Oklahoma City Thunder Are Ready to Compete After Underrated Offseason
The Oklahoma City Thunder didn't have to make a big splash in free agency to build a championship-caliber team. They just didn't have that many needs.
By hiring head coach Billy Donovan, the franchise expects he can excel where former coach Scott Brooks couldn't. Drafting Cameron Payne was about the hope that he could provide a spark off the bench. Enes Kanter and Kyle Singler were re-signed to provide interior scoring and depth on the wing, respectively, after both were acquired in trades last season.
Oh, and Oklahoma City still has Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, two of the top six players in the league, as well as an emerging two-way forward in Serge Ibaka. When you add all of those components together, you get a championship contender, right?
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Thunder shooting guard Dion Waiters seems to think so, per Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman.
"We got to come in knowing what’s at stake and that’s a championship. We got the team. If you look at our team, we don’t have (any) missing links. We have everything that we need. And it’s up to us just to go out there, build that chemistry on and off the court and go out there and get it done. It’s not much else to talk about.
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While the Thunder don't have any glaring weaknesses, that also means there are no more excuses for failing to win a championship. Injuries have thwarted the team's title hopes the last three seasons, but assuming everyone stays healthy, OKC has the talent and depth to compete with any team in the league.
In Billy We Trust
The first upgrade the Thunder made this offseason was swapping Brooks for Donovan as the new sultan of the sidelines. While Brooks compiled a 338-207 record (.620 winning percentage) as OKC's coach, his offensive philosophy lacked creativity, and his reliance on the team's two biggest stars was evident in their usage during his tenure.
| Year | Durant (Rank) | Westbrook (Rank) |
| 2008-09 | 28.3 (11) | 25.8 (25) |
| 2009-10 | 32.0 (5) | 25.7 (27) |
| 2010-11 | 30.6 (8) | 31.6 (5) |
| 2011-12 | 31.3 (5) | 32.7 (2) |
| 2012-13 | 29.8 (6) | 32.8 (2) |
| 2013-14 | 33.0 (1) | 34.4 (n/a) |
| 2014-15 | 29.1 (n/a) | 38.4 (1) |
Meanwhile, Donovan has made monitoring Durant and Westbrook's minutes one of his priorities, per ESPN.com's Royce Young.
"How many minutes does Kevin like to play before he likes to come out? What kind of rhythm does he like to get into? Same thing with Russell. What's his rhythm of playing? How does that work out? The other thing, too, on certain nights based on who you're playing, maybe they come out a little bit earlier. Maybe they stay in a little bit longer. I think getting a chance to sit down with them as we move closer to training camp to talk about those things will be important.
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Donovan's emphasis on ball movement will also be a nice change of pace from Brooks' iso-heavy scheme. With so many mouths to feed on the offensive side, finding the right amount of touches for everybody will be key to Donovan maintaining a happy locker room in what will be a pressure-filled debut season.
Donovan also helped his cause by assembling an experienced coaching staff led by Monty Williams and Mo Cheeks. By doing so, he believes this meeting of basketball minds will work to his benefit and, ultimately, to the Thunder's as well, per Young.
"Certainly there's a lot of experience on the staff, and that's been really enjoyable to me that we've been able to pick each other's brains on a lot of things. Trying to create an identity of how we want to play based on our personnel. Watching film, trying to put things in offensively and defensively where we're helping the players play to their strengths.
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It's scary to think about Donovan getting more out of an offense that already includes two scoring champions, an emerging stretch 4, one of the game's most dangerous three-point shooters as well as a double-double machine at center.
At the other end, Donovan will have a four-time shot-blocking champ, a gritty post defender and a couple of underrated perimeter stoppers at his disposal.
Donovan's arrival could be the little push that gets the franchise over the postseason hump.
Is This the Best Thunder Team Ever?
This summer, general manager Sam Presti addressed all of the areas that seemed to hold the Thunder back since it emerged as a contender in 2010.
After years of playing without an offensive-minded center, the team matched the Portland Trail Blazers' four-year, $70 million offer sheet to Kanter, who averaged 18.7 points and 11 rebounds in 26 games with OKC last season.
The trick now is for the 23-year-old big man to make the same strides on the defensive end that he made on offense in 2015. According to ESPN.com, Kanter finished with a defensive real plus-minus (a stat used to determine a player's value to his team at each end of the floor) of minus-3.87, the worst mark of any center in the NBA.
Jenni Carlson of the Oklahoman believes extended time with the Thunder coaching staff will make Kanter a better defender.
"The Thunder has a proven track record of developing the defense of big men. Most notable are Serge Ibaka and Steven Adams, but even someone like Hasheem Thabeet was better defensively after time in Oklahoma City.
The man behind that development is Mark Bryant. The big man coach survived the coaching change, so with Bryant as well as a player-teacher like Nick Collison, we know the Thunder has the means to teach Kanter how to play better defense.
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Kanter's ability to be less of a walking turnstile will allow him to be on the floor more, which raises the ceiling of the Thunder's overall roster. A crunch-time lineup of Kanter, Ibaka, Durant, Morrow and Westbrook is the kind of pick-your-poison rotation that can give defenses nightmares, but that's contingent on the Turkish Tower not giving the points back at the other end.
Depth was also a concern, especially at small forward where Durant has lacked a suitable backup. To help with that, the team re-signed Singler to a five-year, $25 million deal. While the former Duke forward struggled filling in for KD last season, he could thrive in a reserve role that demands less from him.
Additionally, Singler's career 37.8 percent mark from downtown combined with the returns of Durant and Ibaka will help a Thunder team that ranked 22nd in three-point shooting (33.9 percent).
Presti also found a potential gem in Payne, who averaged 20.2 points and six assists per game while shooting 37.7 percent from deep as a sophomore, per Sports-Reference.com. The Thunder haven't had a reserve guard with this kind of all-around ability since James Harden. The biggest question about Payne is whether his gaudy numbers are a product of inferior competition or a sign of things to come.
Arguably, Presti's greatest masterstroke this summer was finding new homes for first-round letdowns Jeremy Lamb (Charlotte Hornets) and Perry Jones (Boston Celtics). The two trades not only saved the team $5.1 million in salary and $7 million off the luxury tax bill, but it opened up a roster spot for Josh Huestis, the Thunder's first-round pick and domestic draft-and-stash prospect from last season.
Altogether, the Thunder have its deepest and most-talented roster in franchise history: two quality young centers, a three-headed monster at power forward led by Ibaka, Singler to caddy Durant at the 3, four shooting guards and three point guards.
| Position | Starter | Reserve | Reserve | Reserve |
| C | Kanter | Adams | ||
| PF | Ibaka | McGary | Collison | Novak |
| SF | Durant | Singler | ||
| SG | Morrow | Waiters | Roberson | Huestis |
| PG | Westbrook | Augustin | Payne |
Prior to last season, the Oklahoma City Thunder had made the Western Conference Finals three times in four years. An unfortunate rash of injuries during the 2014-15 campaign prevented the team from making it four out of five.
Rather than reinvent the wheel, the Thunder opted to blend the core from those three postseason runs with supporting cast and coaching improvements. The end result is an Oklahoma City team that is insanely deep and versatile at both ends of the court.
The Thunder did everything they could to improve this offseason, and now, the team is poised to fill the one box that remains unchecked on its wish list: winning an NBA championship.
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.jpg?w=600 "Offseason Moves for Every Team 👉")