3/27 | G75: Indiana Pacers at Oklahoma City Thunder - 7PM CST

[Pillendreher]

this whole adams thing is funny. adams has sucked since january. whatever excuses go along with that are fine (minutes), but he's just sucked. especially compared to last year. he's the worst center in the division this season if we're counting KAT as one. hardenASG13 is correct that adams is not worth his salary right now, but he does not grasp the idea that had the thunder not re-signed him it's not like they can just pick a random dude off the street to give that money to. we could just as well have nic batum at $25 million. or nothing for $0 million.

adams should be more involved offensively but it's difficult when most teams are just on their heels every pick and roll and ignoring westbrook.

There is a vast difference between Adams being slow defensively and the team just completely ignoring him on offense, reducing him to the role of an enforcer that just clears space for his teammates.

he should be utilized more offensively. getting adams as many clean looks at or near the rim as possible would be a good goal to have. easier said than done. other than pick and roll or post-ups how else does he get involved?

They could try moving off the ball just for once in their damn careers. It is absolutely maddening that this is Donovan's 4th season we're 30th in both passes and distance covered on offense per game if you adjust for pace: 230.7 passes per 100 possessions when league average per 100 is 293.7; 8.9 miles covered on offense per 100 possessions when league average is 9.8. We're still doing everything we should be getting rid of and absolutely nothing changes.

[slick_watts]

There is a vast difference between Adams being slow defensively and the team just completely ignoring him on offense, reducing him to the role of an enforcer that just clears space for his teammates.

he should be utilized more offensively. getting adams as many clean looks at or near the rim as possible would be a good goal to have. easier said than done. other than pick and roll or post-ups how else does he get involved?

They could try moving off the ball just for once in their damn careers. It is absolutely maddening that this is Donovan's 4th season we're 30th in both passes and distance covered on offense per game if you adjust for pace: 230.7 passes per 100 possessions when league average per 100 is 293.7; 8.9 miles covered on offense per 100 possessions when league average is 9.8. We're still doing everything we should be getting rid of and absolutely nothing changes.

this has been an "issue" since the early days of the thunder, though. is passing per 100 possessions correlated with pp100? i remember debates like this years ago and the heat had great offenses while not passing the ball much.

losing andre roberson hurt us here also. he was so good at setting those back screens. he set them on centers sometimes. grant and ferguson are pretty bad at setting screens off the ball.

then there's roster degradation. abdel nader is bad. noel has been ok on defense but he's horrible on offense. i mean, what are we supposed to do with those guys?

i think it's very possible the style the thunder tend to play on offense is the best style for the current personnel. it certainly appears to be what westbrook and george prefer. westbrook hasn't moved off the ball in 10 seasons. i dunno what we're expecting to happen.

[Pillendreher]

This is the kind of play that just pains me to see because it is so very obvious how easy we're making it to defend:



Adams catches the ball and EVERY SINGLE PACER has at least a foot in the paint. A smart team would have had Grant set a screen for Ferguson and then let Ferguson pop out to the 3pt line. That would have forced the defense to react: Send a guy to Ferguson to cover the 3pt shot? What about Grant - is he going to roll or popping out as well? Instead of doing that, everybody just wanders around aimlessly while Adams has to come up with something. The whole franchise just doesn't understand that making the defense work gives the team a higher chance at scoring.

[slick_watts]

This is the kind of play that just pains me to see because it is so very obvious how easy we're making it to defend:



Adams catches the ball and EVERY SINGLE PACER has at least a foot in the paint. A smart team would have had Grant set a screen for Ferguson and then let Ferguson pop out to the 3pt line. That would have forced the defense to react: Send a guy to Ferguson to cover the 3pt shot? What about Grant - is he going to roll or popping out as well? Instead of doing that, everybody just wanders around aimlessly while Adams has to come up with something. The whole franchise just doesn't understand that making the defense work gives the team a higher chance at scoring.

we have that in our playbook. but we have done it a lot less since 'dre went down. the fact that indiana can do this at all is a roster indictment. westbrook and schroder out there aren't going to be guarded. grant's getting in position for an offensive rebound. they're trying to clear out for adams and cut ferg through which is fine but schroder should be further towards the top of the key.

i really don't see any other way to make this better other than having better shooters on the court. teams are going to pack it in against us with westbrook / schroder in the game especially with pg out.

[SecondTake]

Damn it's really crazy how much better Steve (and the entire team) looks when he gets to touch the ball on plays other than offensive rebounds and isn't used as a shield for russ and pg to stand behind and take terrible shots. Who could have possibly seen this coming?

this whole adams thing is funny. adams has sucked since january. whatever excuses go along with that are fine (minutes), but he's just sucked. especially compared to last year. he's the worst center in the division this season if we're counting KAT as one. hardenASG13 is correct that adams is not worth his salary right now, but he does not grasp the idea that had the thunder not re-signed him it's not like they can just pick a random dude off the street to give that money to. we could just as well have nic batum at $25 million. or nothing for $0 million.

adams should be more involved offensively but it's difficult when most teams are just on their heels every pick and roll and ignoring westbrook.

Sabonis would have been a better deal than Adams, had we not traded him.

[SecondTake]

Damn it's really crazy how much better Steve (and the entire team) looks when he gets to touch the ball on plays other than offensive rebounds and isn't used as a shield for russ and pg to stand behind and take terrible shots. Who could have possibly seen this coming?

this whole adams thing is funny. adams has sucked since january. whatever excuses go along with that are fine (minutes), but he's just sucked. especially compared to last year. he's the worst center in the division this season if we're counting KAT as one. hardenASG13 is correct that adams is not worth his salary right now, but he does not grasp the idea that had the thunder not re-signed him it's not like they can just pick a random dude off the street to give that money to. we could just as well have nic batum at $25 million. or nothing for $0 million.

adams should be more involved offensively but it's difficult when most teams are just on their heels every pick and roll and ignoring westbrook.

Maybe watch some games before you waltz in here trying to lecture people on things, huh pal. There is a vast difference between Adams being slow defensively and the team just completely ignoring him on offense, reducing him to the role of an enforcer that just clears space for his teammates.

'

If you're a big that doesn't defend don't expect to be rewarded with easy touches. Gotta earn them.