Why Jeremy Lamb Is Entering Make-or-Break Season with Oklahoma City Thunder
The 2014-15 NBA season will be the most important of Oklahoma City Thunder shooting guard Jeremy Lamb's career. This has to be the year that he puts all of his vast talents together and becomes one of the team's key contributors.
Lamb has shown improvement in his first two pro seasons, but he hasn't lived up to his potential as a 2012 lottery pick. The biggest reason for the 22-year-old disappointing so far has been a lack of consistency and confidence.
The former falls completely on Lamb's shoulders. The blame for the latter could be placed elsewhere. Lamb played well in the first half of last season, averaging 10 points in 22.1 minutes per game. He shot 45 percent from the floor, including 36.6 from three.
After the All-Star break, his minutes dipped down to 13.9 a night. As a result, Lamb's offensive numbers took a hit. He averaged five points per game during that stretch. He also shot 36.1 percent from the field and 32.1 percent from behind the arc.
This season, the stars seem aligned for Lamb to have a breakout year. Thabo Sefolosha and Caron Butler, two veterans who took minutes away from Lamb last season, are now gone. Injuries have also thinned the roster, increasing the demand for the team's other players to step up.
In short, the Thunder need Lamb to emerge this season, and that kind of dependency could work wonders for Lamb's confidence. Typically, a breakout season happens in Year 2 or 3 (Indiana Pacers' forward Paul George being a solid example), and here are a few reasons why that could be the case for Lamb.
He's Had His Moments In The Preseason
As has been the case throughout his young career, inconsistency has plagued Lamb in this year's preseason. In the opener against the Denver Nuggets, he put up enough bricks to build a house, shooting 1-for-14 from the field and finishing with 11 points.
Fortunately, Lamb was able to bounce back in the next game against the Dallas Mavericks, scoring 19 points on 6-of-15 shooting. He followed that up with a 23-point performance against the Memphis Grizzlies and a 20-point outing against the New Orleans Pelicans.
There are a few important takeaways from Lamb's exhibition play so far. First, Lamb has been extremely aggressive on the offensive end. In five games, he's attempted 79 shots. While his outside jumper has been off (4-for-28 from three), he's remained undeterred and found other ways to score.
Here's a look at Lamb's shot chart from the Grizzlies game. Lamb's jumper was off the whole night, as evidenced by the startling amount of X's littered throughout the picture. However, he did find some success attacking the basket. His aggressiveness helped him get to the line, where he went 6-for-6.
It's important for scorers to have a Plan B. Lamb was a good shooter in college and shot the ball well last season. That's going to be his bread and butter going forward. The fact that he was still able to put up points despite his jumper being colder than a Chicago winter is promising.
Another bright spot is the trust Lamb's teammates displayed by feeding him the ball, even though he was struggling with his shot. We've all played pickup basketball before. Who keeps passing to the guy that think he's Stephen Curry but has been shooting like Stevie Wonder? Nobody.
While the consistent looks didn't help Lamb get out of his slump, it does more for his confidence than the alternative. If the team didn't show faith in Lamb being able to work through off nights, it would hurt his morale. With low morale, he suddenly has less confidence in himself.
With no self-confidence, he'll start to overthink things on the court, which leads to mistakes. When you make too many mistakes, you end up at the end of the bench waving a towel. It's like a bad DirectTV commercial.
The bright side to Lamb's preseason is that, even with the poor shooting, he's still averaging 15.8 points per game. Eventually he'll regain his shooting touch. From there, he'll become a more efficient scorer. That will lead to him improving upon the 8.5 points per game he averaged last season.
He Might Be The Thunder's Best Pure Shooting Guard
Head coach Scott Brooks hasn't decided on who his starting shooting guard will be when the regular season tips off on Oct. 29.
"Not even close..." Brooks said prior to the team's game against the Toronto Raptors, according to Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman. "We still have quite a few exhibition games and a lot of practices after these exhibition games. So there's still time for players to continue to earn their minutes, earn their starting spot."
Brooks has gone with different looks this preseason to get a better idea of who will be the best man to take Sefolosha's old spot. Andre Roberson, the current favorite, has seen a ton of playing time in the preseason. Anthony Morrow, the team's big free-agent addition, got the start against Toronto.
Reggie Jackson, currently nursing a right wrist injury, will see minutes at the 2 as well. Then there's Lamb, who may be the most talented of the group. Each player has their own particular niche.
Roberson, like Sefolosha before him, is a defensive-minded pit bull who still needs to work on his offensive game. To his credit, his two most recent performances have been his best of the preseason. He scored 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds, blocked two shots and came away with two steals in a loss to the Pelicans on Oct. 16.
He followed that up by scoring 15 points and pulling down 10 boards the next night in the loss to Toronto. He also added a steal and a block. His play earned him some kudos from Brooks, per NBA.com's Nick Gallo.
"I liked Andre’s effort defensively,” Brooks said. “He was active. His layup game, his slashing to the basket, his offensive aggressive play was good."
Offense has been Roberson's Achilles' heel since he came into the league. Last season, he averaged 1.9 points while playing a sparse 10 minutes per game. Prior to his last two exhibition outings, he scored a combined nine points in three games.
As for Morrow, he's had a strong preseason and has lived up to his billing as one of the league's best shooters. In four games, he's averaging 16.3 points while shooting 20-of-40 from the field (50 percent). That includes a 11-of-20 mark (55 percent) from behind the arc.
With Kevin Durant out for at least six weeks following surgery to repair a fracture in his foot, Morrow may have played his way into being KD's fill-in.
Jackson came into this season wanting to start, per DailyThunder.com's Royce Young. An early wrist injury and Brooks' insistence on having a more defensive presence next to Russell Westbrook will likely thwart that dream from becoming a reality.
He's still likely to see a good chunk of playing time at both guard spots. In Durant's absence, the team needs an infusion of offense and few on the roster can create like Jackson. However, Lamb is in that small group of the team's best scorers as well.
So far this preseason, the Thunder have had three 20-plus-point performances from their guard rotation. Lamb has been responsible for two of the three (Morrow is the other). Yes, it's the preseason, but what's the point of having the games if we aren't supposed to take something from them?
While Morrow and Jackson will certainly be in the mix at shooting guard, the battle for the starting job essentially comes down to Lamb vs. Roberson (especially if Morrow starts at small forward). To win, either Lamb or Roberson will have to make strides in their biggest area of weakness.
For Roberson, it's on the offensive side of the ball. For Lamb, it's the exact opposite. As a 6'5" shooting guard with a 6'11" wingspan, Lamb should be a better defender than he is. At the very least, he could use his long reach to bother shooters as well as jump passing lanes to come away with a few steals.
Could he be a better defender than Roberson? No. And Roberson could never be the scorer that Lamb is. Could he be more passable on defense than Roberson would be on offense? Yes. Lamb may never be a lockdown perimeter defender, but he can be pesky. He's already shown a knack for getting his hands on the ball, notching four blocks and six steals in his first four exhibition games.
Even though each guard has their own special skill they bring to the table, Lamb has the potential to be the most complete of the group. He can have his moments as a shooter, much like Morrow has. He can create offense for himself, like Jackson does. He could make plays on defense and get out in transition, just like Roberson.
All it would take is Brooks committing to Lamb. If you want your young players to grow, you have to put a little faith in them. Lamb has made the case for why he should and should not start, but with a boost of confidence, the good will outweigh the bad.
Opportunity
Oklahoma City will be playing without Kevin Durant for an extended period of time. It could be six weeks. It could be eight. It could be longer. When it comes to a Jones fracture, all bets are off.
| C.J. McCollum | Portland Trail Blazers | Didn't make season debut until Jan. 8, missed first 35 games | ||
| Brook Lopez | Brooklyn Nets | Underwent two surgeries on Jan. 4, missed final four months of season |
While you can never truly replace a superstar like Durant, the Thunder must find a way to generate offense with him gone. The two-headed monster of Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka will shoulder most of that load. The team will still need help from its young players such as Steven Adams, Reggie Jackson and...wait for it...Jeremy Lamb.
If Morrow gets the starting nod at small forward, that leaves Jackson, Lamb and Roberson to duke it out for minutes at shooting guard.
While he'll play alongside Westbrook in certain situations, Jackson will also be used to give the All-Star point guard a breather. That brings us, once again, to Roberson and Lamb. Of the two, Lamb is clearly the better scorer. Even on his off days, he shoots better than the 15.4 percent from three Roberson put up last season.
Whether he starts or not, Lamb should still see plenty of playing time. The departure of veterans like Butler, Sefolosha and Derek Fisher combined with the team's rash of injuries has forced them to rely on their young players.
It may be a stretch to expect Lamb to see the 22 minutes a game he was logging prior to the All-Star break last season, but he will definitely have more chances to prove himself than he did after the Butler signing.
Obviously, it all falls on Lamb to make the most of those opportunities. While Roberson may have the inside track on the shooting guard spot, he hasn't won it yet. With some inspired play, Lamb could wrestle the job away from the second-year man out of Colorado.
If that happens, Lamb becomes an option in a starting rotation looking for alternatives beyond Ibaka and Westbrook. If Lamb was averaging 10 points per game playing behind Sefolosha prior to the All-Star break last year, could he contribute 12-14 a night leading a committee at shooting guard this year?
Time will tell how it all plays out, but Lamb is in a better position than he was down the stretch last year. He's even in a better spot than he was around this time two weeks ago. It's up to him to make it count.
"This might be now or never for Jeremy Lamb.
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) October 12, 2014"
When you add all of these factors together, this could be the season Thunder fans have been waiting for out of Lamb. This is a make-or-break season for him. With all due respect to Roberson and Jackson, there's no reason two late first-round picks should be outperforming a guy that taken No. 12 overall.
Lamb's development is a two-way street. For Lamb to emerge, coach Brooks has to get behind him. For Brooks to get behind him, Lamb will have to play better. While his preseason performances have been hindered by inconsistent shooting, Lamb's shown flashes of being a capable offensive threat.
Whether he gets to start or not, Lamb must maximize his chances. This is the best opportunity he's had as a pro. There's no more excuses. Nowhere else to point the finger. The skids are greased for this to be his year. It's up to him to make it happen.
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