5 Oklahoma City Thunder Players Who Need to Step Up Heading into 2015 Playoffs

A string of injuries has turned the Oklahoma City Thunder's roster from a veritable "who's who" to "who's left?" As a result, a few able bodies will need to step things up in order to keep the team in the playoff mix.

In recent weeks, Serge Ibaka (knee, four-to-six weeks), Nick Collison (ankle, 10 days,) and Andre Roberson (ankle, two-to-three weeks) have all gone down with various ailments that will keep each of them out indefinitely.

This is on top of Kevin Durant's continued absence due to soreness in his surgically repaired foot. The reigning MVP hasn't been seen on the court since Feb. 19, and general manager Sam Presti mentioned shutting Durant down for the season as a possibility after removing his star forward from basketball activities, per The Associated Press (h/t NBA.com). 

The team's constant health issues, which have been a problem since the start of the season, have taken their toll on head coach Scott Brooks. 

"There's that saying, if you don't laugh, you're gonna cry," Brooks said, per ESPN.com's Royce Young. "And sometimes I feel like crying."

Fortunately, the club's misfortune hasn't prevented them from building a lead in the race for the Western Conference's eighth seed. At 41-30, OKC is three games ahead of the Phoenix Suns and three-and-a-half above the New Orleans Pelicans with 11 contests remaining. 

Russell Westbrook has put the team on his back, averaging 27.5 points (first in the NBA), 8.7 assists (fourth), 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 steals (second). The 26-year-old also has a league-leading nine triple-doubles, seven of which have come in the last month. 

However, for Oklahoma City to overcome the odds and make a postseason run, it will need other players to pick up some of the slack and take pressure off of the team's star point guard. 

Kyle Singler

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Oklahoma City acquired Kyle Singler at the trade deadline to add depth and serve as a Band-Aid until Kevin Durant's return as well as improve its porous shooting from behind the arc. Instead, the former Duke standout is averaging 3.8 points per game and converting a lousy 32.3 percent from the field. After making 10 starts for the Thunder, he was eventually replaced in the lineup by Dion Waiters. 

With Andre Roberson out two-to-three weeks with a sprained ankle, Singler will return to the starting rotation, per Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman. Hopefully, the second time is the charm. 

With Durant and Ibaka out indefinitely, the Thunder are in desperate need for shooters that can space the floor. Anthony Morrow has done his part so far by knocking down 42.1 percent of his attempts from downtown. 

However, the man known as Chocolate Reign can't be the only threat on the perimeter. Singler is shooting 36.4 percent from three since joining the Thunder, which is down from the 40.6 percent he was putting up earlier in the year with the Detroit Pistons. 

If Singler is going to stay in the rotation once the team returns to full strength, his second impression in Oklahoma City needs to be much better than his first. 

Steve Novak

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Steve Novak's tenure in Oklahoma City got off to a rocky start after joining the team on Feb. 19 (via the Enes Kanter trade with the Utah Jazz). He underwent an appendectomy that kept him out of action for a couple of weeks. When he returned, he found playing time hard to come by thanks to OKC's depth up front. In total, the 31-year-old has played all of 37 minutes over the span of six games in a Thunder uniform.

In a clear example of good things happening to those who wait, opportunity is now knocking at Novak's door. With Collison and Ibaka sidelined, there is suddenly room for the nine-year veteran to apply his craft in OKC's frontcourt. Novak joins Steven Adams, Enes Kanter and Mitch McGary as the only healthy big men on the Thunder roster. 

However, what sets Novak apart from the other three is his ability to space the floor. With Ibaka out, the Thunder are suddenly in need for a stretch 4, and Novak is seventh all-time with a career 43.2 percent mark from three-point range. While he won't be much of a factor on the boards (career average of 1.3 rebounds per game) or on defense, he has a chance to carve his own niche by playing a similar offensive role as Ibaka. 

According to Basketball-Reference.com, 205 of Ibaka's 786 field-goal attempts (26 percent) came from behind the arc, and the Republic of the Congo native converted 37.6 percent of those shots. If Novak gets even a sliver of those opportunities, statistics show he will make the most of them. 

Steven Adams

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Who knew that all it would take for Steven Adams to begin realizing his potential was the arrival of a guy threatening to take his starting center job away? 

Since returning from a broken hand on March 8, Adams has been playing the best basketball of his young career. He's teamed with new addition Enes Kanter to form a frontcourt tandem affectionately known as "The Bruise Brothers." After struggling to find an offensive rhythm throughout the season, the lofty Kiwi has scored in double figures in each of his last six games starting alongside his Turkish tag team partner. 

Defensively, he remains the team's anchor in the post, picking up the baton passed on by his mentor Kendrick Perkins' midseason departure. According to NBA.com, opponents are shooting 52.6 percent from less than six feet and 43.2 percent overall with Adams defending. Normally, those numbers are 59.7 and 47.5 percent, respectively. 

Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman has noticed the 21-year-old's emergence as an offensive deterrent:

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In the past couple seasons, Adams has quickly emerged as a defensive force. He’s sturdy in the post, an elbow-throwing pest to opponents, an above average rim protector and increasingly better in the pick-and-roll. Plus, he gobbles up defensive rebounds, which seems to fit well with Kanter, who brutalizes teams on the offensive glass.

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To Slater's point, Adams and Kanter combine for 18.3 rebounds per game, which is a big reason behind the Thunder leading the league in that category. Kanter is also fifth in the NBA with 224 offensive boards. 

Still, for all of Adams' offensive improvement, there are still some areas the Thunder will need him to shore up going forward. 

First, he needs to find a way to remain aggressive on the defensive end without drawing attention from the refs. He's been whistled 190 times this season, which ranks 19th in basketball despite the 7-footer missing 12 games. He also has four-plus fouls in 25 of his 59 games and averages 4.6 harms per 36 minutes. 

With Ibaka out, the team can't afford its other rim protector missing chunks of playing time due to foul trouble. 

Next, while big men struggling at the charity stripe is nothing new, Adams' troubles at the free-throw line are particularly bad. He's converting 55.3 percent of his freebies, which is down from his rookie mark of 58.1 percent. 

Adams' importance is only going to grow as the postseason nears, but he is of no use to the Thunder if his shortcomings force him off the floor. 

Enes Kanter

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Offensively, Enes Kanter is giving OKC everything it hoped for when the team acquired him at the trade deadline. In 15 games, the former third overall pick is averaging 17.7 points and 10.9 rebounds while shooting 57.2 percent from the field.

After never having a center who put up at least 20 points and 10 boards in a single game, the Thunder have now seen Kanter accomplish the feat six times. The big man has kept many possessions alive by being a beast on the offensive boards, ranking fifth in the NBA with an offensive-rebounding percentage of 14.5, per Basketball-Reference.com. 

However, for the Thunder to stand a chance against the elite frontcourts in the West, it will need Kanter to step his game up on the defensive end. Per NBA.com, opponents are shooting 50.2 percent with the 22-year-old defending, compared to 47.2 percent normally. When he's on the court, opponents post an offensive rating of 109 as opposed to 103.5 when he's on the bench, per Basketball-Reference.com. 

Kanter also has a real plus/minus of -3.38, which ranks 67th among centers and 395th overall, per ESPN.com. 

While Steven Adams is the defensive yin to Kanter's offensive yang, the latter is still required to D-up. The team can't expect Adams to defend both Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph at the same time, especially if he can't stay out of foul trouble.

Until Ibaka returns, Oklahoma City needs a second big man that can make things difficult for opposing interior attacks. As the starting center and someone looking for a new deal this summer, it's up to Kanter to prove he's more than an one-dimensional pivot man. 

Kanter's infusion of offense has been great for a Thunder team missing its best scorer in Durant, but that becomes moot if the team is giving it right back at the other end. 

Dion Waiters

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Inconsistency has plagued Waiters during his first three months in Oklahoma City, much like it has during his three years in the NBA. At times, he looks like an athletic slasher who can get to the basket at will. At other times, he's a defiant gunner desperately trying to prove his outside jumper isn't as pedestrian as the percentages suggest. 

According to Basketball-Reference.com, of the 766 shots Waiters has put up this season, 411 have come from 16 feet and beyond. That wouldn't be half as alarming if the Syracuse guard was a good shooter, but he's hitting just 32.8 percent from that aforementioned distance. Waiters is also converting less than half of his attempts at the rim (49.8 percent, to be exact), which is mind-boggling for a player with his talents.

Grantland's Zach Lowe weighed in on Waiters' offensive struggles:

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(Scott) Brooks slid Waiters into the starting lineup over Kyle Singler to goose the offense, but Waiters is mostly taking some of the most godawful off-the-dribble 2s you’ll ever see. I’m pretty sure he set an unofficial league record for layups that hit only the backboard against Boston on Wednesday (March 18).

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To Waiters' credit, he followed up his poor performance against the Boston Celtics (4-14 shooting, eight points) with his best outing in a Thunder uniform two nights later against the Atlanta Hawks: 26 points on 11-of-18 shooting, including 2-of-6 from deep. 

The problem for both Waiters and the Thunder are those games have been few and far between. After the big upset win over the Hawks, head coach Scott Brooks issued praise but also admitted Waiters was still a work in progress, per DailyThunder.com's Royce Young: 

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"With Dion, he’s a good player,” Brooks said. “I just told him we’re just going to have to keep working with you. We had a good film session, him and I, yesterday. Not that I’m saying it paid off, but he understands what we need. I thought he did a great job of competing on both ends. He hasn’t made his layups and he’s been working on them. It’s not if you make them or miss them, it’s if you continue to prepare to make them. And he’s done that all year, and it paid off tonight."

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Going forward, the Thunder needs Waiters to be more like the efficient scorer who torched Atlanta and less like the guy who couldn't find the bottom of the basket against Boston. Now that he's running with the starters, his ability to take some of the load off Westbrook's shoulders is crucial until Durant returns.