2017-2018 OKC Thunder Regular Season Thread Part Deux: Follow the Melo Brick Road

[getrichordie]

Here's an interesting tidbit: Over the past 10 games, OKC has only one negative NetRtg lineup:

felton/abrines/george/patterson/adams (source: http://goo.gl/8u1rwF)

DRtg? 100. ORtg? 85. Small sample size (29 minutes over 10 games) but when you look at overall season lineups where Felton, George, Abrines, and Patterson are on the court at the same time, our ORtg is terrible. (source: http://goo.gl/CMX1Kf)

We might not want to play those guys together anymore.

Also, another crazy thing I'd like to point out is how little we have used lineups consisting of [westbrook/abrines/george/patterson]. Extremely small sample size, but every lineup where those guys are on the floor together is positive. Same thing with [westbrook/huestis/george/patterson]. I think it would behoove us to explore those lineups a little more, especially if we are desperate for a lift in a down game.

[Pillendreher]

Random stat since Robes went down: Patterson, Huestis, Grant, Felton, Abrines and Ferguson have been 90/262 from 3 since Robes went down. Still bad, but 34.4 % is manageable. A tad below average.

[Pillendreher]

And the best NetRtG on the team since the Andre Roberson injury goes to....

[EnragedThunder]

And the best NetRtG on the team since the Andre Roberson injury goes to....

Could care less. Since moving Heustis to the 2nd string, the Thunder are on a 2 game winning streak. Keep them coming Brewer.

[Dadouv47]

No updates on Adams?

[ThunderBolt]

And the best NetRtG on the team since the Andre Roberson injury goes to....

Could care less. Since moving Heustis to the 2nd string, the Thunder are on a 2 game winning streak. Keep them coming Brewer.

Nothing like a longterm outlook.

[thekaoswithin]

Brewer has looked half decent.

Not really in a position to complain, are we?

[getrichordie]

And the best NetRtG on the team since the Andre Roberson injury goes to....

Yeah, I was looking @ that stat this morning but didn't post it because I felt like no one would care. FWIW, and I've said it before, I think Huestis could be an extremely important and impactful roleplayer for this team going forward. My hope is that we get him on a huge bargain deal and he continues to grow his game - particularly his 3-point shot.

EDIT: By the way, did I tell you guys that I'll be @ Tuesday's game vs. Atlanta? I'm super pumped. This will be my first time watching OKC live! I'll be interested to see how they look after playing Sacramento the night before. I'm kind of disappointed that I'm probably not going to get to see Adams and I won't see Roberson play either :[

[Dn4sty]

And the best NetRtG on the team since the Andre Roberson injury goes to....

Yeah, I was looking @ that stat this morning but didn't post it because I felt like no one would care. FWIW, and I've said it before, I think Huestis could be an extremely important and impactful roleplayer for this team going forward. My hope is that we get him on a huge bargain deal and he continues to grow his game - particularly his 3-point shot.

EDIT: By the way, did I tell you guys that I'll be @ Tuesday's game vs. Atlanta? I'm super pumped. This will be my first time watching OKC live! I'll be interested to see how they look after playing Sacramento the night before. I'm kind of disappointed that I'm probably not going to get to see Adams and I won't see Roberson play either :[

I think Huestis on a 1+1 or 2+1 (with a team option in the last year) for slightly over the minimum makes a bunch of sense for both sides.

[getrichordie]

And the best NetRtG on the team since the Andre Roberson injury goes to....

Spoiler:

Yeah, I was looking @ that stat this morning but didn't post it because I felt like no one would care. FWIW, and I've said it before, I think Huestis could be an extremely important and impactful roleplayer for this team going forward. My hope is that we get him on a huge bargain deal and he continues to grow his game - particularly his 3-point shot.

EDIT: By the way, did I tell you guys that I'll be @ Tuesday's game vs. Atlanta? I'm super pumped. This will be my first time watching OKC live! I'll be interested to see how they look after playing Sacramento the night before. I'm kind of disappointed that I'm probably not going to get to see Adams and I won't see Roberson play either :[

I think Huestis on a 1+1 or 2+1 (with a team option in the last year) for slightly over the minimum makes a bunch of sense for both sides.

I agree. I would want him on a 2+1 if we can get that done. We will need cheap roleplayers going forward. By the way, how the hell do you cut those images, Pill?

I also want to point out some interesting stats over the past 15 games (per 100 poss., min. 7 games played) :: [source: http://goo.gl/4cw6XK]

Grant is our 3rd leading scorer (on 56 FG%) with Felton being our 4th and Carmelo being our 5th.
Felton, Ferguson, and George have been our best 3-ball shooters (42, 40, 37 respectively). Abrines and Patterson are both hovering around 35%.
Adams, George, and Felton are leading the team in STLs and are each averaging 2.3 STLs a piece!
Grant, Adams, and Huestis are leading the team in BLKs with 2.1, 1.8, and 1.6, respectively.

[Pillendreher]

Brewer has looked half decent.

Not really in a position to complain, are we?

One thing I really hope that continues is him driving to the basket. Be it on the cuts, be it just a normal drive: That's something no other wing besides George gives us. If he can get one or two baskets just going to the rim, that'd be a huge help.

[Pillendreher]

I made the Playoffs in my fantasy league as the 7th seed. Back in 2016 I managed to sneak in as the 7th seed as well and finished 4th overall. So if we make the WCF, you know who to thank.

[Pillendreher]

Read on Twitter

Good call. Dragging Adams out if the paint and then leaving the shooters to rotate is a recipe for disaster against this team.

[Andre Roberstan]

Read on Twitter

Don't think anyone posted this yet.

[Pillendreher]

Read on Twitter

Don't think anyone posted this yet.

I would like to argue that maybe this isn't just a scheme thing, but also a Russ thing. Russ was visibly giving effort sticking to his man both against Phoenix and San Antonio. When he does that, Adams does not have to dance around the perimeter and can therefore protect the paint and provide help much more frequently.

[thekaoswithin]

Read on Twitter

Good call. Dragging Adams out if the paint and then leaving the shooters to rotate is a recipe for disaster against this team.

Donovan did come up with that KD = tall Draymond scheme vs the Warriors, so let's see what he can do in the playoffs.

[Andre Roberstan]

I would like to argue that maybe this isn't just a scheme thing, but also a Russ thing. Russ was visibly giving effort sticking to his man both against Phoenix and San Antonio. When he does that, Adams does not have to dance around the perimeter and can therefore protect the paint and provide help much more frequently.

Russ was definitely giving better effort. But dropping versus showing on the PnR is 100% a schematic difference, and a significant one.

[Pillendreher]

I would like to argue that maybe this isn't just a scheme thing, but also a Russ thing. Russ was visibly giving effort sticking to his man both against Phoenix and San Antonio. When he does that, Adams does not have to dance around the perimeter and can therefore protect the paint and provide help much more frequently.

Russ was definitely giving better effort. But dropping versus showing on the PnR is 100% a schematic difference, and a significant one.

I'm gonna pay closer attention to this over the next couple of games. Honestly, I just saw that Russ did not switch as much. Did not notice the dropping.

[Andre Roberstan]

I would like to argue that maybe this isn't just a scheme thing, but also a Russ thing. Russ was visibly giving effort sticking to his man both against Phoenix and San Antonio. When he does that, Adams does not have to dance around the perimeter and can therefore protect the paint and provide help much more frequently.

Russ was definitely giving better effort. But dropping versus showing on the PnR is 100% a schematic difference, and a significant one.

I'm gonna pay closer attention to this over the next couple of games. Honestly, I just saw that Russ did not switch as much. Did not notice the dropping.

I think it's a shallow drop, not a deep drop. But it's definitely a change.

[Pillendreher]

Russ was definitely giving better effort. But dropping versus showing on the PnR is 100% a schematic difference, and a significant one.

I'm gonna pay closer attention to this over the next couple of games. Honestly, I just saw that Russ did not switch as much. Did not notice the dropping.

I think it's a shallow drop, not a deep drop. But it's definitely a change.

I just assumed that Adams was in the paint more because Russ was sticking to his man.