Author Topic: Interesting OKC Thunder article  (Read 4293 times)

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Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #15 on: April 24, 2018, 03:09:59 PM »

Offline kraidstar

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Melo should be on the bench. He is not a star player. He is an inefficient role player.

He's shooting .373/.231 this postseason. With bad defense.

Put him up against the other team's bench and he might have some success.

As a starter imagine Marcus Smart taking twice as many shots and playing no defense and having no physicality or leadership. Yeah.

He's the biggest reason for their failures. Donovan should have him on the bench - a bench which currently desperately struggles to score.

Of course this doesn't let Westbrook off the hook. I've been saying for years he's not a winner and never will be. But melo is deadweight on both ends of the court, he takes shots away from more efficient players while providing nothing on the defensive end.

Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #16 on: April 24, 2018, 03:10:52 PM »

Offline KGs Knee

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The players OKC has cast off would be the core of a championship team: Durant, Dipo, Harden.

Don't forget Ibaka.

Or the legendary Jeff Green...

Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #17 on: April 24, 2018, 05:43:27 PM »

Offline Beat LA

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It would help if they had even a decent coach, but Donovan is just not a good coach.

How many coaches must they go through before it is on the players? Carmelo is awful. Westbrook is hero ball 101, which is why Durant left them.

Westbrook has a lot of talent, but he doesn't really impress me, as his game seems to be more about numbers and "getting his." I just can't see any team with Westbrook as its best player winning a title, or even coming close.

Same.

Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #18 on: April 24, 2018, 06:30:11 PM »

Offline Bucketgetter

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It would help if they had even a decent coach, but Donovan is just not a good coach.

How many coaches must they go through before it is on the players? Carmelo is awful. Westbrook is hero ball 101, which is why Durant left them.
They've basically just had Brooks and Donovan during Westbrook's time.  Brooks is ok and Donovan is bad.  It isn't like they've run through the coaches, they haven't. 

Durant left because he wanted to take the easy way out and win championships.

Durant left because Westbrook is a selfish, terrible teammate. Period.

Any attempts to color it as anything else are simply wrong.
Unless this is one of Durant's many burner accounts, some random guy on the internet has no way of knowing the sole reason why Durant left. Period.
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Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #19 on: April 24, 2018, 06:34:05 PM »

Offline Celtics4ever

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Quote
Durant left because Westbrook is a selfish, terrible teammate. Period.

By choosing Golden State it also revealed him as a guy who wanted a ring, too.

Quote
Melo should be on the bench. He is not a star player. He is an inefficient role player.

He's shooting .373/.231 this postseason. With bad defense

He has always been kind of a good player great at racking up meaningless stats and not wins.

Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #20 on: April 24, 2018, 06:42:38 PM »

Offline mctyson

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It would help if they had even a decent coach, but Donovan is just not a good coach.

How many coaches must they go through before it is on the players? Carmelo is awful. Westbrook is hero ball 101, which is why Durant left them.
They've basically just had Brooks and Donovan during Westbrook's time.  Brooks is ok and Donovan is bad.  It isn't like they've run through the coaches, they haven't. 

Durant left because he wanted to take the easy way out and win championships.

I do not like this type of analysis.  All I hear from NBA talking heads is that coaching does not matter:  it about individual talent.  Then a team like OKC struggles to meet their talent level and it is the coach's fault.

Maybe they are not as talented as people think they are?

Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #21 on: April 24, 2018, 07:35:54 PM »

Offline Moranis

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It would help if they had even a decent coach, but Donovan is just not a good coach.

How many coaches must they go through before it is on the players? Carmelo is awful. Westbrook is hero ball 101, which is why Durant left them.
They've basically just had Brooks and Donovan during Westbrook's time.  Brooks is ok and Donovan is bad.  It isn't like they've run through the coaches, they haven't. 

Durant left because he wanted to take the easy way out and win championships.

I do not like this type of analysis.  All I hear from NBA talking heads is that coaching does not matter:  it about individual talent.  Then a team like OKC struggles to meet their talent level and it is the coach's fault.

Maybe they are not as talented as people think they are?
coaching absolutely matters. So does talent. So does fit. So does countless other things
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Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #22 on: April 25, 2018, 11:22:38 AM »

Online Phantom255x

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The problem with OKC is clearly Carmelo Anthony.

Yes, we can talk all about Westbrook's stat padding and being inefficient, and PG13 has had some cold moments in the series as well, but Carmelo just looks bad.

He's always been a liability on the defensive end, and so when his shot isn't falling (like now), he's just a black hole on that team. Seems to be he just hasn't brought into the system with PG13 and Westbrook now on the team and hogging the shots as well. (Doesn't like being the 3rd option)

But part of it you can say is on Westbrook. He needs to get his team more engaged and defer to the other guys at time instead of trying it all alone (which he tends to do when the going gets tough).

And I see people say Scott Brooks needs to draw up more open plays/looks for guys, and I would have agreed after Game 2, but after seeing the last few games, I don't think you can entirely blame him. I was watching parts of Games 3 and 4, and OKC were just bricking too many open looks (especially Carmelo). Not sure what Brooks can do, and credit to Utah, they're protecting the paint relatively well. Adams can get his, and Westbrook + George can occasionally drive and draw the foul or score, BUT Melo is simply the iso-jump shooter who can't shoot right now.

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Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #23 on: April 25, 2018, 11:40:32 AM »

Offline Fafnir

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I'm not sure if any coach is going to be able to get Westbrook to play more of a team game at this point. He's been in the league ten years at this point and won a MVP and a lot of playoff games playing this way.

Even if Russ buys in, its hard to change as an established player. That's why everyone was shocked and impressed at how well Lowry/DeRozen adjusted this season.

Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #24 on: April 25, 2018, 12:30:36 PM »

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They're just playing a team that's better than them.


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Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #25 on: April 25, 2018, 01:12:59 PM »

Offline Moranis

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I'm not sure if any coach is going to be able to get Westbrook to play more of a team game at this point. He's been in the league ten years at this point and won a MVP and a lot of playoff games playing this way.

Even if Russ buys in, its hard to change as an established player. That's why everyone was shocked and impressed at how well Lowry/DeRozen adjusted this season.
Fair point, but if Quin Snyder was coaching the Thunder and Billy Donovan was coaching the Jazz, I think the Thunder would have swept the series.  Donovan just isn't a good coach.  He doesn't make good adjustments.  He doesn't develop winning game plans.  He just is flat out a bad coach.
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Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #26 on: April 25, 2018, 01:19:54 PM »

Offline ChillyWilly

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The problem with OKC is clearly Carmelo Anthony.

Yes, we can talk all about Westbrook's stat padding and being inefficient, and PG13 has had some cold moments in the series as well, but Carmelo just looks bad.

He's always been a liability on the defensive end, and so when his shot isn't falling (like now), he's just a black hole on that team. Seems to be he just hasn't brought into the system with PG13 and Westbrook now on the team and hogging the shots as well. (Doesn't like being the 3rd option)

But part of it you can say is on Westbrook. He needs to get his team more engaged and defer to the other guys at time instead of trying it all alone (which he tends to do when the going gets tough).

And I see people say Scott Brooks needs to draw up more open plays/looks for guys, and I would have agreed after Game 2, but after seeing the last few games, I don't think you can entirely blame him. I was watching parts of Games 3 and 4, and OKC were just bricking too many open looks (especially Carmelo). Not sure what Brooks can do, and credit to Utah, they're protecting the paint relatively well. Adams can get his, and Westbrook + George can occasionally drive and draw the foul or score, BUT Melo is simply the iso-jump shooter who can't shoot right now.

Scott Brooks hasn't coach in OKC since 2015 so he clearly isn't the problem.  ;D
ok fine

Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #27 on: April 25, 2018, 01:26:05 PM »

Offline ChillyWilly

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I'm not sure if any coach is going to be able to get Westbrook to play more of a team game at this point. He's been in the league ten years at this point and won a MVP and a lot of playoff games playing this way.

Even if Russ buys in, its hard to change as an established player. That's why everyone was shocked and impressed at how well Lowry/DeRozen adjusted this season.
Fair point, but if Quin Snyder was coaching the Thunder and Billy Donovan was coaching the Jazz, I think the Thunder would have swept the series.  Donovan just isn't a good coach.  He doesn't make good adjustments.  He doesn't develop winning game plans.  He just is flat out a bad coach.

Yet he won back to back NCAA titles been to the Final Four 4 times is 3x SEC Coach of the year. and is under defeated as USA under 18/19 in 3 World tournaments. In the NBA he has over a .600 win % He's not a bad coach I'm not buying that reasoning for OKC.

They have 0 bench and decided to give the we will win on 3 talented guys a try unfortunately 1 is toast (Melo) and the other 2 are a bad fit. This falls on Westbrook who seems at this point to be unteachable.
ok fine

Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #28 on: April 25, 2018, 02:19:10 PM »

Offline Moranis

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I'm not sure if any coach is going to be able to get Westbrook to play more of a team game at this point. He's been in the league ten years at this point and won a MVP and a lot of playoff games playing this way.

Even if Russ buys in, its hard to change as an established player. That's why everyone was shocked and impressed at how well Lowry/DeRozen adjusted this season.
Fair point, but if Quin Snyder was coaching the Thunder and Billy Donovan was coaching the Jazz, I think the Thunder would have swept the series.  Donovan just isn't a good coach.  He doesn't make good adjustments.  He doesn't develop winning game plans.  He just is flat out a bad coach.

Yet he won back to back NCAA titles been to the Final Four 4 times is 3x SEC Coach of the year. and is under defeated as USA under 18/19 in 3 World tournaments. In the NBA he has over a .600 win % He's not a bad coach I'm not buying that reasoning for OKC.

They have 0 bench and decided to give the we will win on 3 talented guys a try unfortunately 1 is toast (Melo) and the other 2 are a bad fit. This falls on Westbrook who seems at this point to be unteachable.
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Re: Interesting OKC Thunder article
« Reply #29 on: April 25, 2018, 02:54:37 PM »

Offline SHAQATTACK

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Westbrook heading for a Melo type career .  Funny fhey re on. the same team ,  Westbrook should look down the bench and see what he should not be like .