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//  Saturday, July 31, 2010

A Defensive Thunderstorm in Oklahoma City

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Posted by Andrew Pistone

Fans know those teams. They select at or near the top of the draft seemingly every single season. They gobble up the best college or international players year after year, but never seem to turn the corner. See the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors, and more recently, the Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves.

But sometimes, it doesn’t work out that way. The aforementioned franchise will assemble young talent for three to four years, and the nucleus for a playoff and maybe even championship team can develop. In recent history, the Portland Trail Blazers have been a good example of this depiction. They’ve been beset by injuries this season, but waiting for players like LaMarcus Aldridge, Travis Outlaw, and Brandon Roy over the past few years has panned out. Barring something unforeseen, they should be in the playoffs for the next decade and could compete for bigger and better things if they add a piece or two.

The Oklahoma City Thunder started this process a few years later, but are well on their way to catching up with Portland and the rest of the Western Conference. GM Sam Presti deserves a lot of credit, because outside of Kevin Ollie, Etan Thomas and D.J White, Oklahoma City has players on their roster with promising upside. James Harden already has a smooth feel for the professional game, and will only get better once he learns his role. Thabo Sefalosha is the anti-Harden; that is he’s more of a defensive player, but has the athleticism to disrupt players on the perimeter. Serge Ibaka is as raw as raw can get, but has the hops and size to become a valuable defensive asset in the paint. Nenad Krstic, who looks 42 but is actually only 26, provides the low post skill that the Thunder/Sonics haven’t had in years. That’s before arriving at Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.

It’s obvious that this team has matured, but it isn’t often teams catapult themselves from a putrid record to an above .500 squad. The Thunder are currently on that pace, and it’s all because of Scott Brooks. Most NBA fans still only know him as “that guy who took over for P.J. Carlesimo,” but him and his coaching staff have done an excellent job in just over a year. The Thunder have bought into a concept that many veteran teams don’t subscribe to; playing defense. It is this attitude that has gotten Oklahoma City back on the path to respectability.

Green, Durant, Sefalosha and Westbrook are quickly becoming a four-headed monster that teams do not want to see in a half-court situation. Their length and athleticism is outstanding, and their commitment to ball denial resembles that of a college team. Granted, most of these guys should still be in college, but most pros would snicker at the idea of picking up their man 30 feet away from the hoop. Their long arms and constantly moving feet make it difficult to penetrate past them, or deliver passes around them. Remarkably, they are fifth in the league in shot blocking, without the quintessential big man in the paint to reject shots. They also rank third in the NBA in field goal percentage defense. The two teams ahead of them? Cleveland and the Los Angeles Lakers, who have a great chance at locking horns for the NBA crown this June.

But how could this have happened so quickly? Having the personnel for it definitely helps, but again, most of the credit should go to Brooks. He’s gotten 19-23 year olds to believe that scoring points is not the most important thing in a basketball game, while rotating and helping the helper on defense is. It also helps to have the star player buy in to what the coach is preaching, and Kevin Durant certainly does. In a game against the Knicks Monday night, he feverishly worked to get in front of Al Harrington in the post to deny him an entry pass. This wasn’t anything earth-shattering, except for the fact that it came with a 27 point lead in the fourth quarter. The Thunder had pretty much throttled New York for the entire game, making the outcome crystal clear well before the final stanza, but fans wouldn’t have been able to tell by the Thunder’s defensive intensity.

Defense wins championships, and the Thunder play defense. It’s too early to jump to those lofty conclusions this year, but it isn’t unfathomable to think that they could stay in the Western Conference playoff race until April to clinch a spot in the postseason. The Thunder have put the proverbial corner in their rear view mirror, and are setting their sights on what lies at the end of the block.

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