Oklahoma City Thunder: High Stakes For OKC In The Second Round

As the Oklahoma City Thunder prepare for the second round of the NBA Playoffs, nothing but high stakes awaits them on the other side

In the 2016 playoffs, the Oklahoma City Thunder have thus far advanced unscathed. Since their precocious Finals appearance in 2012, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant have experienced injury setback after setback, culminating in a devastating 2014-15 campaign in which the Thunder failed to make the playoffs.

The first round of 2016 has felled superstars as Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, and Blake Griffin – but fortunately, OKC’s two-headed monster remains hungry and, most importantly, healthy. If they can get past the San Antonio Spurs in the second round, they will face either an inferior Portland Trail Blazers team or a slightly vulnerable version of the Golden State Warriors.

Beating San Antonio will not be easy. The 2015-16 Spurs are a high-IQ basketball juggernaut that suffocates on defense and whips the ball around on offense.

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On their way to meet the Miami Heat in 2012, the Thunder beat the Spurs in six games behind superior athleticism and their explosive X-factor in James Harden. Obviously, Harden has now taken his beard, playmaking, and lackluster defense to Houston.

Since his departure, Oklahoma City’s front office has struggled to provide an adequate supporting cast for Durant and Westbrook. The Spurs beat the Thunder in six games on their way to the title in 2014 largely because Scott Brooks was giving meaningful playoff minutes to guys who didn’t complement the top-level talent.

Reggie Jackson was the sixth man heir to Harden but didn’t facilitate as well – he often hijacked possessions and took the tough shots that should have been going to Durant and Westbrook. There were also several washed-up vets who simply didn’t have enough left to give, which includes Derek Fisher and Caron Butler. Some young guys, like Steven Adams, weren’t ready yet.

Gregg Popovich and the Spurs shredded this team in 2014 on their way to winning the championship.

This year Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti might’ve finally cobbled together enough talent to push them over the hump. There have been traditional improvements along the margins because the team is so young– Adams, Serge Ibaka, Westbrook, and Durant are all better versions of themselves than they were two years ago.

But Presti made some highly controversial moves by acquiring talent through trade; Dion Waiters and Enes Kanter arrived last season through a deal at the deadline. Both players were moved by their previous teams because of their general unhappiness and expressed desires for larger offensive roles. Oddly enough, they went to OKC – a team with two established superstars looking complementary talent.

Surprisingly enough, Waiters and Kanter have embraced their role-player status. Kanter destroys the glass (OKC led the league in rebounds per game this season) and spreads the floor as a stretch-4 on offense. Waiters scores in bunches and is a better shooter than the departed Reggie Jackson, making him a much better fit with the starting unit. Overall, both have survived on defense and provided a much-needed spark to a relatively unimaginative Thunder offense.

This series has star power, artful tacticians, high stakes, and implications for the future of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Let’s get started

But the Thunder offense doesn’t need to be imaginative and dynamic. They play to their strengths by relentlessly feeding the two-headed superstar monster and exploiting superior athleticism by playing fast in transition. This style has led to the second-best offense in the league this season.

The Spurs play completely differently. FanSided’s Ian Levy’s recent study of team’s offensive styles perfectly captures the visual contrast. The Spurs constantly move the ball and run complex offensive sets but play at a slow pace, scoring high in “player movement” and “ball movement”. The Thunder visual is almost a mirror image of the Spurs.

This clash of offensive styles symbolizes how differently these two teams are constructed. The Spurs are built around the conventional team-first philosophy with a genius head coach that plays chess with a diverse set of pieces.

This team does have some high-level players in Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge, but overall, the offense is reliant on superior execution. The Thunder, however, play a simple brand of basketball designed to maximize the top-level talent of Westbrook and Durant. This does not necessarily mean that this philosophy is not team-first; the Thunder’s isolation-heavy offense gives the team the best chance to win.

And even when a team runs an offense under this design, this does not mean that complementary players are interchangeable and disposable. Ibaka’s defense on Aldridge and Kanter’s rebounding will be just as important in beating the Spurs as Durant and Westbrook’s shot-making.

But this Thunder core has struggled in the playoffs since the 2012 Finals appearance, and the outcome of this series will have enough ugly symbolism – stagnant, iso-heavy offense vs. fluid, pass-happy – to force a breakup of the Westbrook-Durant combo.

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The pressure building from continuous underachievement has already cost Scott Brooks his job and could spell the end of the current nucleus. This series has star power, artful tacticians, high stakes, and implications for the future of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Let’s get started.

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