Let's Talk About the Durant/Westbrook Thunder...

[dankok8]

So I've been thinking about this team, the way they played on the court, and their legacy.

I took the period from 2012-2016 when the team was a contender.

https://i.postimg.cc/sfYM5nPR/Statline-Shift-Durant-and-Westbrook-2012-2016.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/rsNzcmyp/WOWY-Combo-Durant-and-Westbrook-2012-2016.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/nrJM67J5/Lineups-Analysis-Durant-and-Westbrook-2012-2016.jpg

Both stars' volume stats dropped a lot when they were on the court together and efficiency dropped as well.

In terms of the success of the lineups, the Thunder were marginally better with both on the court (+9.8) than with just Durant on the court (+8.4).

Although it's interesting that with both on the court, they got very little help from the rest of the supporting cast. And the rest of the cast actually had a negative impact on offense (-1.2). It's not that surprising IMO when considering that Ibaka was nothing special on offense and apart from one season of pre-prime Harden in 2012 and an old Derek Fisher who was a fringe rotation player by that point, they had no one who could shoot the ball when they passed it out.

So here are some questions that I've been pondering:

1) How many positive impact players did that team have outside of Durant and Westbrook? I'm only certain about 2012 Harden and Ibaka. Maybe Adams for a couple of seasons.

2) How well did the pieces fit? Talking about Durant and Westbrook fit but also the lack of shooting and potentially other factors.

3) Did this team ultimately underachieve all things considered?

[SouBeachTalents]

The 3rd question is the most interesting. I don't believe the Thunder underachieved during that timeframe, they lost to the more talented team in '12, '14 & '16, and had injury derail their season in '13 & '15. I do feel like they were always a liability in crunch time, Games 2-4 were very winnable in the 2012 Finals and they couldn't snag any of those, they were on the verge of a Game 7 in 2014 but failed to come through in the 4th & OT, and the most obvious example was them having the Warriors on the ropes in Game 6 but KD & Westbrook completely imploding in the 4th and especially towards the end of the game.

Westbrook justifiably takes a lot of the criticism due to his boneheaded decision making in crunch time, but KD deserves some as well, he came up small on multiple occasions in critical moments.

[NBAGOAT]

1) Not too many more besides sefolosha. kevin martin and reggie jackson are still guys who can play in the playoffs
2) fit is fine but only because okc had some good defensive players around their duo
3) somewhat because when you have that duo you should win 1 title even with a poor supporting cast and not being a favorite any year. Durant had like a top 15 5 year prime, westbrook with his flaws still an all-nba sidekick and in 15-16 hes mvp lvl. losing 2 seasons to injuries is brutal. If kd stayed, rumored supporting cast was oladipo, horford, adams. They win a title I think