But they’re also third in points per 100 possessions (108.3), third in points per game (101.5) and third in field goal percentage (47.5). Any way you slice it, the Thunder have one of the very best offenses in the NBA, despite being a bad assist team.
How does this add up? If the Thunder don’t score via assists, then how do they score?
Here’s the breakdown: OKC takes 24.4 shots per game at the rim (13th), 9.5 3-9 feet out (23rd), 7.1 10-15 out (19th), 17.3 16-23 feet out (25th) and 18.9 3s per game (15th). Pretty much everything in the middle, or bottom half.
But here’s the catch, of those 24.4 shots a game at the rim, only 44.8 of them are assisted, which is second to last in the league. On mid-range jumpers, just 24.4 are assisted, which is last in the league. On long 2-pointers, 45.1 are assisted, 27th in the league. Overall, just 49.09 percent of OKC’s baskets are assisted, which is 29th in the league. So it should be obvious that the Thunder do a lot of shot creating on their own. It’s not so much a teammate setting up a teammate, as it is clearing space for a scorer to do work. Read more…
The Thunder had a 3-1 week and yes, it could’ve been 1-3 very easily. The easy explanation is that’s just the difference between a good team and an average one, but that’s the truth. That’s the explanation. The Thunder have been outstanding late in games. Down six with three minutes left? No reason to panic, no reason to doubt. With No. 35 and No. 0 standing together for OKC, the Thunder aren’t ever out of it.
That’s beauty of having talent. And a good team. The Thunder hit free throws, get stops and make big shots when they need them. I suppose OKC’s six or seven plays away from being 17-10, but you know what, they made them. So they’re 21-6 and have the best record in basketball. It’s not an accident. It’s not really even luck. The Thunder are a good team and make their own breaks.
Allow me to state the obvious: The Thunder are turning the ball over way too much. Not many middle school teams manage to turn the ball over 23 times in a game.
Giving a team 20 more shots than you in any game is a recipe for trouble. It doesn’t take John Hollinger to figure out that more shots equals more chances to score. The turnovers are ugly and do the worst thing — they take away an opportunity for Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook or James Harden to attempt a shot, three of the most dynamic and efficient offensive players in the league. Every player on the team has acknowledged them as an issue and Scott Brooks has said that they have to cut them down. He said this on Sacramento radio yesterday (via Sports Radio Interviews):
“I think that is one of the strengths of our team that we are not satisfied,” Brooks said. “I know I love our guys and I tell them that every day but I love the fact that they know they are not as good as they’re going to be if they keep working. We turn the ball over way too many times and defensively we give up too many offensive rebounds. Those are things we have talked about and will continue to talk about. We have to get better at those things.”
The Thunder are 30th in the league in turnovers per game at 17.0 a game. They’ve given it away a total of 369 times. They’ve had five games of 20 or more turnovers. They’re 30th in turnover ratio (27.5 percent of OKC’s possessions end in a turnover). It’s a problem.
But here’s a potentially misleading stat, but a stat all the same: In OKC’s 20 wins, they average 17.2 turnovers per game. In their six losses, 16.3. I’m not entirely sure it’s fair to say turnovers are directly tied to the Thunder’s six losses. In a couple games (Wizards, Kings), absolutely. But in others (Blazers, Mavericks), the Thunder didn’t turn it over much and lost because of poor offensive execution and a few defensive lapses. Read more…
“Oh yeah, definitely — yes, sir,” he said when asked if he should be an All-Star. “I’m not confident, though. I can’t control that. I’ll just keep playing hard, winning basketball games and having fun with my guys.”
LeBron responding to Perk: “I can see why he may have felt embarrassed. I don’t think I was the only one that reacted to that unbelievable play by Blake, and that’s what it was all about, me acknowledging how great of a play it was. If Kendrick Perkins had dunked on somebody else on the other end, I would have done the same thing … From day one, that’s why I got to Twitter, to connect to my fans.I would never apologize for anything like that when I’m connecting with my fans.”
Sam Amick of SI.com on James Harden’s All-Star bid: “But with Kevin Durant already voted in as a starter and Westbrook seeming to be a lock as a reserve, Harden’s All-Star inclusion would be a declaration of the Thunder’s dominance more than anything. Only the most elite of teams are typically granted three or more All-Star spots: The Celtics have been among that group each of the last three years, while the Heat (2011), Pistons (2008) and Suns (2007) are the only others in the last five years. The Thunder had two for the first time last season in Durant and Westbrook.” Read more…
By now you’ve heard or read about Kendrick Perkins slamming LeBron James for his tweet gushing over Blake Griffin’s poster a couple weeks ago. Here’s what Perk said to Yahoo! Sports:
“You don’t see Kobe [Bryant] tweeting,” Perkins said. “You don’t see Michael Jordan tweeting. If you’re an elite player, plays like that don’t excite you. At the end of the day, the guys who are playing for the right reasons who are trying to win championships are not worrying about one play.
“They also are not tweeting about themselves talking about going down to No. 2. I just feel [James] is always looking for attention and he wants the world to like him.”
I’d say the reason you don’t see Kobe or M.J. tweeting is because neither are on Twitter. Just a theory. But I understand Perk’s point. LeBron does appear to be very into LeBron — remember, “The Decision” — and the way he worded that tweet is a bit odd. A lot of other players tweeted like Chris Paul, Kevin Love and Magic Johnson, but they didn’t pat themselves on the back in theirs. LeBron singled out his own great play, which is something you don’t see all that often. It was a humblebrag in its purest form. LeBron was giving props to Griffin while drawing attention to his own achievement all the same. Read more…
A select number of fans getting anxious, agitated and overreactionary isn’t anything new. It happens in every fanbase, even the most appreciative, smart and complacent. But why does it seem to happen quite a bit with the Thunder, a team that by all accounts people should be thrilled about?
After both losses last week, Oklahoman beat writers wrotecolumns wondering if the two losses exposed flaws and warts and ugly spots and problems. Sure the Thunder played horribly in those two games and I suppose you could read deeper into them if you want. Every team has flaws and problems. Otherwise they’d be 23-0. It’s about correcting the flaws enough to get by and enough to survive in the postseason.
So, why the anxiety? Why is each game under the microscope? Read more…
As Nick Collison wrote recently on his GQ blog, NBA teams travel in style. There may be a lot of miles logged over the course of a season, but it involves chartered luxury jets, upscale hotels and lots of pampering. So it’s hard for most of us to feel a lot of sympathy for “road weary” NBA teams when we’re subjected to the TSA cattle call, middle seats in coach and roadside motels.
But a lot of it is late-night travel to far-flung airports. And with the Thunder wrapping up their second of three three-game road trips in quick succession, the first three lengthy trips of the season, OKC is taking tours of each coast in chunks.
In a season when teams are looking for every shred of an advantage as they combat the compressed schedule, Oklahoma City is enjoying one just because of its location. OKC’s central spot on the U.S. map is a travel advantage for the team in any season, but it could be an even bigger edge as the NBA crams in 66 regular season games per squad in just 123 days. Read more…
First, I was pro start Thabo. Then I was pro start Harden. Now, I don’t know where I’m at. Scott Brooks does though. He’s never wavered. And maybe for good reason. Probably because he kind of knows what he’s doing.
Brooks made an interesting decision last night in Dallas. With Thabo out with a sore foot, Brooks decided to start Daequan Cook instead of Harden, something Brooks has never done. Basically, that decision there should really end most of what was left of the debate that Harden should start.
It started because of an awful performance against the Clippers, but it’s really a bit more of a deeper issue than just one game. As a starter over the past two seasons (seven games), Harden is averaging 12.1 points per game on 38.5 percent shooting with 8.1 attempts a game. Off the bench in that time (93 games), Harden is averaging 13.3 ppg on 44.7 shooting with 8.8 attempts a game. And take note of this two: Two of those games last season where Harden started, KD was out. Throw those out and Harden’s starting average dips to 10.0 ppg. Then when you subtract before the Thunder dealt Jeff Green, those numbers go up to better than 16 points a game off the bench. So there’s a clear contrast. Read more…
You know what I’m a fan of? These three-game weeks. When the season started, the Thunder were playing four and even five games a week. It was constant basketball without much of a chance to breathe.
And I would assume as much as I’m enjoying the lighter schedule, the team is loving it. A couple weeks ago they got two days together in Washington DC. Right now after beating Golden State Friday, they got Saturday and Sunday to hang in Los Angeles before tonight’s game against the Clippers. Not bad. Not that they need it, but these type of road trips are terrific chemistry builders. You’re there with your team and that’s who you hang out with.
But the Thunder just wrapped up maybe the easiest stretch in their schedule going 3-0 last week with wins against the Hornets, Pistons and Warriors. Now it turns over with some good teams on the horizon. Oklahoma City has now won 11 of 12 with the lone loss being that awful one to the Wizards. They own the league’s best record again and have a 2.5-game edge on the Nuggets for home court in the West. Not a bad start to the season? In fact, it’s the second-best in franchise history.
The Thunder have obviously been extremely successful in the draft, partly by luck and partly because of wonderful advanced scouting and homework done by the front office.
But I’ve always kind of wondered if Sam Presti and his staff did such a great job drafting, or if they just did a great job developing. Maybe that’s a chicken-or-the-egg type of thing, but when you look at it, Presti really hasn’t whiffed on a draft pick yet. Byron Mullens looked to be a swing-and-a-miss, but all he really needed was a chance, which he’s getting in Charlotte.
On the NBA Today podcast, basketball genius David Thorpe was on and explained his theory of “Royal Jelly.” What’s royal jelly? It’s the stuff that baby bees get that turn them into powerful queen bees. Some guys are born with it. Some guys need it given to them, by the hive (or organization) if you will.
Thorpe says James Harden and Russell Westbrook both needed a little royal jelly (15:30 mark) to become the players that they are right now. Basically his point is, had either of those guys, specifically Westbrook, gone to a different organization, the chances they would’ve busted would’ve been much higher. Read more…
Actually, the right question is, could Kevin Durant consider restructuring his contract?
In this week’s mailbag, I answered a question about Durant and the possibility that he would renegotiate his deal to potentially free up a little more room to sign James Harden and Serge Ibaka. Under the old collective bargaining agreement, contract restructuring wasn’t allowed. But in the new one, players can.
It was among the so-called “b-list” issues and basically a player can renegotiate their deal to be paid a smaller amount, but the player’s salary can’t decrease by more than 40 percent.
However, there’s a catch and that’s where KD’s deal comes in. Someone with direct knowledge of the CBA tells me a player on a maximum level contract can’t do it. Because the restructuring has to include an extension and a designated five-year player can’t be extended. For example, a player on a three-year deal could restructure, but would have to get a new four-year deal. And since KD already has a five-year contract, he can’t add any more years to that.
So the conclusion: Even if KD wanted to do it, he couldn’t do it. But would he if he could?
Coming into last week’s slate of games, I think most Thunder fans, or at least realistic Thunder fans, were set to be satisfied with a 2-1 road trip. Oklahoma City was rocking along with the best record in the league and a six-game win streak, but a big game against a hungry, desperate Celtics team was waiting.
But with a solid win over the Celtics, the Thunder were in prime position to stretch that streak out to 12 before a game in Los Angeles against the Clippers. And then a funny thing happened: The Thunder lost to the league’s worst team. It wasn’t that jarring, as it kind of felt like it could be coming. Still, the Thunder went 2-1, but just not in the way that was really expected. Because of that, I’d give the team a C grade for the week. Two wins are good, but the loss to Washington and an ugly win over the lowly Nets didn’t make it a banner week by any means.
The last step in Russell Westbrook’s five-year, $80 million extension with the Thunder was taken Sunday afternoon at the team’s old practice facility in front of crowd that included Westbrook’s parents and brother, his agent, owner Clay Bennet and a bunch of youth basketball players and their families.
Maybe it was a bit coincidental that the presser was there, but that old practice facility is really where it all started for Westbrook. Scott Brooks said he remembered looking at Westbrook during the first Thunder practice there and saying, “My first thought after the 10 minutes of the drill and this is a true story, I said to myself, ‘I am glad I’m coaching not playing anymore because I couldn’t guard this guy.’”
Westbrook, Sam Presti and Scott Brooks talked about the important move the Thunder all kind of spreading the credit around to each other. But Westbrook repeated one theme throughout: He wanted to be in Oklahoma City not just because the team is good or because they’re paying him. He said it multiple times — he wanted to be here because of the community, the organization and the fans. Read more…
Think about this for one second: Oklahoma City is guaranteed — barring an unforeseen trade — to at least have the pleasure of watching Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook through 2016. Durant signed a maximum deal with no opt-out clause that is in effect this season and Westbrook did the same today with no opt-out that takes effect next season keeping him in OKC through 2017.
That’s at least five years to make a legitimate title run, if not two, if not three, if not five. Put two top 15 players on the same team and you’re going to have something in place that’s able to contend.
But what separates a good team that can contend to a great team that can win is depth. Having those supplementary pieces around Option A and Option B. Right now, the Thunder have exactly that. James Harden is about as good a third wheel as there is in the league. Serge Ibaka is a blossoming power forward that knows his role and handles himself well. Kendrick Perkins, Nick Collison, Daequan Cook, Thabo Sefolosha — all ideal role players that do their jobs. Read more…
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