Post#568 » by therealbig3 » Fri May 27, 2016 6:04 am
And yet, for all the hate the Thunder get for their isolation-based offense, and how they really need to have more ball movement and not take so many poor shots...they've been one of the elite offensive teams in the league with both Westbrook and Durant healthy.
2012: +5.2 (2nd)
2013: +6.5 (1st)
2016: +6.7 (2nd)
Maybe we should stop begging for them to do things differently, because what they're doing has led to incredible results...despite the fact that yes, they've had two uber-talents in Durant and Westbrook, but not really all that much talent beyond that.
Really, you can make an excellent argument that the only reason the Thunder haven't won a title yet is because of injuries. They were a DOMINANT team in 2013, and unfortunately, Westbrook got hurt in the playoffs. Westbrook misses half the season in 2014, and they're still around 7 SRS...every reason to believe they'd be around 9 SRS with a fully healthy Westbrook, similar to the year before. And in the playoffs, they lose Ibaka for a couple of games against the Spurs, both losses. Injuries get them again. And in 2015, Durant gets hurt and misses most of the season.
That's 3 straight years with Durant and Westbrook in their absolute prime that were ruined by injuries. When healthy:
2012: 6.44 SRS
2013: 9.15 SRS
2016: 7.09 SRS
I mean, we fawn over the Warriors and Spurs for putting up 10 SRS, and the Thunder broke 9 in 2013, and didn't get nearly the same level of respect. This year, yes, the Warriors and Spurs were rightfully the stories of the year, but the Thunder quietly put up a championship-level season.
For reference sake, the SRS of the last 10 champions:
2015 Warriors: 10.01
2014 Spurs: 8.00
2013 Heat: 7.03
2012 Heat: 5.72
2011 Mavs: 4.41
2010 Lakers: 4.78
2009 Lakers: 7.11
2008 Celtics: 9.30
2007 Spurs: 8.35
2006 Heat: 3.59
The 2013 Thunder were on par with the 2015 Warriors and 2008 Celtics. The 2016 Thunder are up there with anyone except the 2015 Warriors, 2008 Celtics, and maybe the 2007 Spurs.
Obviously, as this current series shows, SRS isn't everything, but the 2008 Celtics for example are the sacred cow of these boards (and I say that as someone with massive respect for that team), and the Thunder performed comparably in the RS, with an offense led by two isolation players, one of them being everything that people here tend to rag on with regards to efficiency and good shot selection.
I think it's time to stop acting like they haven't been a dominant team when healthy. The narrative that exists about them is only there because we didn't think it was possible for an isolation-heavy team, with one of their top 2 players being a high-usage, inefficient shooter, to have major success in the modern NBA, so we've tried to explain away the Thunder's success as unsustainable, and point to their failures as proof of that, while overlooking the fact that by far the biggest reason for their "failures" has been injuries to key players at inopportune times.