Oklahoma City Thunder: Life Without Kevin Durant

It’s going to be weird. Kevin Durant has only missed 16 games in his entire seven-year career, never missing more than eight in one season.

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But that is going to be different for Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder as Durant is slated to miss at

least 6-8 weeks with a Jones fracture

in his foot he suffered over the weekend. With the injury, Durant will miss around 15-20 games of the 2014-15 season.

It is by no means the end of the Thunder’s title aspirations for this season, but they will have to adjust how they play without the reigning MVP–simply because they have never been there before.

Over the past five seasons, Durant has played in the most games (388), most minutes (15,064), and scored the most points (11,356) in the entire NBA, according to ESPN.com. You can’t replace that, but injuries happen and you have to find a way to move forward while Durant heals up.

So how do the Thunder do that?

Well, it helps that the Thunder have another top-five player in the league in Russell Westbrook. Westbrook is as dynamic of a player as the league has ever seen. His relentless pursuit of the basket keeps defenses on their heels and their heads on a swivel as he can virtually get by anyone in the entire league for a ferocious dunk or an off-balance lay-in.

His talent is undeniable. Not many teams have a second guy to turn to as good as Westbrook when they lose their best player. That will certainly help the Thunder stay afloat without Durant.

This will give Westbrook the chance to show the world how good he is, but we know what we are getting from Westbrook. He’s going to play with that killer instinct and make defenses uncomfortable with Durant on the floor or not.

The biggest test is on Scott Brooks.

I think Brooks is a good NBA coach, not a great one, but he is a solid coach. No matter how much talent you have, winning more than 61 percent of your games in five years is damned good. They only failed to win at least 50 games in one season and that was the 2011-12 lockout season when they went 47-19 and made it to the NBA Finals. He can coach.

The biggest question for Brooks is who to start. My thought process is without the greatest scorer in the world in the starting lineup, the Thunder need to insert an offensive minded player into the starting rotation.

That guy would be Reggie Jackson, who has been a superb sixth man the last couple years. Then they could move Andre Roberson, who probably would have started at the 2-guard position pre-Durant injury, over to the small forward position (Perry Jones III is another option, but there’s no indication Brooks would make that move at this point).

Brooks should go with second-year big man Steven Adams at the center position and have a starting lineup of Westbrook-Jackson-Roberson-Serge Ibaka-Adams.

The Thunder are not going to be as efficient on offense without Durant, but this lineup should still hold its own on offense.

The Westbrook-Jackson backcourt could be argued to be one of the best in the league and with both their abilities to drive and create–defenses could have problems containing them.

Ibaka and Westbrook form an awesome pick n’ pop combo. Ibaka is one of the best mid-range shooters in the entire league and Westbrook’s ability to attack the basket and his improved passing really puts the opposing defense in a dilemma on how to stop them.

The biggest problem the Thunder are going to run into on offense is that they can’t simply throw the ball to Durant and expect to get a quality shot every possession. Ball movement is going to be key and Brooks needs to emphasis moving without the ball, cutting to the basket and good screening so they can consistently good shots in life without Durant.

The new wrinkles Brooks may throw into the offense in order to create shots is something I expect to see.

If they Thunder do struggle on offense early, I expect the Thunder to go small in order to spread the floor and create more driving lanes for Westbrook and Jackson. With the starting lineup I proposed, Adams and Roberson clog the floor and that may limit the guards ability to drive, which is their biggest strength.

A small ball lineup of Westbrook-Jackson-Anthony Morrow-Jones-Ibaka would be hard to stop. All five guys have the ability to knock down the 3-point shot (Westbrook has the worst percentage of the group at 31.8) and Westbrook and Jackson would get into the lane at will, draw defenders, and either kick out to a shooter or finish at the rim.

Of course, defensively that lineup would struggle, but I think Ibaka is so good at protecting the rim that they could survive playing this lineup at times.

It’s going to be interesting. There’s no doubt about that. Brooks is going to have the chance to try a bunch of different things and I think it could turn into a positive.

Players like Jeremy Lamb, Jones, and Roberson are going to get big minutes they have not been accustomed to in the past–something I think has halted their growth as players.

I think if the Thunder can stay above water and stay close to the top-seeds in the West while improving their role players with Durant out, it could pay dividends come the playoffs and help them win an NBA championship.

But, boy, is life going to be different without Kevin Durant.