting the offense flowing so it isn't one dimensional and he isn't bottlenecking our stars come playoff time, but instead, giving them more options to work with. Lately, from listening into the huddles, I've seen him start to really push more towards giving up runs. I think OKC is getting better at that. I also believe that OKC is the kind of team that kind of plays to its opponent at times and while that isn't a good thing, it happens.

Good 'tester' games:

01/17...vs. MIA...talented team that can beat almost anyone when hot (no pun intended)
01/29...vs. HOU...while mediocre lately, HOU can light it up...interested to see how we handle HOU at home
02/07...@ GS...definitely a true test for us when going up against the reigning non-hungover champs at home after coming off of 3 days of rest
02/19...vs IND...at home vs. a Pacers team with good defense. definitely will watch this one.
02/21...vs CLE...for obvious reasons

will definitely be watching this 4-game stretch:

03/02...@ LAC
03/03...@ GS
03/06...@ MIL
03/09...vs LAC

Problem:

Dion and Kanter suck at defense. And he hasn't shown an ability to have a good rotation in game.

[Pillendreher]

Man, I still don't know what to think about Kanter. He's easily one of the beste Centers in the league offensively, but his defense still isn't good enough. The eye test tells me he's trying and mostly succeeding, but the stats don't quite back it up. Some guys on DT are killing him, but I think you really have to look at the guys he's playing with as well.

Just look at this (and this is beyond crazy):

Augustin-Waiters-Morrow-Collison-Kanter: 113.5 DRtG|93.9 ORtG (76 min)
Augustin-Waiters-Singler-Collison-Kanter: 91.9 DRtG|93.5 ORtG (52 min)
Augustin-Waiters-Durant-Collison-Kanter: 99.2 DRtG|110.9 ORtG (44 min)

Can Kyle Singler be responsible for a 21.6p100 swing on the defensive end?! Let's have a look at 4-man-units:

Augustin-Kanter-Waiters-Singler: 98.8 DRtG (97 min)
Augustin-Collison-Kanter-Singler: 94.3 DRtG (58 min)
Augustin-Collison-Singler-Waiters: 88.7 DRtG (58 min)
Collison-Kanter-Singler-Waiters: 90.3 DRtG (57 min)

I think it's fair to say we have two good defenders on our bench - Singler and Collison (94.3 DRtG as a two-man-unit). And Kanter, Morrow and Waiters are all negatives defensively.

So let's take a look at what Payne brings to the table. Since he started getting minutes, the bench

Payne-Waiters-Morrow-Collison-Ibaka

has an ORtG of 110.6, an DRtG of 111.8 and therefore a NetRtG of -1.2. That's an improvement of +16.7pp100 offensively and +1.7pp100 defensively compared to Augustin. I think Payne has shown that he's gonna be a capable defensive player; he's getting calls for ticky-tack-crap (like that staying with the guy while running and getting called for the blocking every time), but at least he can stay in front of his man.

What we need for our 2nd unit is a wing that can play defense. Waiters is ranked 82 of 88 amond SGs in DRPM - he sucks. Even Morrow is better (57th). We would need a guy that can keep players away from the paint and therefore away from Kanter. Maybe we should give Robes a few minutes with the 2nd unit. He has played a total of 59 4th quarter minutes and I don't really understand why he has to start, but doesn't see the floor with the starters in the 4th. Give him some run with the bench and we'll see how it goes.

[Pillendreher]

Oh and another thought just came to me. I would change the way we stagger Durant's and Westbrook's minutes. As of right now, Durant is playing the whole 1st quarter and then the bench is out there as a whole. I'd propose we bring Westbrook in a few minutes earlier. Every 4-man-unit with Westbrook, Collison and Kanter that played at least 20 minutes has a double-digit-NetRtG. Westbrook-Collison-Kanter as a 3-man-lineup is a +21.2p100p in 71 minutes. If you put Morrow and Payne in there, the drop-off shouldn't be too high. You have 3 playmakers out there (Westbrook, Payne and to a certain extent Collison) and generally skilled offensive players.

This should work better than Durant being part of the 2nd unit.

[spearsy23]

Oh and another thought just came to me. I would change the way we stagger Durant's and Westbrook's minutes. As of right now, Durant is playing the whole 1st quarter and then the bench is out there as a whole. I'd propose we bring Westbrook in a few minutes earlier. Every 4-man-unit with Westbrook, Collison and Kanter that played at least 20 minutes has a double-digit-NetRtG. Westbrook-Collison-Kanter as a 3-man-lineup is a +21.2p100p in 71 minutes. If you put Morrow and Payne in there, the drop-off shouldn't be too high. You have 3 playmakers out there (Westbrook, Payne and to a certain extent Collison) and generally skilled offensive players.

This should work better than Durant being part of the 2nd unit.

I'd prefer getting Cam time with KD for now. He needs as much time as possible running the offense right now and KD needs work with the ball in his hands also. Post all-star break it makes sense to go with the best possible lineups, but for now we still have guys working their way into the offense that can benefit from being out of their comfort zone.

Oh, and I'm ready to move on from Kanter. He has shown plenty of skills to make him marketable, if he will agree to a trade I'd like to move him ASAP, if not then I want him gone this summer. Replacing him with a rim protector and Dion with any solid bench player will have us contending, and I think Enes should have enough trade value to bring that back.

[Pillendreher]

Oh and another thought just came to me. I would change the way we stagger Durant's and Westbrook's minutes. As of right now, Durant is playing the whole 1st quarter and then the bench is out there as a whole. I'd propose we bring Westbrook in a few minutes earlier. Every 4-man-unit with Westbrook, Collison and Kanter that played at least 20 minutes has a double-digit-NetRtG. Westbrook-Collison-Kanter as a 3-man-lineup is a +21.2p100p in 71 minutes. If you put Morrow and Payne in there, the drop-off shouldn't be too high. You have 3 playmakers out there (Westbrook, Payne and to a certain extent Collison) and generally skilled offensive players.

This should work better than Durant being part of the 2nd unit.

I'd prefer getting Cam time with KD for now. He needs as much time as possible running the offense right now and KD needs work with the ball in his hands also. Post all-star break it makes sense to go with the best possible lineups, but for now we still have guys working their way into the offense that can benefit from being out of their comfort zone.

OK I can agree with that.

Oh, and I'm ready to move on from Kanter. He has shown plenty of skills to make him marketable, if he will agree to a trade I'd like to move him ASAP, if not then I want him gone this summer. Replacing him with a rim protector and Dion with any solid bench player will have us contending, and I think Enes should have enough trade value to bring that back.

I think the main problem with Kanter has always been that we never really needed another offensive player. Something like Kanter for Middleton would certainly help this team more than Kanter that lives off of offensive rebounds.

[KD35Brah]

Oh and another thought just came to me. I would change the way we stagger Durant's and Westbrook's minutes. As of right now, Durant is playing the whole 1st quarter and then the bench is out there as a whole. I'd propose we bring Westbrook in a few minutes earlier. Every 4-man-unit with Westbrook, Collison and Kanter that played at least 20 minutes has a double-digit-NetRtG. Westbrook-Collison-Kanter as a 3-man-lineup is a +21.2p100p in 71 minutes. If you put Morrow and Payne in there, the drop-off shouldn't be too high. You have 3 playmakers out there (Westbrook, Payne and to a certain extent Collison) and generally skilled offensive players.

This should work better than Durant being part of the 2nd unit.

I'd prefer getting Cam time with KD for now. He needs as much time as possible running the offense right now and KD needs work with the ball in his hands also. Post all-star break it makes sense to go with the best possible lineups, but for now we still have guys working their way into the offense that can benefit from being out of their comfort zone.

OK I can agree with that.

Oh, and I'm ready to move on from Kanter. He has shown plenty of skills to make him marketable, if he will agree to a trade I'd like to move him ASAP, if not then I want him gone this summer. Replacing him with a rim protector and Dion with any solid bench player will have us contending, and I think Enes should have enough trade value to bring that back.

I think the main problem with Kanter has always been that we never really needed another offensive player. Something like Kanter for Middleton would certainly help this team more than Kanter that lives off of offensive rebounds.

I looked up Kanters 2 through 4 man lineups and they are best point differential on the entire team, especially with Westbrook.

4 man lineups
K. Durant | S. Ibaka | E. Kanter | R. Westbrook == +25 in 125 min

K. Durant | E. Kanter | D. Waiters | R. Westbrook == +42 in 95 min

3 man

K. Durant | E. Kanter | D. Waiters == +22 in 203 min

K. Durant | E. Kanter | R. Westbrook == +25 in 181 min

2 man

E. Kanter | R. Westbrook == +14 in 321 Min

K. Durant | E. Kanter == +17 in 294 Min

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/k/kanteen01/lineups/2016/

Kanter is fine where he is right now, but is playing him with multiple horrible defenders and subpar PnR guards maximizing what he's best at?

[KD35Brah]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AliAlShowaikh_/status/685888336867766274[/tweet]

[Pillendreher]

I'd prefer getting Cam time with KD for now. He needs as much time as possible running the offense right now and KD needs work with the ball in his hands also. Post all-star break it makes sense to go with the best possible lineups, but for now we still have guys working their way into the offense that can benefit from being out of their comfort zone.

OK I can agree with that.

Oh, and I'm ready to move on from Kanter. He has shown plenty of skills to make him marketable, if he will agree to a trade I'd like to move him ASAP, if not then I want him gone this summer. Replacing him with a rim protector and Dion with any solid bench player will have us contending, and I think Enes should have enough trade value to bring that back.

I think the main problem with Kanter has always been that we never really needed another offensive player. Something like Kanter for Middleton would certainly help this team more than Kanter that lives off of offensive rebounds.

I looked up Kanters 2 through 4 man lineups and they are best point differential on the entire team, especially with Westbrook.

4 man lineups
K. Durant | S. Ibaka | E. Kanter | R. Westbrook == +25 in 125 min

K. Durant | E. Kanter | D. Waiters | R. Westbrook == +42 in 95 min

3 man

K. Durant | E. Kanter | D. Waiters == +22 in 203 min

K. Durant | E. Kanter | R. Westbrook == +25 in 181 min

2 man

E. Kanter | R. Westbrook == +14 in 321 Min

K. Durant | E. Kanter == +17 in 294 Min

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/k/kanteen01/lineups/2016/

Kanter is fine where he is right now, but is playing him with multiple horrible defenders and subpar PnR guards maximizing what he's best at?

Yeah it's a little bit frustrating. We really won't know if Kanter's defense is that bad if we keep playing him bad defenders. Put Singler or Roberson in there instead of Waiters and the bench should look good.

[Thundershock88]

I'll be at the game tonight in Portland repping hard! Should be interesting. First time in an opponents stadium.

[bondom34]

I'll be at the game tonight in Portland repping hard! Should be interesting. First time in an opponents stadium.

Have fun and Thunder Up!

[KD35Brah]

Lol at these calls...

[NaturalThunder]

If there's a stat that tracks most blown fastbreaks in the NBA, I'm sure Waiters would be among the league leaders.