Below we examine four plays and look at some of the offensive quirks that can make this offense great.
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All around the league a frantic whisper of, “He’s back!” was uttered last night. Sometimes gleeful, sometimes terrified. The MVP, Mr. Triple Double, is back. This time he comes with back up. A team built with intentions of winning. No matter how you look at it last year was clearly a “process” year for the Thunder. A team turned upside down by trade and Free Agency there was only one goal for last season.
Let Russell Westbrook unleash a fury across the league. Exploit his talents, showcase his wondrous talents. Wins came as a result of relentless will, but the only thing Sam Presti wanted from the Thunder last year was a Russell Westbrook MVP. I’ve heard from people within the organization that Presti was actually making the rounds to team personnel asking for ideas on how to better showcase Russell. The team centered a season on Russ much like Kobe’s farewell tour. Unlike, the ill-fated Laker’s season that stunted the growth of rookies and potentially the team as a whole. The Russell Westbrook revenge tour in contrast already seems like it was a resounding success. Russ has extended, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony are wearing Thunder Blue and there is an excitement permeating the city about this season. 21-10-16… He’s back!
It’s time to welcome the Thunder’s biggest Free Agent signing in franchise history, Patrick Patterson. Patterson has played for 3 teams in his 6 year NBA career, and might still be most notable for lasting a full 3 years at during this one and done era of Kentucky basketball. He is a career 7.9 points 4.7 rebounds per game player which dramatically undersells the value he will bring to the team.
I'll be honest, I have never spent much if any time watching Paul George play basketball. By way of spending a large amount of time following the NBA in various ways I know that he is a supremely talented player, but the Pacers and their games just don't make it on my radar. So when Ramona Shelburne announced to the world that Paul George would be the newest Thunder player, I was ecstatic like everyone else in OKC without any real perspective of what this was going to look like. We had a new all-star and that’s all that mattered. Now, a little over a month later I decided to sit down and take a look at Paul George the player.
Well, let's see if this quiz works out at all!
Don't cheat and watch the videos before you take the quiz!! Nearly, 2 years ago Justin Williard of 538 introduced the idea of the Morey Index;; a score for players shooting efficient shots. The Morey Index just looks at the number of 3's and FT's a player took. I had not heard of the Morey Index until Feb 25th 2017 when the Houston Rockets had a Morey Score of 100 (58 3pta - 42 FTA) against the Timberwolves. I decided to sit down and take a look at game logs for the past 10 seasons and see what kind of trends popped out for teamwide Morey Scores.
Thursday night, despite all of the concern throughout the day, the Cleveland Cavaliers came to town and played all of their players. Despite the initial decision to rest their big 3, Lebron played 41 minutes. In the end it didn't really matter as the Thunder put together one of their most dominant wins against a Lebron team in years. Let's take a look at a few interesting plays.
I've been slacking on content this season, but felt it important to get something out before the schedule gets insanely brutal for the Thunder and I lose all motivation. The Thunder are about to start a 6 game west road swing, before 1 at home and then 2 more on the road against the Cavs and Spurs. 5-4 would be a fantastic result for the rest of the month. A best case of 5-4 is about as daunting of a few weeks as you can have in the NBA.
So, let's look at some bright spots and talk about what exactly the Thunder are doing that will make them worth watching despite this monstrous month of January.
Four game win streak! Its early December but stringing together wins like this is vitally important for this Thunder team. I think everone agrees that they are around a 45 win team. 4 games over .500 is easily attainable with a couple win streaks like this current one.
A matchup against the 7-13 Pelicans would appear to be an easy one, but their record doesn't reflect how well they've been playing since the return of Jrue Holliday. It will be a better game than anyone wants it to be, but we aren't here to look forward. These posts are about looking back and reviewing what has happened in previous games to give an idea of what to look for tonight. |
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