Are The Thunder Over-Reliant On Russell Westbrook? Billy Donovan Doesn’t Seem Sure

How quickly things change in the NBA.

After the first few days of training camp under coach Billy Donovan, Oklahoma City Thunder superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were bestowing the virtues of a newly-implemented offense. Gone, supposedly, was the lack of secondary and tertiary options on a given possession and general stagnancy under former head man Scott Brooks, whose old-school approach to offensive principles got him fired last April – despite leading the young Thunder to one NBA Finals appearance and four seasons of 50 wins or more.

Durant and Westbrook might not have been happy to see Brooks go on a personal level, but supported the decision of Oklahoma City’s front office from the moment it was made. And despite so little official court-time with Donovan, in early October the tandem MVP candidates indirectly endorsed the coaching change with optimism that heartened Thunder fans across the country.


“Space.” “New era.”

Those are terms league followers have longed to hear with regard to Oklahoma City for years, and ones that Donovan was expected to bring with him from the University of Florida. It’s far too early to say whether or not he’s done so in the first few weeks of 2015-16, and certainly much too soon to say whether or not he will in the long run, too.

But Durant’s hamstring injury and their subsequent reliance on Westbrook – who’s playing the best basketball of his career, by the way – has led to new questions about the Thunder’s ostensibly overhauled offensive identity. After his point guard went off for 43 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in a win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday, Donovan was asked by The Oklahoman’s Erik Horne if the offense was too Westbrook-dependent.

Donovan’s response was both understandable and telling.

“I think you’d probably be asking me right now if Russell didn’t have the ball in the fourth quarter ‘jeez, you kinda went away from Russell and he never touched the ball,’ Donovan said. “I think there is a balance. He’s gotta make good decisions, and get guys shots and make the extra pass.”

[…]

“We don’t want to become all predicated on him, but I thought we had good movement and the lane was open for him to attack and he did a pretty good job of attacking. There was a couple of possessions there where I thought the floor got stagnant. He was just standing there, standing there and it wasn’t good. If the floor is moving and he can attack, I think that’s a good thing.”

Westbrook scored on four consecutive possessions late in the fourth quarter after the short-handed Pelicans cut Oklahoma City’s lead to three. He accounted for 42.6 percent of his team’s possessions on Wednesday, four points more than the mark he’s carried since Durant was sidelined on November 11th. For the season, Westbrook’s 35.3 usage rate ranks second in the NBA behind DeMarcus Cousins’.

Is that too high a number? If so, it’s certainly not because the Thunder have struggled offensively throughout the first few weeks of the season. Donovan’s team ranks second behind the Golden State Warriors in points per possession, and Westbrook is on pace for career-highs in true shooting percentage, assist percentage and player efficiency rating. Then there’s this:

Nevertheless, Oklahoma City’s offense hasn’t quite developed the quick-hitting, side-to-side, flow-based id that marks elite contemporary outfits like those of the Warriors, Atlanta Hawks and San Antonio Spurs. The Thunder’s assist percentage of 54.4 is the league’s seventh-lowest mark, and they rank 11th in percentage of time spent in isolation according to Synergy.

12 games isn’t a big enough sample size to glean confident conclusions in the NBA on anything. That’s certainly true for Oklahoma City’s offense, which isn’t just new but has also been altered by Durant missing a third of the early season schedule.

For Westbrook alone, though, not much has changed compared to 2014-15 – except that he’s even better. Is Oklahoma City too reliant on him? We’re not exactly sure, but current team and individual results sure are speaking for themselves.

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

(Via The Oklahoman)

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