2017-2018 OKC Thunder Regular Season Thread part one: The Fellowship for A Ring

[Balkman32]

That Russ-Felton-Singler-Huestis-Grant lineup will be fire tho.

Wait Singler dressed???

Billy is a great coach. He is trying to figure out what he has. Let him do his thing.

What has he done well to be great. Remove the 4 games of Dion catching fire and examine the other full seasons.

Thoughts on Grant so far?

Lost on defense bad on offense.

It's hard to say someone does well when the do well and we say expect the part when the did well. I think overall he has done a hell of a job. He is interested in the analytics, he is not a robot and keeps everything the same. He has shown willingness to play younger guys. He talked Kd into staggering the lineup. The defensive game plan in the playoff's in 16 was wonderful. He actually runs plays. He keeps the stars happy. He is always willing to change things up. Even looking back at the Rockets series last year by the end of the series he had the right line ups out there. I am very happy with Donovan. I think he out coached Kerr and Pop in 2016. I cant wait till the playoffs this year. He will have this team hitting on all cylinders by then, the time between then and now he needs to tinker to figure out who he has.

[bondom34]

Wait Singler dressed???

Billy is a great coach. He is trying to figure out what he has. Let him do his thing.

What has he done well to be great. Remove the 4 games of Dion catching fire and examine the other full seasons.

Thoughts on Grant so far?

Lost on defense bad on offense.

It's hard to say someone does well when the do well and we say expect the part when the did well. I think overall he has done a hell of a job. He is interested in the analytics, he is not a robot and keeps everything the same. He has shown willingness to play younger guys. He talked Kd into staggering the lineup. The defensive game plan in the playoff's in 16 was wonderful. He actually runs plays. He keeps the stars happy. He is always willing to change things up. Even looking back at the Rockets series last year by the end of the series he had the right line ups out there. I am very happy with Donovan. I think he out coached Kerr and Pop in 2016. I cant wait till the playoffs this year. He will have this team hitting on all cylinders by then, the time between then and now he needs to tinker to figure out who he has.

What plays? Passing decreased since Brooks was coach and the defense got worse both years. Players thrive on set rotations and he cant find one in 2 full seasons. Hes been a downhrade on nearly every level and it seems like the players don't particularly respect hom on court either. I can't think of mpre than a handful of worse NBA coaches today.

[Dadouv47]

We hired Donovan because he was supposed to be one of the best offensive coaches. How weird it is...

[Pillendreher]

Read on Twitter

"Chad Posthumus"
"Stedmon Lemon"

[slick_watts]

donovan coaching style is reminiscent of nate mcmillan to me.

[Pillendreher]

donovan coaching style is reminiscent of nate mcmillan to me.

George will love him then.

[jambalaya]

3 games, Donovan has used 45 lineups. Starters are -10 in 36 minutes.

[Pillendreher]

[ThunderBolt]

3 games, Donovan has used 45 lineups. Starters are -10 in 36 minutes.

How does that compare to other teams?

[jambalaya]

Philly is almost identical on both counts. Let me check a few more.

Warriors starters are just plus 4 in 39 minutes. 45 lineups used.

Spurs' starters are +9 in 32 minutes. 41 lineups used.

Rockets' starters are +23 in 32 minutes. 38 lineups used.

Pacers' & Knicks' starters badly negative so far.

[ThunderBolt]

If we aren’t going to use Alex any more effectively than we have so far then he might be a potential trade piece. The sad part is that Melo could really help Alex’s scoring if he would use his isolation moves to pass to an open Abrines.

[Pillendreher]

If we aren’t going to use Alex any more effectively than we have so far then he might be a potential trade piece. The sad part is that Melo could really help Alex’s scoring if he would use his isolation moves to pass to an open Abrines.

I think that's by design or at least put up with as a byproduct of the style Donovan wants to play with the bench. Durant had 8.5 assists per 100 possessions running the bench after the ASB in 2015/2016 (on 37.5 USG%); the team itself had 20.9 assists per 100 poss. Kanter had 3.0 assists per 100 possessions while running the bench last season (on 34.4 USG%); the team itself had 21.3 assists per 100 possessions.

Donovan's go-to-move with the bench is giving one player the ball to let him go to work. I think it's therefore by design that the rest of the bench is hurt by that because they're all just standing around watching.

[Mick75]

Great strategy, Billy!

[InTheSabonus]

I'll replace the incorrect stats I posted here with the statement that I still have no regrets about my username.

[ThunderBolt]

If we aren’t going to use Alex any more effectively than we have so far then he might be a potential trade piece. The sad part is that Melo could really help Alex’s scoring if he would use his isolation moves to pass to an open Abrines.

I think that's by design or at least put up with as a byproduct of the style Donovan wants to play with the bench. Durant had 8.5 assists per 100 possessions running the bench after the ASB in 2015/2016 (on 37.5 USG%); the team itself had 20.9 assists per 100 poss. Kanter had 3.0 assists per 100 possessions while running the bench last season (on 34.4 USG%); the team itself had 21.3 assists per 100 possessions.

Donovan's go-to-move with the bench is giving one player the ball to let him go to work. I think it's therefore by design that the rest of the bench is hurt by that because they're all just standing around watching.

If that’s the design then we might as well trade Abrines for a defender. That’s the only kind of player that might help us if we are just going to let Carmelo shoot.

[InTheSabonus]

Abrines is really just giving us the Morrow conundrum all over again. We have two one way shooting guards who are completely incompetent at the other end. Situations like having Abrines not close out Wiggins can happen more often now that there's less timeouts. And our defensive guard can be hacked for days.

Coaching aside, I still think we need that two-way guard. Roberson and Abrines are kind of proving too situational. Need someone that we can just put on the floor with our stars+Adams that we can depend upon to just not be a liability on either end if we want to beat the Warriors.

[Pillendreher]

A week into the season, and guess which team is already last in passes per game?

We're also second last in hockey assists. 6th last in assists. 3rd last in catch and shoot points. 3rd in isolation field goal attempts per game. Bottom 10 in cuts and points off cuts.

Pretty much everything around the same (we've dropped off in postups due to shipping out Kanter) as it has been the previous two seasons, but so many fans think it's all going to change and our genius coach will figure it all out.

Where did those stats from? stats.nba.com doesn't offer tracking data for this season yet.

[Pillendreher]

If that’s the design then we might as well trade Abrines for a defender. That’s the only kind of player that might help us if we are just going to let Carmelo shoot.

Yeah it's just such a waste of the (little) resources we had on our bench. I think that's also a huge reason for Morrow to just become unplayable. We have a couple of guys that can shoot, but all we do with the bench is isolate one guy. And if you don't surround that guy with defenders, you're ****, because they're not gonna get used offensively anyway.

Abrines is really just giving us the Morrow conundrum all over again. We have two one way shooting guards who are completely incompetent at the other end. Situations like having Abrines not close out Wiggins can happen more often now that there's less timeouts. And our defensive guard can be hacked for days.

Coaching aside, I still think we need that two-way guard. Roberson and Abrines are kind of proving too situational. Need someone that we can just put on the floor with our stars+Adams that we can depend upon to just not be a liability on either end if we want to beat the Warriors.

I still think that you can scheme around that, but Billy is not doing that and so far we've seen nothing that would point to him trying to do it. He let George run with the bench against Denver in the preseason and we actually looked good. Now it's back to just iso one guy and not doing any coaching.

[RalphSampsonJr]

Abrines is really just giving us the Morrow conundrum all over again. We have two one way shooting guards who are completely incompetent at the other end. Situations like having Abrines not close out Wiggins can happen more often now that there's less timeouts. And our defensive guard can be hacked for days.

Coaching aside, I still think we need that two-way guard. Roberson and Abrines are kind of proving too situational. Need someone that we can just put on the floor with our stars+Adams that we can depend upon to just not be a liability on either end if we want to beat the Warriors.

Robes, Grant and whatever else philly want for Rob Covington!

[bbms]

I don't think Abrines' defense has been bad.

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