Oklahoma City Thunder: For OKC, playoff success may not be too far off

The Oklahoma City Thunder were eliminated in the first round of NBA Playoffs again, but postseason success for them might not be too far off

After losing in an abysmal fashion during the first round of the playoffs for the past three seasons, there’s no question that changes need to be made for the Oklahoma City Thunder to be considered contenders in the future.

Charles Barkley, never one to shy away from giving his opinion, on NBA on TNT explained why Portland won the series.

"Coach, when did Kawhi become a great player? Oh, when I called a play for him, its for the Spurs to score, not him. That is the best thing I heard a coach ever say. Think a lot of guys like Lillard and McCollum have been guilty of that in the past and I think Russ and Paul are guilty of that today."

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While Barkley’s point is well articulated, you could argue that their lack of aggression on the offensive end of the court cost OKC the series against Portland.

In the first round, Russell Westbrook averaged 22.8 points per game on roughly 22 shot attempts per game. However, in 2017, when KD left OKC, Russell Westbrook averaged 37.4 points per game on over 30 shot attempts per contest. And in the 2016 playoffs, while playing with KD, he averaged 26 points per game.

If Russell Westbrook would have averaged 30 points per game in the first round, OKC would have likely won the series.

This trend is also observable during in the regular season for Westbrook as well.

Since 2016, Russell Westbrook has seen a sharp decline in the number of points he scores per game. In the 2016-17 season, he was averaging 31.6 points per game and it has dropped to 22.9 points per game for the 2018-19 season.

OKC does not have the parts around Russell Westbrook for him to be a pass-first point guard.

Despite Westbrook averaging over 10.0 assists per game in the first round, OKC only had five players averaging over 10.0 points and only six players played more than 20 minutes per contest.

For OKC, the answer to winning in the playoffs may lie in Westbrook being more aggressive offensively and letting the role players play more a role in other capacities.

Portland is built in a similar way as OKC. However, there are two key differences. Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum are scorers and they act like scorers.

In Game 5, Paul George and Russell Westbrook scored 36 points and 29 points respectively. However, Game 5 was Portland’s game to win. Mostly because Lillard was probably having the best game of his career. But had the Thunder played in the other games, as they did in Game 5, they might’ve won the series.

You could make the argument that OKC is a better overall team than the Blazers, and they have more talent than they do too – especially with Jusuf Nurkic injured.

Like they did in Game 5, PG and Westbrook are capable of scoring 66 points combined every night. And this is what is needed for OKC to win big in the future. If not, the Thunder need pieces that complement their dynamic duo, something they simply do not have at the moment.

Seth Greenberg, on ESPN’s Get Up! observed:

"Since Kevin Durant has left OKC, they have thrown the fewest passes of any team in Basketball.."

"I don’t like their roster. I think their roster does not fit his skill set. I think their roster and style of play…if you got Russell Westbrook, you need to play like Houston. Obviously, if you are going to play like Houston, you got to have a bunch of shooters surrounding you."

Ideally, OKC would need to acquire more shooters. Also, OKC needs to develop its role players and make them better defenders and passers.

While OKC was the best regular season defensive team in the NBA, being a good defensive team in the playoffs is different. There are many teams that are able to turn it up a level on the defensive end in the playoffs. In the postseason, OKC was ranked ninth.

As far as 3-point shooting is concerned, Russell Westbrook averaged just 32 percent shooting from deep in the first round of the playoffs. While it might be good enough in retrospect according to the history of the game, it’s not great for today’s day and age.

Is Russell Westbrook a winning player? Yes. Is Paul George a winning player? Yes.

Talent wise, Russell Westbrook and Paul George are good enough to lead OKC past the first round. While Russell Westbrook and Paul George are a part of the problem in OKC, they are also part of the solution moving forward.