Some excerpts below. Just what I could find...
But in that playoff run, he outcoached Carlisle, Popovich, and Kerr. The GSW loss was due to WB/KD meltdown + Klay's freakout. But, no one questioned the scheme. But this was his peak, it seemed.
From Royce Young, ESPN:Per ESPN Stats & Information research, Donovan played Serge Ibaka at center just 5 percent of the team's possessions in Games 1 and 2. In Game 3, it was 39 percent. The Thunder outscored the Warriors in Game 3 by 34 and shot 71.4 percent when they went small with Ibaka as the lone big man. The Warriors shot just 33.3 percent against those lineups.
The general line of thinking coming into the series was strength against strength, big versus small. Which identity would win out? Nobody outsmarts the Warriors at small ball. Against the Spurs, the Thunder leaned on their twin-tower look with Enes Kanter and Adams to swing that series. But against the Warriors, Donovan took advantage of the wealth of pieces general manager Sam Presti has put at his disposal. That was always the design from Presti. To navigate the Western Conference, you can't just play one way. There has to be a versatility to the roster, one that can bend different ways in different series.
From Sam Amick, USA Today:But to see it all come together so quickly, with Donovan’s Thunder downing Rick Carlisle’s Dallas Mavericks in a five-game first-round series win only to stun a Spurs team that won a franchise-record 67 games during the regular season, is something that few saw coming. And Donovan is doing his part in his NBA playoff debut.
His decision to go big against the Spurs, often playing Enes Kanter and Steven Adams together after they’d hardly done so in the previous seven months, helped the Thunder dominate on the glass. His after-timeout, play-call performance – a staple for any of the league’s best coaches – has been stellar. His decision to shorten his rotation was big. Along the way, Donovan has been making the most of the extra preparation time that comes with the postseason.
From Scott Rafferty, SportingNews:For obvious reasons, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant get much of the credit for the Thunder's success — they're a matchup nightmare for any team, to which their average of 53.7 points per game in the playoffs speaks. But giving them all the credit would be an injustice to Billy Donovan, since he has out-coached both Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr by trusting lineups he rarely used in the regular season and putting role players in positions to succeed. For a first-year head coach, that's a remarkable feat.