SR – NBA Bubble Breakdowns: #10 Oklahoma City Thunder

In Today’s breakdown, we are going to look at a very impressive Oklahoma City Thunder squad that sits at the 5th spot in the Western Conference but, could position themself as best as 3rd by the time the playoff comes around. For a team that most people expected to be at the bottom half of the western conference playoff picture when the year began, OKC has been fuel by its veteran leadership from G Chris Paul in addition to a bunch of hungry young and talented players.

Gone are the Days of the MVP talents of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook leading this team to the playoffs but The Thunder will not be experiencing any type of playoff drought because of this. The team has a new identity and they have only improved as this year has gone on and the team is able to build more chemistry. The new selfless identity of this team that displays some of the most balanced scorings of an NBA roster, has put the Thunder not only in a playoff position but serious playoff contention.

Oklahoma City Season in Review (40-24, 5th in West)

The Oklahoma City Thunder have an overall record of 40-24 this year to claim the 5th seed in the West. They are only 1 game behind the Utah Jazz who are in 5th place and 3 behind the Nuggets who are in 4th. With 8 games left I expect these three teams along with the Houston rockets who only sit a half-game behind the thunder to make the 3-6 seeding interesting. The Thunder’s success this season has a lot to do with their success on the road after starting off poorly.

After losing their first 6 road games the Thunder have won 19 of their last 24 games outside of Chesapeake Energy Arena. This has so much to do with G Chris Paul’s leadership role but also speaks to the maturity of the rest of this thunder squad. Leading Scorer for the Thunder, G Shai Gilgous-Alexander has emerged always been a talented multi-level scorer. It’s clear Shai didn’t want to be seen as just some guy in the Paul George trade he’s played aggressive all year long and it brought out the best in him and his teammates. The dynamic that he and Paul have been able to create for this team on a nightly basis has been incredibly fun to watch. They are both dynamic playmakers and have done a great job this year of getting the most out of the rest of the squad. Chris Paul has worked the pick and roll game with Steven Adams this year to perfection and their wings have shown the ability to be consistent enough from the field to keep the floor spaced. The 20 points per game that this team gets out of Danillo Gallinari and Dennis Schroder should also not go overlooked. Danillo has been a star in his role for this team mainly as a pick and pop guy all year long. The playmaking ability of all the guards whether it be Paul, Gilgous-Alexander, or Schroder has really unlocked part of Gallinari’s game. Schroder has always been a really underrated guy in my personal opinion. He’s always produced a great number over the course of his career no matter starting or coming off the bench. Like Shai, he can score on all levels and is always under control. This team is full of players that just don’t get rattled very easily so its no coincidence this team followed up their first 6 road losses with the second-best road record in the NBA behind the Los Angels Lakers.

The Thunder are a very smart team but they are also very young and athletic especially when you look deeper into the roster. With guards like Hamidou Diallo, Luguentz Dort, Darius Bazley, and Terrance Ferguson they have depth and athleticism from the wing position which will really help defensively down the stretch. The Thunder have been great with utilizing their young guys this year and it seems like their rookies especially have gotten more confident as the year has gone on. Despite the well-balanced scoring, the Thunder gets every night, the Thunder’s defense is the strongest part of this team’s identity.

The Oklahoma City Thunder surprisingly rank bottom-ten in the league in points per game, assists per game, 3-point percentage, field goals attempted, and several other offensive categories. The Thunder do the little things that result in wins. They rank first in the league in opponent free throw attempts holding their opponents to an average of 17.2 attempts from the line this year. OKC also is only letting up a 12.2 second-chance points per game that rank 2nd in the league. They are efficient and sound of defense this year and it hasn’t mattered whether its at home or on the road. Surprisingly enough the thunder has a better win percentage on the road this year than at home. I think this stat actually means a lot more than you think as the season restarts because this team has proven they don’t need to be home to win all year long and with no games, for the rest of this season being played inside the Chesapeake, this team looks certain to bring their defense to Orlando to make a deep run in the playoffs.      

Looking into the Bubble:

Looking into the bubble the biggest news for the thunder seems to be that G Dennis Schroder may not be able to play. Schroder announced to the media last week that his wife is pregnant with their second child and that she should be giving birth sometime during when the completion of the regular season. Schroder has made it clear to the organization and media that he intents to be there for his wife and is trying to work something out with the team where he can return to the team in the safest way possible.

While this might be tough to hear from a fan perspective, this is the right thing for Dennis Schroder to do during these crazy times. The man should be with his wife and newborn before all else and it’s good to see Coach Billy Donavan and the rest of the Organization are fully behind him.

With this being said, without Schroder this team is taking a massive hit at a time they will need him more than ever. Schroder’s scoring off the bench is crucial for this team. We are talking about a potential 20 points a game missing for 3-4 weeks in which cold be first-round playoff series. I don’t think this team will be able to replicate what they have done for most of the regular season without him but they have had players step up countless times this year but not quite for what seems to be an extended period of time.

Without Schroder, they will still have to make sure their defense stays as strong as its been. Schroder provides playoff experience for this team so losing him even though in different playoff circumstances hurts them even more. The young guys are really going to have to step up defensively to give these guys a boost and the scoring from Shai, CP3, and Gallinari with having to increase by volumes for this team to produce in the same way. The good news though is that they are capable. They are healthy they have the talent and now if they can just execute they could potentially get hot enough to really compete in the Western Conference playoffs.