The OKC Thunder are now 8-11 and now they can look at other options to help improve the play. One option they can look at is shaking up the starting lineup.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have dropped two straight games against the Detroit Pistons and the Dallas Mavericks — two teams that do not have the star power the Thunder have. While it is still early, it has to be alarming that the OKC Thunder were not able to beat the second-worst team in the league, especially just a few days after their best win of the season over the Golden State Warriors.
Out of the 14 teams that were in the lottery last year, eight have a better record than the Thunder right now. Those teams are the Miami Heat, Indiana Pacers, the Philadelphia 76ers, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, New Orleans Pelicans, Denver Nuggets and Detroit Pistons.
Four — Timberwolves, Pelicans, Nuggets and Pistons — of those teams have beaten the Thunder this season already.
Something has to be done to make the Thunder more dominant. A solution that the Thunder could look into is shaking up the starting lineup. This is what the new lineup could look like:
- PG: Russell Westbrook
- SG: Paul George
- SF: Carmelo Anthony
- PF: Patrick Patterson
- C: Steven Adams
Moving Patrick Patterson in the starting lineup will help the Thunder because it puts more offensive capability on the floor. While Patterson has not provided offense coming off the bench, coming into a starting role should help him get into a rhythm.
The most Patterson has ever started was in 2012-13 when he was on the floor for tipoff 41 games when he played for the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings. That season he averaged a career-high 10.4 points per game.
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Patterson is the only true power forward that the Thunder have and putting Carmelo Anthony back in his original spot would maybe get more shots to fall for the team. Paul George played shooting guard his first two seasons in the NBA so that transition would most likely be not painful.
With Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony on the court, that should open up open opportunities for Patterson to score. Patterson’s scoring problems are just the fact that he has not attempted enough shots.
In 2012-13, when he attempted the most field goals for his career with 623, he scored the most total points for his career with 737. His next year after that was in 2014-15 when he attempted 535 shots and scored 648 points.
Another benefit in Patterson starting is his efficiency. If he is going to take more shots, then he is going to be efficient while doing it. He has never had a full season where he didn’t shoot over 40 percent from the field. From the 3-point line he has never shot less than 35 percent for a full season.
If the lineup looks like the one above, that gives the Thunder three players in the starting lineup with 10+ years of experience.
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Adding Patrick Patterson will make the Thunder more efficient, it will give them more experience and it will make them an even bigger threat offensively than before.