Saturday, March 12, 2016

What's wrong with the OKC Thunder?

They have two of the league's 10 best players and 3 of the league's 20...and this year they look entirely flawed and vulnerable.

I have some thoughts on how I would try to fix what ails OKC in short order (before the playoffs).

I have a ton of respect for OKC's front office.  They run things like I would.  Whenever they see a top 5 draft pick with some potential to fit on their team having issues some place else they pull them in.

With two of the 10 best players in the league, your other 3 can have flaws as long as each merely brings something to the table.

This is kind of the anti-Maverick philosophy.  You aren't worried about whether your coach's ego can take a player.  You are a talent driven team, not a coach driven team. You just look at if a player has the talent to contribute and keep piling up first round talents.

I think the adherence to that philosophy is generally brilliant, but has gotten them into trouble here.  They added Dion Waiters and Randy Foye and have young developing two guard Andre Roberson and that has cut the PT to one of their best 3 point shooters, the very limited Anthony Morrow.  They now have a logjam of 2 guard types, but no real bombers there.

In a league with the Warriors ascending, OKC is trading 2's vs. their opponent's 3's due to those acquisitions.

As the trading deadline has passed, you can't just say I'll trade these guys for 3 point shooters.

No, if you are going to do anything about it, you probably need to think about cutting these guys to free roster slots and PT.  And you need to scrape the barrel ---CBA etc. to find replacements.

It runs very contrary to the mentality of this management, but I would argue cutting at least one of these two guards to open slot and PT for an unabashed bomber ---even if the guy is really just a 5th starter guy at best talent wise ---makes sense.

Steve Kerr was a joke among NBA fans until the Bulls realized he fit what they needed. OKC needs their Steve Kerr.  They need a glue guy who can provide some stability.

If you ask me what OKC is missing and desperately needs, it is a guy who can go for 40 one night draining a crapload of threes.  Someone who when the offense is imploding can provide a little leadership and direction ...or just start canning threes. Not just a shooter.  A bomb-crazy gunner.

And he has to be available, which means not a talent anyone in the NBA believes in.

I have got the guy in mind. Jimmer Fredette.

Fredette hasn't done a damn thing in his time in the NBA, but no one questions the fact that he can shoot with range.  And really what has worked against him in his NBA career is exactly what OKC needs --- a willingness to lock and load threes all game long if needed.

Fredette has struggled to diversify and modify his game to fit in with his NBA teams.  That's not really a problem in OKC.  The Thunder need green light college Jimmer.

It's a good play.

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