Best player of the thunder in the 2016 playoffs?

[TaylorTRoom]

KD played more minutes than anyone in the series. He scored more than anyone. Only Adams and Green rebounded more than KD. Green had as many blocks.

OKC got a 3-1 lead by playing tough defense and relying on their stars for scoring. Unfortunately, they had one bench player they could rely on for backing up 1-4- Dion Waiters. (Andre Roberson was the SG for this offensive juggernaut). They had one player who could, as needed, play every position- KD. When Russ needed a break, on the bench or on the court, who ran the offense? KD. This all added up to Durant playing more minutes, hard on offense and defense, than anyone else in the series. His legs were dead. Remember Thompson’s great game 6? After five games, KD had played 8 more minutes per game than Klay.

In the three losses to close out the series, KD’s cumulative +/- was -14. Russ’ was -34. KD played a solid game 7, wisely eschewing the 3PAs his dead legs would fail him on until the desperate final minutes. (It’s no coincidence that Durant’s greatest playoff performances came in seasons when he played fewer minutes).

Arguably, in a seven game series with two other present and future MVPs on the court and three other future HoFers (Thompson, Green and Igaduala), and coming off an Adams foot injury, Durant was the best player. He will never be forgiven for not being better.

[Kobe187]

KD

[maradro]

Hard to make a good argument for Durant in this. As he commented many times in the media: he was okay letting Russ "do his thing". He proved in the aftermath that he was less than okay with this, but for the last couple years of OKC (when Russ came back healthy), it was Russ's team for better or worse. KD was the second option, and not in a way that

I really despised both those players by that point. They completely embarrassed this garbage 2-man "my turn, your turn" offense that was painful to watch. Westbrook always got the first crack at it, KD spent portions of the games saving broken plays and living off Westbrook scraps. It was Shaqkobe Lakers but take away the triangle and don't replace it with any kind of tangible offensive system (you know with like... passing! and... cutting! and stuff!). Oh and also have Shaq stand in the corner sometimes and just vibe.

The crazy thing is that they were both so talented it mostly worked. Have Westbrook and Durant go out there and chuck 20-30 shots each and you have yourself an elite offense. Roberson, Adams and Ibaka have your defense covered so just go to town, cupcakes!

They beat a 67 win Spurs team. Who kind of got exposed in terms of Duncan being completely finished, and Ginobili being injured those playoffs. None of those guys could scale up their minutes in the playoffs to become 35mpg players, so those Spurs were bigger paper tiger than we thought, and Kawhi was 1 year away from becoming a monster scorer. They almost beat the Warriors as we all know well.

I still think Durant was more valuable, but Russ outperformed him. They were less than the sum of their parts, but their parts were the nicest parts possible. Still wonder what could have been for many versions of these Thunder teams if they built a smart offense. Durant should be able to shoot better than 42% ya know?

Duncan and Manu were 39 and 38, if anyone was exposed on the spurs it was kawhi who shot terribly and wasted a great performance from Aldridge

Imo thunder won that series thanks to their frontcourt, spurs actually scored more points over the series but got out rebounded badly..

[hardenASG13]

While they were clicking and working together that team was a beautiful thing to watch. I wholly acknowledge their limitations in coaching, team structure and lack of depth. But KD and Russ can both play some tremendously entertaining basketball. The Russ/Adams two man high pick and roll plays were so flawless too.

You should have been champions guys.

Yep, they shouldve been had they realized playing 4 on 5 offensively (or 3.5 if you consider their centers who provided 0 spacing and didnt collapse a defense in the post) in a league full of shooting made no sense.

They had westbrook collapsing the D at will, as well as KD, with Roberson out there as a complete non shooter or threat. Kickouts to him were momentum killers. Swinging it around the perimeter after passing out of penetration was tough, considering the defense could just leave Roberson. He didnt command a closeout, and couldnt attempt a jumper off a dribble. With westbrooks major weakness being shooting, and best strength being collalsing the defense and scoring in the paint, there couldnt have been a worse fit next to Russ, or KD for that matter. Completely capped their ceiling and wasted prime KD and westbrook. Its why KD left in his own (by mistake) words.

To answer OP, Westbrook was the leader of the team that year in my opinion.

[LukaTheGOAT]

Westbrook would be my pick.

Russell Westbrook in the 16 Playoffs

Inflation Adjusted 28 points per 75 (rTS% of-0.8%)

Estimated to have created about 14.7 shots for teammates every 100 possessions

RAPTOR-7.4

AuPM/G-5.3

Backpicks BPM-7.3


Kevin Durant in the 16 Playoffs

Inflation Adjusted 28.4 points per 75 (rTS% of 1.9%)

Estimated to have created about 6.2 shots for teammates every 100 possessions

RAPTOR-2.7

AuPM/G-4.2

Backpicks BPM-4.4

By just about every measure Westbrook was better in the PS than Durant. They were fairly close as scorers, however, Westbrook created over twice as many shots for teammates as Durant did, which shows in why the metrics seem to generally believe Westbrook was a driver of those offenses. Westbrook certainly seemed to have added more value to the team than KD. Now if you want to argue that KD needed the ball more or Westbrook undermined him, that is a separate conversation, but Westbrook seemed to have added more value. I'm willing to buy KD was better on defense than Westbrook but not enough to make up the offensive gap.