5 Things the Oklahoma City Thunder Must Achieve During 2015
The Oklahoma City Thunder started the new year with a bang, making a significant trade to upgrade their roster. It was a clear signal that the front office felt there was room for improvement. But there are plenty of other goals the Thunder should be setting for themselves for the rest of 2015.
The biggest of those goals revolves around the aforementioned trade. Dion Waiters is a talented combo guard, but he was unable to find a niche with the Cleveland Cavaliers. At his best, he can be a reliable two-way guard capable of bulldozing his way to the hoop as he pleases. At his worst, he’s a ball-stopper who settles for difficult, contested jumpers.
For OKC to come out as winners of the trade, it has to put Waiters in a position to succeed and help him fit into the culture. Part of that is certainly on the mercurial guard himself, as he needs to buy into the concept of a team and defer when necessary.
Additionally, the Thunder must move the ball more. It’s not a new complaint, and the acquisition of Waiters certainly doesn’t help, but it’s a necessity for the team to maximize its title chances.
It’s the season for resolutions, and some of the Thunder’s most important ones are outlined in the following slides. Sticking to these resolutions is the key to OKC’s championship aspirations.
Team: Make Dion Waiters Comfortable
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General manager Sam Presti worked the phones and brought in a talented player. Now it’s up to the coaching staff and Waiters’ new teammates to help him adjust to his new surroundings.
That starts with making him feel welcome, and that shouldn’t be a problem based on Kevin Durant’s comments following the trade, via Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman. Durant made the interesting point that Waiters probably hasn’t felt wanted for a couple of years, and the Thunder are hoping the change of scenery does him some good.
While Waiters has gained a reputation as somewhat of a knucklehead for his off-court sound bites and his on-court shot selection, he’s hardly had a stable structure to guide his development. OKC definitely provides that for the Syracuse product, but head coach Scott Brooks needs to find out where his skill set is best-used.
Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports reported that Waiters will come off the bench but receive the bulk of the minutes at shooting guard. That makes sense, as Waiters likes to have the ball in his hands, and that’s going to happen most with the second unit.
But Coach Brooks needs to figure out how to get Waiters his touches without subtracting them from Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Reggie Jackson. Most importantly, the Thunder need to divide those touches without making it a rotation of isolation plays.
The ideal version of Waiters could be a game-changer as the other scorer and creator OKC has been looking for. Now the Thunder have to make sure they put him in the position to be that player.
Dion Waiters: Know Your Role
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Of course, the team can do everything in its power to make Waiters comfortable, but it still needs that ideal version of him to show up. He plays with a toughness and competitive edge that reminds you of Westbrook at times. Unfortunately, he needs a ladder to reach Westbrook’s ceiling as a dynamic force, and his competitiveness manifests itself as hero ball too frequently.
Yahoo Sports’ Marc Spears suggested that Waiters was unhappy with his role in Cleveland, but he will likely be asked to fill a similar role in OKC. Based on skill set and the roster, it makes sense to bring Waiters off the bench as a scoring punch for the bench mob.
He will, however, have to change pace a little (i.e. focus on solid defense and off-ball offense) when he shares the court with Durant and Westbrook, and that portion of his role will be the crux of the issue.
If Waiters is content to pick his spots and defer to the two (clearly better) megastars on the roster, then everything should fall into place. But if he brings over some of the immature behavior he displayed in Cleveland, this trade could end up backfiring on OKC.
Front Office: Explore Reggie Jackson Trades
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The Thunder shouldn't be trying to trade Reggie Jackson at all costs, but GM Sam Presti has to keep making calls around the league to assess what he could get back in return for the promising young point guard.
A trade would have been risky before the Waiters move because Jackson is OKC’s third scorer and playmaker. But Waiters’ presence would offset the loss of Jackson a little bit, and it frees up Presti to not be as focused on returning immediate value for Jackson.
As a purely hypothetical example, Presti is far more likely to be interested in trading Reggie Jackson for C.J. Watson and a first-round pick now that Waiters is on board. In the pre-Waiters world, getting the first-round pick would be nice, but that trade would probably kill OKC’s chances of a deep playoff run this season.
With Waiters in the mix, Watson is a good fit as a less ball-dominant guard and a better three-point shooter than Jackson. While it’s certainly a drop-off at the backup point guard spot, such a trade would still give OKC a legitimate shot at contending while returning the team fairly good value for Jackson instead of losing him for nothing this offseason.
Of course, any trades like that would need to wait until we see how Waiters performs. If he plays well, Presti should be a little more aggressive in testing the waters with Jackson’s trade value—not just for next season, but to see if he can improve this year’s team.
Russell Westbrook: Maintain the Right Kind of Aggression
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Westbrook has been absolutely fabulous this season because he’s making better choices. Some of the reckless turnovers are still there, but he’s been in constant attack mode and has toned down some of the poor shot selection that plagued him at times in previous seasons.
He’s not settling for long two-pointers as much, and he’s taking the right kind of three-pointers, but he needs to continue that trend, as it’s been wavering recently.
I’m not asking him to pass the ball more because he’s not your John Stockton point guard. He needs to be aggressive as a scorer, but the best thing for this Thunder team is that he’s forcing the issue, taking good shots and getting into the paint. That’s fallen off a little bit recently (last five games: 18.4 points, 27.3 FG%, 12.5 3P%) and needs to get back to where it was earlier in the year.
Furthermore, becoming a more conservative on-ball defender would be extremely beneficial for OKC’s defense. That’s probably trying to change him too much, but Westbrook has a tendency to be overambitious and put himself out of position by gunning for steals and leaping sideways to take away oncoming picks.
Aggression is the name of Westbrook’s game, but it’s the right kind of aggression that will take the Thunder back to the Finals.
Team: Move the Ball
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It’s been another season of the same offense for the Thunder, and it’s not going to get the job done. Maybe the addition of another scorer (i.e. Waiters) can make enough of a difference, but OKC doesn’t make good defenses work hard enough in its current form (as shown in their recent blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors).
Regardless of which metric you look at, it’s clear that the Thunder aren’t moving the ball enough. They’re tied for last in assist ratio (percentage of possessions that end with an assist) with the Philadelphia 76ers, who are boasting a historically bad offense this season.
They also rank in the bottom third of the league in assists, passes, free-throw assists, secondary assists, assist opportunities and points created by assist (all stats are per game).
The trend continues when you look at the types of shots they’re getting. They rank in the bottom 10 in catch-and-shoot field-goal attempts, while they’re in the top 10 in pull-up shot attempts per game.
It makes sense to let Durant and Westbrook utilize their exceptional one-on-one abilities, but there needs to be a backup plan for when defenses load up or have defenders capable of containing them. That backup plan is to get the ball whizzing around, forcing defenses to scramble and making them pay for helping too much.
Unfortunately, we haven’t seen that ball movement enough this season. That has to change in 2015.
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