Friday Bolts – 10.4.13
The Thunder have two top five players according to CBSSports.com’s Elite 100 rankings: “The man scored the most points in the league while shooting 51 percent from the field, 42 percent from the arc, 91 percent from the line. He is the most dominant scoring force in the NBA. The evolution of the game has brought about an understanding of the importance of efficiency. It is not a fad, it is a deeper way of seeing the game for what really makes a difference, for understanding how important possessions are. What gets missed in Durant’s lethal three, though, is how much he’s improved. Five assists per game last season, and his rebound numbers remain steady at seven per game. He has a 56 percent effective field goal percentage (factoring the impact of threes), despite being a jumpshooter. He has lead his team to division titles, No. 1 seeds, and is undeniably the second best player in the game. He just turned 25.”
Kurt Helin of PBT: “What if Westbrook just is not the same? Here’s the dirty little secret about the Thunder — their sets are simplistic. They can get away with that, especially in the regular season, because they have the best pure scorer on the planet in Kevin Durant and the explosive Westbrook. If you blow up their sets, one of those two go isolation and score at a rate most teams can’t match. (It’s more complex than that; this is the one paragraph synopsis.) But what happens if Westbrook loses just half a step? Especially since there is no James Harden or even Kevin Martin to soak up those possessions. The Thunder have a lot of questions to answer. So does Westbrook when he returns.”
Anthony Slater on Jeremy Lamb: “Throughout the early stages of Thunder training camp, continuity has been a commonly used word. OKC returns 12 players from last season’s roster, a conference-best 86.5 percent of its minutes. And of the two rookies — Steven Adams and Andre Roberson — neither is expected to immediately play. So the projected rotation is filled with multiyear guys who have already played crunchtime minutes together in Thunder blue. That is, except for slender sharpshooter Jeremy Lamb, a second-year shooting guard by definition but an essential rookie by on-court experience. Lamb played 147 minutes total last year. Kevin Durant surpasses that number before each season is two weeks old. Derek Fisher has eclipsed that minute mark in 14 separate postseasons during his 17-year career. But Lamb’s lack of NBA experience won’t last long. He’s about to get thrown into the fire.”
Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report: “This first month of the NBA season without Westbrook will provide crucial material in the larger debate about the Thunder choosing Ibaka over James Harden as part of the team’s core. The logic made sense, choosing defense over offense when they already had Kevin Durant and Westbrook. And Ibaka is a legit terror in the defensive paint. But if Ibaka’s upside on offense is basically what we’ve seen—a very good shooter for a big man but with a limited feel for offense otherwise—it throws into question the Thunder’s overall upside. Considering all the pressure falls to Durant while Ibaka gets the golden opportunity to show he can do more, there is no one in the Western Conference who’ll be more interesting to track as this season unfolds than Ibaka.”
Lots of Thunder talk on the EOB podcast today.
Bill Reiter of Fox Sports: “Whereas LeBron spoke for himself in another bright moment, Westbrook had Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti sharing his news: Westbrook had a second surgery on the same knee he injured in last year’s playoffs, a four- to six-week setback in the regular season and another creeping fear that a great player such as Westbrook can succumb to bad luck. In May, the operation was to repair a torn lateral meniscus. This surgery to fix swelling in that same knee is, to say the least, disconcerting. In some alternative universe, where a simple tick of fate could turn one’s road in vastly different directions, it might be Westbrook buoyant and triumphant before the microphones to start the NBA preseason and LeBron James dealing with some dark cloud over his career.”
Darnell Mayberry: “Much of the Thunder’s downfall last season stemmed from failing to have a plan B. When Westbrook and Kevin Durant no longer could share the offensive load, the Thunder began piling up Durant’s plate. As a result, Durant’s minutes and usage skyrocketed in the final nine games. The Thunder’s offense quickly lost its way. It became predictable. A one-man show. Durant did his best to carry the load. He orchestrated the offense more than he ever had and played all five positions throughout various points of the playoffs. The percentage of plays in which Durant isolated his defender more than doubled.”
