5 Things OKC Thunder Must Prove Without Kevin Durant

The Oklahoma City Thunder have their doubters in the wake of Kevin Durant’s injury. The reigning MVP covered up a lot of flaws for his team, and now the rest of the organization will be put under the microscope. Everyone will be intensely focused on Russell Westbrook and how he handles his new role. Likewise, head coach Scott Brooks will be the subject of much analysis for how he deals with the situation.

But with those questions comes the chance for those people and this team as a whole to prove their worth. The biggest question is whether the OKC offense can stay afloat without the four-time scoring champion, but that issue spawns numerous smaller questions.

The most fascinating development will be how Westbrook balances the need to score versus the need to create for his teammates. That narrative will be determined by how many (if any) of his comrades take on a bigger role in the offense.

Without Durant, the Thunder are a team of questions, and this slideshow presents the five most important ones the team needs to answer.

Can Westbrook Be the No. 1 Player on a Winning Team?

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Nobody can dispute the immense talent of Russell Westbrook, but he’s been in a near-perfect situation for his entire career so far. Until now, that is. The knock on the mercurial point guard to this point has been his inability or reluctance to facilitate the offense instead of becoming the offense.

We know that Westbrook could average more than 30 points per game for the next two months with relative ease, but OKC isn’t going to win many games if that’s all he’s doing. A true franchise player needs to make his teammates better, and in this scenario, that requires a less aggressive but more cerebral Westbrook.

Based on his comments to Darnell Mayberry of NewsOK.com, he already knows this:

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I just think about how we can get better as a team. My job as a point guard is to be able to come out on the floor and run my team. And that’s all I can do is come out and try to figure out (how) to better my guys, better all the guys we have on the floor and that’s about it.

It’s about our team. I can’t win games by myself. I can’t do anything by myself. I kind of want to take the attention off me and put it on more of the team. Everybody keeps asking what I’m going to do and how I’m going to change. I think it’s more about our team and what we can do to get better and what we can do to be a better team.

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For the Thunder to win games without Durant, Westbrook will need to prove that he can pick his spots carefully and keep his teammates involved in the offense. His maturation is the first step toward maintaining a winning record without the MVP.

Can Coach Brooks Make the Correct Adjustments on the Fly?

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Even Coach Brooks’ biggest supporters will admit that his greatest weakness is making in-game adjustments. With Durant and Westbrook, Brooks had enough talent that those subtle tweaks were not as important. Now, his coaching will be vital to OKC’s survival, and he’ll need to be flexible and creative to be successful.

Westbrook’s injury last year was trying, but at least Reggie Jackson was waiting to capably fill in at point guard. This season, Brooks has to work with the unappetizing combo platter of Andre Roberson, Perry Jones III and Anthony Morrow at small forward.

Execution will be key, and finding the right lineup for the nightly matchup will be critical. Brooks showed a willingness to tinker with his lineups a bit more last year, but he’ll need to take it to another level this season.

Is Reggie Jackson Ready to Make Another Leap?

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For Westbrook to become a facilitator, other players on the team have to score, and the best bet to pick up a chunk of Durant’s offensive output is Reggie Jackson. The Boston College product impressed last season when he replaced Westbrook in the starting lineup, and he’ll need to be even better this season.

With Jackson likely headed for restricted free agency at the end of the season, this is a golden opportunity for him to show that he still has plenty of room to grow and can become a devastating third option behind the dynamic duo.

Jackson has displayed a more natural propensity to act as the facilitator, and any improvement in that regard would free up Westbrook to focus on scoring. He’ll also need to play better without the ball—both as a spot-up shooter and an off-ball cutter.

Westbrook will be the star to fill Durant’s vacated shoes, but everyone else needs to contribute in picking up the slack, and Jackson has the talent to be a No. 2 option on a good team. Another leap would go a long way to offset the loss of Durant while clearing up the future of the franchise’s core.

Can Coach Brooks Implement an Offensive Scheme?

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The Thunder offense to this point has been an unbridled freestyle machine fueled by the prodigious talents of Durant and Westbrook.

Durant was able to keep it afloat on his own (when Russell Westbrook missed major time last season) by putting together a historic performance and cementing his status as a once-in-a-generation scorer. Perhaps Westbrook can mimic that MVP-caliber season, but it wouldn’t hurt for the OKC offense to do a better job of manufacturing some easy buckets and taking some of the burden off the point guard.

That falls on the shoulders of Coach Brooks. Whether that comes in the form of more ball movement, more player movement or a combination of both, something needs to change for OKC to be an effective offense. The Thunder roster minus Durant is not talented enough offensively to score against the league’s best defenses using its current approach.

Generating more easy buckets by scheme will not only help the team during the period of Durant’s injury, but it will help push OKC over the top in the playoffs by making it less predictable.

Who Can Pick Up the Three-Point Slack?

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One of the team’s most glaring flaws last year was the lack of outside shooting. General manager Sam Presti tried to address the issue by signing Anthony Morrow this offseason, but Durant’s injury means that other players will need to step up their three-point game to maintain floor spacing.

Morrow should be fine in this capacity since it’s his only elite skill, but some others will need to help him from downtown. Reggie Jackson, for instance, could build on his 34 percent performance from last year and evolve into a reliable shooter who defenses have to account for.

Additionally, Jeremy Lamb could fill the void by showing more consistency from downtown. He started the season red-hot, connecting on more than 40 percent of his three-point attempts for the first two months of the season. Unfortunately, Lamb’s shot eluded him, as his percentage dipped to around 30 percent for January and February. We’ve seen Lamb be a shooter, but now he needs to do it over the course of a season.

If it’s not either of those two gentlemen, maybe the extra three-point shooting could come from an unexpected source.

Andre Roberson, for example, showed no long-range capabilities last season but could carve out a big role with even a modicum of improvement to his shooting stroke. Additionally, Serge Ibaka could be a factor in OKC’s three-point shooting if he continues to extend his range and evolve into a true stretch 4.

All of these various events are unlikely to happen, but the Thunder need some of these players to improve as perimeter shooters without Durant on the floor.