The Thunder Are Transitioning Into A New Era Thanks To This Small-Ball Secret

After his team played what Kevin Durant described as “beautiful” basketball in a 125-88 rout of the Memphis Grizzlies earlier this month, Billy Donovan couldn’t help but preach process.

“A lot of these things we talk about sometimes are very fleeting,” the Oklahoma City Thunder’s rookie coach told ESPN. “You’ve got to be able to have a strong conviction and commitment, and you’ve got to be intentional about it. Because if you’re not intentional about it, you lose it very quickly. So, you’ve got to go into games intentional about moving the ball, sharing the ball, doing those kind of things.”

Donovan wasn’t just singing praises of the Thunder’s play against the Grizzlies, of course, but also reminding Durant and company what it will take for them to win a title – this season and beyond. An obvious lack of movement and creativity is what prompted Sam Presti to replace Scott Brooks with the former University of Florida coach this summer, and after nearly two months of play it’s clear that Oklahoma City is still adjusting to the offensive ethos Donovan is striving to implement.

That’s not surprising. Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka developed into stars under years of tutelage from Brooks, and it’s not like their natural inclination is to probe defenses with pointed passing before launching a shot, either. The Thunder were never going to morph into the Golden State Warriors or San Antonio Spurs overnight; this is a process that will take more than one season.

Oklahoma City, incidentally, is hardly struggling to score in the interim. Its 107.6 offensive rating is second only to Golden State’s despite Durant missing six games with a hamstring injury and those aforementioned struggles to adopt a more modern approach to offense. The Thunder rank 26th in assist percentage and dead last in passes per game. They take more dribbles per touch than every team but the Detroit Pistons and hold the ball longer than any team but the Los Angeles Lakers, too.

Oklahoma City is talented enough to get away with that static, and does even better when Donovan maximizes the rare construction of his roster by utilizing downsized lineups – which is exactly what he did during that “beautiful” performance in Memphis.

The Thunder played with Durant or Steve Novak at power forward for 12 minutes versus the Grizzlies – one of their most small-heavy games of the season. The team’s overall results – 56 percent shooting, 13-of-26 from beyond the arc, 31 assists, and a 130.0 offensive rating – were impressive, but still don’t do the play of small-ball units justice.

A lineup featuring Westbrook, Anthony Morrow, Dion Waiters, Durant, and Ibaka shot 10-of-12 and outscored Dave Joerger’s team by 11 in seven minutes of court time. One comprised of DJ Augustin, Cameron Payne, Kyle Singler, Novak, and Enes Kanter made six of 11 field goal attempts and went +4 over five minutes.

That last quintet, of course, was a garbage-time group – there’s a chance it may not see the floor again for the duration of 2015-16. But the previous lineup certainly will, and season-long numbers suggest it and similar ones should notch far more playing time as the season progresses.

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Discounting the four minutes Oklahoma City went small in its loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night, Donovan has played Durant at power forward 152 minutes this year, according to data compiled from NBAwowy. Ibaka has been the Thunder’s center for 79 of those minutes, while Kanter and Steven Adams have notched 39 and 29 minutes, respectively, alongside the 2014 MVP in the frontcourt. Even franchise veteran Nick Collison has registered five minutes with Durant as a small-ball 4.

The stats differ from group to group, as do the players that surround Durant and Donovan’s secondary choice on the interior. There’s one constant in these units nonetheless: They pour in points with ease.

The Thunder boast a scorching 119.7 offensive rating with Durant at power forward, a number more than six points above the Warriors’ league-leading mark. Shockingly, they manage only solid marks of 49.8 percent from the field and 35.1 percent from three-point range. Where does that incredible proficiency come from, then? The charity stripe.

Oklahoma City’s small-ball lineups shoot a laughable .41 free throws per field goal. That rate doesn’t just best the top-ranked Los Angeles Clippers’ by a wide margin, but would also be the NBA’s highest since 2005-06.

Film of the Thunder’s downsized quintets reveals the justification one would expect for so many free throws and myriad other strengths: space. Durant and Westbrook can get their own shot whenever they please. Defenders are often left with no option but to foul in simple isolation situations, let alone when Donovan leverages the gifts of his superstars by surrounding them with perimeter shooting threats and helping free them with off-ball wrinkles Brooks rarely did.

Just how are Thabo Sefolosha and Jeff Teague, for instance, supposed to contain Westbrook off the dribble after he receives a ball-screen from Durant – who already has a head of steam on his man following an Ibaka pick?

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Even if the Atlanta Hawks defenders successfully navigate that action, though, Oklahoma City is still talented enough to exploit the smallest opportunity.

Sefolosha trails Durant the next time he sets a screen on the ball for the Thunder’s point guard, but it still isn’t enough. Westbrook somehow threads the needle to Durant on the roll, who senses Kent Bazemore helping off the corner and immediately dishes a pass to sharpshooter Anthony Morrow.

Buckets.

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Atlanta wasn’t the only foe who couldn’t contain that action.

In the aforementioned blowout of the Grizzlies, Durant pops on the other side of his pick as Jeff Green and Courtney Lee miscommunicate a switch. Mike Conley jumps off his assignment to the most immediate threat, and Durant makes the easy pass to Morrow for another triple try from the hallowed short corner.

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And here’s the scary part: There are far more ways for Oklahoma City to take advantage of going small than basic ball screens between MVP candidates.

A favorite of Donovan’s and the league at large is HORNS, a design that begins with big men stationed at the elbows and wings in the corners. Both the Hawks and Grizzlies fell victim to this set versus the Thunder’s downsized lineups, and the tape makes it easy to see why.

As Ibaka sets a high screen for Westbrook against Atlanta, Durant floats to the opposite slot. Once the ball handler turns around the pick, the man in the weak-side corner cuts toward the ball along the baseline – taking his defender out of help position on Ibaka’s roll. And because the player awaiting a pass above the elbow is arguably the best scorer in the world, Sefolosha is loathe to leave him, creating a game of two-on-two for Oklahoma City’s floor general and high-flying big man.

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The alignment was slightly altered at FedEx Forum, yet Memphis fared even worse than the Hawks.

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Look who’s checking Morrow there, by the way: Zach Randolph. That’s the kind of mismatch a seven-foot guard like Durant presents, and Westbrook’s strength and Ibaka’s range often have the same effect, too.

The Thunder try running Morrow, who might have the fastest shot release in basketball, through multiple screens to lose Randolph for a quickie three in the clip below, but ultimately fail. It doesn’t matter, though, because Durant is good enough and Memphis uncomfortable enough for Ibaka to get a dunk anyway.

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And that’s the thing to fear about Oklahoma City, small or not, maybe more than anything else. This team has the singular talent to consistently win possessions it otherwise shouldn’t.

Westbrook is feasting on a steady diet of post-ups this season.

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Durant’s 59.3 effective field goal percentage in isolations leads the league and is five points more than second-ranked Blake Griffin’s.

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The small-ball Thunder, basically, can beat you how they did for the past half decade or how Donovan hopes they will going forward – and it doesn’t matter what the defense does. Just imagine once this team is savvy enough to make on-the-fly reads like Durant’s flare screen in the following play – for which he garnered an offensive foul – on a nightly basis.

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Oklahoma City isn’t there yet, obviously. Not even close. In the meantime, Donovan has several variations of a five-man trump card that both puts points on the board in a hurry and flashes the offensive identity he so desires.

But there are drawbacks to small ball, naturally, and the Thunder aren’t immune.

Though the combined 101.9 defensive rating of those units is acceptable, Donovan’s most used modern lineup – with Ibaka aside Durant – has struggled its way to allowing 109.5 points per 100 possessions. There’s a ton of noise associated with that number, but two attributes of that group still stick out like sore thumbs: the lack of a perimeter stopper and an inability to rebound the opponent’s misses.

Answers aren’t easy to come by for anyone in the NBA, let alone for a first-year coach who inherited a roster mostly unaccustomed to playing with one another. Relentless two-way prowess is hard to achieve for even a team so gifted as Oklahoma City.

As the season wears on, though, it seems increasingly clear that playing small could be the Thunder’s most expedient route to finding it – and Donovan should act accordingly.

*Statistical support for this post provided by nbawowy.com and nba.com/stats.

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