Is it time for Jeremy Lamb to be the starter?

[nickforthreee]

I feel like it is. This kid has all the potential in the world to be one of the best SGs in the NBA. He has a smooth game, a silky jumpshot, hes athletic, hes long, he can create his own shot, he can run off screens, he can finish, he is an extremely dynamic offensive player. Although hes not as savvy as sefolosha on the defensive end yet, he has all the tools to be an elite defender with that length and brooks has been trusting him at the end of games over sefolsha anyway. Kid could be a star with starters minutes and best part about it is hes efficient and lets the game come to him.

[spearsy23]

Absolutely not, question answered. Why would we want Durant expending all his energy guarding the other team's best player, cripple our bench offensively and relegate one of the top perimeter defenders in the NBA to a role he won't be effective in?

[wizkid27]

Absolutely not, question answered. Why would we want Durant expending all his energy guarding the other team's best player, cripple our bench offensively and relegate one of the top perimeter defenders in the NBA to a role he won't be effective in?

Completely agree with this. Not saying he shouldn't play increased minutes, but the combination of his talents and the team composition makes it almost a no-brainer to keep him on the bench and Thabo starting.

I'm actually pretty convinced of the same with Perk and Adams and in my opinion Perk is much less useful to the starters than Thabo.

[bondom34]

Absolutely not, question answered. Why would we want Durant expending all his energy guarding the other team's best player, cripple our bench offensively and relegate one of the top perimeter defenders in the NBA to a role he won't be effective in?

Completely agree with this. Not saying he shouldn't play increased minutes, but the combination of his talents and the team composition makes it almost a no-brainer to keep him on the bench and Thabo starting.

I'm actually pretty convinced of the same with Perk and Adams and in my opinion Perk is much less useful to the starters than Thabo.

Yeah, agree with you both, and wizkid it shocks me how much more effective Perk is w/ the starters, even in the 7 or so minutes he gets to start. Adams comes in with the 2nd group, it just works, I don't know why, I suppose its an energy thing partially, as well as style with the backups, but it works.

[GREENE1148]

With Perkins and Thabo sharing the floor, we have an offensive rating of 94.5, that's lower than the worst offensive team in the NBA... I can see where this post is coming from.

[comingbacktousa]

With Perkins and Thabo sharing the floor, we have an offensive rating of 94.5, that's lower than the worst offensive team in the NBA... I can see where this post is coming from.

Sample size. Last year, OKC had a top 5 offense with the same starting 5. Thabo got off to a terrible start from 3. Durant started slow but is picking it up. But the biggest thing is Westbrook shooting under 50 ts%.

[GREENE1148]

With Perkins and Thabo sharing the floor, we have an offensive rating of 94.5, that's lower than the worst offensive team in the NBA... I can see where this post is coming from.

Sample size. Last year, OKC had a top 5 offense with the same starting 5. Thabo got off to a terrible start from 3. Durant started slow but is picking it up. But the biggest thing is Westbrook shooting under 50 ts%.

It's stretch that began in last years playoffs... it's almost 400 minutes now, of the Thabo/Perkins 2 man lineup being almost completely offensively inept.

While I agree that Durant started slow, the Thabo/Perk problem has been getting worse almost game by game... (Orating of 85.2 over 71 minutes in the last 5 games...) Thabo has practically given up on shooting 3s, (3 attempts in previous 5 games) instead he prefers to pump fake, then try to drive baseline past his defender, usually ending with him stepping out of bounds, or throwing a blind pass back across the court, igniting a fast break for the opposition.

I'm just not sure how long this team can continue to give away the first and 3rd quarter, by playing 2 players who act as basically no threat offensively, and allow teams to focus completely on KD/RW/Ibaka

[comingbacktousa]

First loss of the season when the starting 5 all played...They seem to be doing fine that way. If the problem continues to the all star break it time for a change. As of right now the lineup has proven to work, not just this year but in the past also.

[GREENE1148]

The starting five hasn't been fine, and it hasn't been working... the Bench has, Reggie Jackson is the NBAs leader in Net Rating, that considered, we should have a Margin of victory wayyyyy higher than we do at the moment, time will tell, but if it doesn't change, Scotty will be forced into his first starting lineup change since 2010-2011...

[Podirk]

It would be very unThunder like to do that. It took trading Green to get Ibaka and Harden the minutes they needed.

Apart from trade...I don't see a change in the lineup period.

Lamb however does need more min and shots.

[comingbacktousa]

The starting lineup has been fine. The record when all start 5 play has been pretty impressive for not only this season but the past couple seasons. Record is more important than mov.

You don't always but all your offensive weapons on the court at the same time to start games. Take a look at LAC, when Redick got hurt did they insert Jamal Crawford into the lineup? No, the went with Willie Green. Miami heat with Wade out, did they insert Ray Allen? No, they went with James Jones. Spurs have not started their top players for years and its been effective.

Have you considered the negative effect on the 2nd unit if Lamb starts? Does it go from being a strength to a weakness? How much of his offensive ability gets marginalized the way Harden's was when he plays with Westbrook and Durant? Is the best use for his minutes being the fourth option with the starters at the beginning of halves? Is Thabo skillset as one of the best defenders in the league nearly as useful against bench players as opposed to Parker, Harden, Martin,Ellis, etc? No, its wasting his best trait to have him guard the likes of Shved and Garica.

There is a much bigger case to be made that Adams should start than Lamb if the starting lineup needs to be shaken up.

[theokie]

I think we should avoid having Thabo and Perkins on the floor at the same time. One of the two should move to the bench (Perkins).

[Chalky White]

The starting lineup has been fine. The record when all start 5 play has been pretty impressive for not only this season but the past couple seasons. Record is more important than mov.

You don't always but all your offensive weapons on the court at the same time to start games. Take a look at LAC, when Redick got hurt did they insert Jamal Crawford into the lineup? No, the went with Willie Green. Miami heat with Wade out, did they insert Ray Allen? No, they went with James Jones. Spurs have not started their top players for years and its been effective.

Have you considered the negative effect on the 2nd unit if Lamb starts? Does it go from being a strength to a weakness? How much of his offensive ability gets marginalized the way Harden's was when he plays with Westbrook and Durant? Is the best use for his minutes being the fourth option with the starters at the beginning of halves? Is Thabo skillset as one of the best defenders in the league nearly as useful against bench players as opposed to Parker, Harden, Martin,Ellis, etc? No, its wasting his best trait to have him guard the likes of Shved and Garica.

There is a much bigger case to be made that Adams should start than Lamb if the starting lineup needs to be shaken up.

The starting lineup hasn't been fine, and Greene did a fine job of pointing that out.

Part of the reason Durant is struggling from the floor is because he's sharing too many minutes with offensively inept players. This is allowing defenses to double up on him without having to being concerned with Thabo or Perkins burning them. Westbrook's struggles have only magnified the issue, and OKC doesn't really don't have an offensive system to fall back on to help manufacture good looks.

[Thunderhead]

The starting lineup has been fine. The record when all start 5 play has been pretty impressive for not only this season but the past couple seasons. Record is more important than mov.

You don't always but all your offensive weapons on the court at the same time to start games. Take a look at LAC, when Redick got hurt did they insert Jamal Crawford into the lineup? No, the went with Willie Green. Miami heat with Wade out, did they insert Ray Allen? No, they went with James Jones. Spurs have not started their top players for years and its been effective.

Have you considered the negative effect on the 2nd unit if Lamb starts? Does it go from being a strength to a weakness? How much of his offensive ability gets marginalized the way Harden's was when he plays with Westbrook and Durant? Is the best use for his minutes being the fourth option with the starters at the beginning of halves? Is Thabo skillset as one of the best defenders in the league nearly as useful against bench players as opposed to Parker, Harden, Martin,Ellis, etc? No, its wasting his best trait to have him guard the likes of Shved and Garica.

There is a much bigger case to be made that Adams should start than Lamb if the starting lineup needs to be shaken up.

The starting lineup hasn't been fine, and Greene did a fine job of pointing that out.

Part of the reason Durant is struggling from the floor is because he's sharing too many minutes with offensively inept players. This is allowing defenses to double up on him without having to being concerned with Thabo or Perkins burning them. Westbrook's struggles have only magnified the issue, and OKC doesn't really don't have an offensive system to fall back on to help manufacture good looks.

Not true.

Last season, the starting lineup was the Thunder's best lineup, and Thabo shot 41% from three. Which is all he has to do , to draw a defender and space the floor. He's had a bad start this year in the first seven games, but he's getting his three point shot back again.

Perk's defender, is not going to defend KD on the perimeter and KD is gonna get doubled, no matter who is playing center. And they use Perk mostly setting high screens , which facilitates Russ and KD to drive the hoop, rather than hurt.

The problem with the starting unit this season, has been defense. They've given up too many 30 pt quarters. And the problem with the defense has been mostly lack of intensity and the rest of it on KD and Russ to actually play defense. Judging from post game comments, there may be some lack of respect for some opponents involved also.

Come March, I doubt this will be an issue.

[Thunderhead]

Why the push for Lamb to be a starter ?

I though this was hashed out when Harden was with the team. In 2012, Thabo was injured, Harden started, and we got to see why Harden was not starting. I saw no one pushing for Harden to be a starter for the rest of the season.

I thought Lamb's role was to replace what Harden brought ?

[comingbacktousa]

Part of the reason Durant is struggling from the floor is because he's sharing too many minutes with offensively inept players. This is allowing defenses to double up on him without having to being concerned with Thabo or Perkins burning them.

You mean pretty much the exact same players with which he had one of the most efficient volume scoring seasons of all time?

Thabo with the starting lineup has a higher point differential each of the past 2 seasons compared to when either Harden or Martin were inserted in his place.

The record for the starting lineup speaks for itself. One loss so far this season when all 5 play. 1st in the West last season (2-0 in the playoffs) and won the WCF the previous year with the exact same starting lineup.

[bondom34]

So far, its not the bench that's the issue, as has been pointed out. If you look at lineups, its not the bench with issues at all. Here's the 4 man lineups for the season (MP at least 48):
http://stats.nba.com/teamLineups.html?T ... ode=Totals

[comingbacktousa]

So far, its not the bench that's the issue, as has been pointed out. If you look at lineups, its not the bench with issues at all. Here's the 4 man lineups for the season (MP at least 48):
http://stats.nba.com/teamLineups.html?T ... ode=Totals

Thanks for the link, for some reason basketball reference isn't working for this year yet for lineups.

[bondom34]

So far, its not the bench that's the issue, as has been pointed out. If you look at lineups, its not the bench with issues at all. Here's the 4 man lineups for the season (MP at least 48):
http://stats.nba.com/teamLineups.html?T ... ode=Totals

Thanks for the link, for some reason basketball reference isn't working for this year yet for lineups.

Yeah I'm not sure what's up w/ bbr lineups this year. Some other stats aren't up yet either (shot charts, etc.).

[Slimjimzv]

I don't know about Lamb, but I think it's time for Perk to come off the bench. Whether that means Adams starts or Ibaka moves to the five and Lamb starts, I don't really care. Perk looks like he's struggling even more than last season.