After three games the Oklahoma City Thunder are still waiting for their first win of the season. Neither the arrival of Dennis Schröder nor the comeback of Russell Westbook could change that. The biggest problems, however, are not new. In the night from Thursday to Friday, the Thunder team will finally win their first victory against Boston (2 o’clock live on DAZN).
It didn’t take too long until Russell Westbrook finally arrived in this NBA season. To be precise, the Thunder Point Guard, who missed the first two games due to the aftershocks of his knee operation in the summer, needed just 79 seconds to leave his scent mark on the floor.
In these first 79 seconds at OKC’s home opening against the Kings, Westbrook collected 1 rebound, distributed 1 assist and finally marched like a hot knife through half the Kings Defense to regain his first two points of the 2018/19 season with a spectacular basketball player.
These 79 seconds sum up the Russell Westbrook phenomenon almost perfectly and should have elicited a sigh of relief from the Thunder fans. After last summer, many fans were worried whether the 29-year-old would lose some of his fascination after the fourth operation on his right knee.
But right in her first appearance against Sacramento – right in the first 79 seconds – she was to be seen again, this uncanny energy and the athleticism with which Westbrook makes so much possible on the basketball court. OKC could not have imagined a better start into the game.
A good two and a half hours later, however, there was not much left of this euphoria. Westbrook had set up 32 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists in his debut, the Thunder had poured 120 points into the Kings, one of the worst teams of the previous season – and still lost.
“I played okay,” Westbrook summed up afterwards. “It wasn’t my best night, but I have a lot of games ahead of me, so I’m not worried.” At least in terms of his own performance. But another thing really got on the nerves of the Point Guard: “To be honest, I don’t really care how I played right now. I just hate losing.”
Only two teams have yet to claim a single victory in the 2018/19 season: the Cavs and the Thunder.
Sure, OKC had to compete in the first two games without the team’s absolute superstar, but last year’s 48-win team could still fall back on the services of Paul George, Steven Adams or Dennis Schröder. With this core a victory against the Warriors, Clippers or Kings should be quite possible.
So what’s going on with the Thunder? When you first look at the statistics sheet, the 131 points against Sacramento or the fourth quarter against the Clippers, when L.A. poured the Thunder 37 points, are immediately obvious.
Although the bare figures are also due to the increased pace in the NBA, the defensive rating of 110.5 is also weak in a league-wide comparison (18th place).
The absence of Andre Roberson makes itself enormously noticeable. According to reports, the Shooting Guard will probably be cancelled until December after its rupture of the patellar tendon. A loss that OKC can’t compensate so easily.
Neither Roberson substitute Terrance Ferguson, nor Schröder or Westbrook are known for their defense, this has been impressively confirmed in the first three games. Ask Iman Shumpert about …
But Roberson will only be able to help to a limited extent with the biggest problem of the Thunder. The Offense and in particular the shooting was absolutely catastrophic at the beginning of the season. Want some examples?
The last time against the Kings 30 of the 39 attempts from downtown only landed at the ring (or even worse), apart from Westbrook and Paul George OKC hit just 36.5 percent out of the field (23/63 FG). Last but not least, with a miserable triple quota of 23.9 percent, the Thunder are in last place in the Association as a whole.
Dennis Schröder is also not completely innocent of this placement. The German stood in the first two games as Westbrook substitute in the Starting Five, but so far he is still on the desperate search for his rhythm: Only 14 of his 50 field casting trials (28 percent) found their way through the cage.
When DS17 was brought to Oklahoma City by trade in the summer, the Thunder officials were hopeful that Schröder would be the sixth man to show off after his last year in Atlanta his efficiency suffered enormously.
However, this trend seems to have continued so far. Neither as a starter in games 1 and 2 nor as a banker in game 3 could Schröder fully convince. Although his statistics with 14.3 points and 7.3 assists per game don’t read badly, the throwing odds already mentioned prevent too much euphoria at Schröder.
The shooting is incredibly important for the Thunder offense, which in many situations is based on the aggressive drives of Westbrook or Schröder. In 2018/19, the German has drawn 13.7 times per game to the basket, Westbrook even had 18 drives in his first game.
But without a respectable shooting, the opponent’s defense can easily allow itself to collapse into the zone and pull up a wall in front of the Thunder Guards. The magic word is also OKC Spacing.
After all, thanks to Steven Adams or Nerlens Noel, the Thunder are fighting their way through numerous offensive rebounds, with which they are earning second chances. Also in the transition the Thunder led by Westbrook and Schröder are enormously dangerous.
But in the semi-field the well-known problems make life difficult. In addition to the shooting, which has been a thorn in the side of the Thunder for several years, this is also the system of head coach Billy Donovan, who in his three years in OKC has not yet managed to use Westbrook profitably in off-ball actions. The Thunder in the person of Schröder even have a capable ball handler in their ranks who could serve Westbrook well in such a situation.
Accordingly, Donovan is already under close observation after three games, and among the Thunder fans there are already quite a few Donovan critics for quite some time. The 53-year-old now had four days to work with his team and prepare for the duel against Boston.
It will be exciting to see what Donovan and the Thunder have come up with, but first and foremost the shooters will finally have to find their rhythm. In addition to Schröder, this applies primarily to Patrick Patterson (26.3 percent FG), Jerami Grant (26.1 percent) and Ferguson (13.3 percent).
Whereby one must also note at this point that the Ceiling in things Shooting with this player material is not particularly high. After all, it doesn’t get much worse anymore. However, if nothing changes for the time being, the success of the Thunder, as in recent years, depends almost exclusively on Westbrook (and in parts on George). If it were up to those responsible and fans, these times should be over after last summer.