Players are people. Accept that as true, and you won’t find it difficult to understand why Serge Ibaka thinks like a person.
Ibaka has had a down year on both sides of the floor, seeing his counting numbers fall to lower levels than they have in four years and watching his defensive impact dip in the process. But Ibaka, who has played a less integral offensive role under new coach Billy Donovan, is only human.
He explained as much to the Oklahoman‘s Anthony Slater.
“I’m gonna tell you the truth, it’s hard sometimes when you play hard, you play you’re (butt off),” Ibaka swore, before apologizing and rephrasing. “You play so hard on defense, then you come to offense and you’re going to be out there in the corner for 4, 5, 6, sometimes 8 minutes and you don’t touch the ball. We human, man. It’s hard.”
Conspiracy theorists could interpret this as a swipe at Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. They are, after all, the facilitators responsible for getting the ball to Ibaka and whomever else is on the floor. But Westbrook and Durant have been teammates with Ibaka over the course of all his peaks and valleys — ever since he entered the NBA in 2009.
More realistically, Ibaka’s comments are an inadvertent analysis of the changes that have come under Donovan’s regime.
Ibaka is averaging fewer field-goal attempts per game than he has since 2012-13. His usage rate (the percentage of possessions that end with the ball in his hands while he’s on the floor) is the lowest its been since the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season. But Ibaka has fallen to career-low efficiency levels, as he’s become almost completely dependent on the jumper.
The Thunder power forward was always a midrange assassin, but he’s become more and more reliant on the jump shot as he’s developed range out to the three-point line. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you’re taking and making enough threes, but Ibaka was effective enough around the rim back in the day that he could finish and get fouled enough to maintain a high efficiency. The percentage of his field-goal attempts taken around the rim has dropped each year he’s been in the league, except for this season (and it’s only up negligibly from 19.7 percent to 19.9 percent this year), per Basketball-Reference.
Now, he’s posting a career-low true shooting percentage (by far).
Of course, that shot selection isn’t fully on him. As Durant and Westbrook have improved with age, they’ve commanded the ball even more, and that means giving them room to operate in the middle of the floor is essential. It’s tough to do that when you have two bigs — whether that second one is Steven Adams or Kendrick Perkins or Enes Kanter — operating in the paint.
It’s not like Ibaka is having a poor defensive season. The Thunder defense remains almost three points per 100 possessions better when he is on the floor. He just hasn’t been that All-Defensive presence we’ve seen in the past.
But he’s only human. Come playoff time, come the possible moment he starts to receive a slightly larger offensive role, the Serge Ibaka we’re used to seeing could quickly return.
