Oklahoma City Thunder: Extreme Team Makeover Off To Solid Start

Coming out of the extended NBA All-Star break, the Oklahoma City Thunder found themselves having recovered sufficiently from their 3-12 start to at least have a puncher’s chance of making some noise in the Western Conference’s stretch run.

Since that low-water mark of nine games worse than .500, the Thunder had gone 25-13 and had crawled to ninth place in the (insert preferred adjective for really f**king tough) West, a game clear of the New Orleans Pelicans and a half-game behind the Phoenix Suns.

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General manager Sam Presti started working the phones, and this was before reigning MVP Kevin Durant had to yank himself out of the lineup after just one game to have a procedure to relieve pain in the right foot he had surgically repaired in the offseason.

By the morning of Thursday’s trade deadline, there was a lot of chatter percolating that OKC was once again eyeing former All-Star center Brook Lopez in a package that would send disgruntled (does that mean a player that is happy can be referred to as “gruntled”?) backup point guard Reggie Jackson to the Brooklyn Nets.

We know that didn’t happen, because as part of the utter chaos that erupted in the final minutes before the deadline, Presti pulled the rug out from under the Nets’ efforts to shed salary and instead pulled the trigger on a massive three-team deal with the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz.

What the deal? Glad you asked!

• Utah got center Kendrick Perkins, forward Grant Jerrett, the rights to German center Tibor Pleiss and a 2017 first-round pick from the Thunder; as well as a 2017 second-round pick from the Pistons
• Detroit got Jackson from the Thunder.
• Oklahoma City got point guard D.J. Augustin, wing Kyle Singler and a 2019 second-round pick from the Pistons; as well as center Enes Kanter and forward Steve Novak from the Jazz.

Are there risks? Sure. Kanter will be a restricted free agent this summer. But he’s four years younger than Lopez and has the advantage of not having a papier-mache right foot that may only be held together with Lionel Hollins’ used chewing gum at this point.

But Augustin is familiar with the backup point guard role, understands it and is not going to make loud mewling noises about wanting to run his own team. That’s an upgrade over Jackson right there.

The team loses whatever intangibles Perkins brings to the equation at this point, but Kanter can do something Perkins can’t and arguably never could—be a low-post scoring presence.

Augustin and Singler bring outside shooting to a team that, at the break, was shooting a horrific 32.5 percent from 3-point range.

And how’s it all working out so far?

Oklahoma City is 3-0 since the trade (oh, and the deal that sent Ish Smith, Latavious Williams, cash and a second-round pick this summer to the Pelicans for a second-round pick in 2016) and have taken a two-game lead for the eighth spot over the Pelicans and 2½ games over the Suns.

That’s right, boys and girls—Oklahoma City is now in a playoff spot were the season to end today … a really dumb phrase when you think of it, because the only thing that would end the season today would be something incredibly catastrophic. That likely means the playoffs would be the furthest thing from anyone’s mind. But I digress.

Russell Westbrook went for 34 points and 10 dimes as the patchwork Thunder handled the Dallas Mavericks by 15 on Thursday night, getting a career night (21 points, 22 boards) from Serge Ibaka, as well.

Then the new guys showed up for Saturday night, just as Durant left, and the Thunder trotted out a starting lineup of Ibaka, Singler, Kanter, Westbrook and Andre Roberson as they visited the Charlotte Hornets.

Kanter had a double-double in 32 minutes–10 points and 13 boards. Westbrook continued to do Westbrook things with 33 points and 10 dimes. Augustin and Waiters combined to score 22 off the bench, even as Waiters was just 4-for-15. Singler knocked down a couple of 3s. Ibaka had 16 and 12 and the Thunder had a 110-103 win.

When the Denver Nuggets came in to Oklahoma City for the back end of the back-to-back, the Thunder ran Denver out of the gym 119-94.

Let’s see—there was 21 points and 17 dimes from Westbrook, 20 points and 12 boards for Kanter in his Thunder home debut. Singler played 15 minutes, didn’t miss a shot and chipped in seven points. Augustin gave OKC 30 solid minutes with eight points. Dion Waiters, another new face since the start of the season, dropped 17 points in 27 minutes and Ibaka knocked down 20 points.

Kanter has been everything the Thunder had hoped—30 points and 25 rebounds in two games, doing things like this:

Oklahoma City with an actual, honest-to-God low-post threat has to scare the bejeezus out of the rest of the West, because it will do so much to help the spacing around the perimeter.

At the very least, the opposition will have to commit a man to Kanter, whereas Perkins could often be left to roam free.

But the Thunder had 56 points in the paint against Charlotte and 46 against the Nuggets. Their rebounding margin for the last two games is an aggregate plus-36.

Wow.

The Thunder had won three straight games—including over such Western heavyweights as the Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies—before the break. They’ve now bookended the All-Star festivities with matching three-game win streaks, a total of six straight in all, to get to a season-high six games better than .500.

The Thunder have a significant game on Thursday when they visit the Suns in prime time on TNT, with a home game against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday to deal with first.

Win in Phoenix and take care of business against Indiana and the Thunder will have something unexpected going for them with about 24 games remaining—a bit of a margin for error.

Since putting itself behind the 8-ball early as Durant and Westbrook dealt with injuries, that’s a luxury Oklahoma City hasn’t had.

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