Donovan hopes pace is regularseason preview
LAS VEGAS — Before every Summer League, the Thunder coaching staff convenes and pinpoints a focus for the offseason version of its team.
Sometimes it’s as simple as a defensive tweak. Other times Billy Donovan is looking for bigger philosophical changes. Whatever comes from those meetings is “the first thing on the whiteboard,” coach Mark Daigneault said, when the Summer League team gets together.
This year, the first thing on the whiteboard was pace. And though it was a talking point for the summer Thunder, the expectation is for that conversation to linger into winter.
“The pace of play and the way the ball is moving, this is not a one-off,” Daigneault said after
Oklahoma City’s 92-82 win against Toronto on Monday. “Everything we’re doing out here is designed to trickle up or to be experimented with or to be evaluated, both the personnel and the way we’re playing.”
In short, the Thunder is playing fast this summer because Donovan wants his team to do it in the fall. The plan is for this summer style of play — aggressive defense, pushing the ball up the court and whipping the ball around to create open shots — to serve as a season sneak peek.
“As a coach, stylistically, do I want the ball moving? Passing, cutting — I want all that,” Donovan told The Oklahoman during Monday’s game. “But it’s also got to make sense for our personnel. I think we have a team that can play really fast. I think we need to get up and down the floor. I want to see the ball move a little bit more.”
He saw it sitting courtside at the Thomas and Mack Center.
Now he needs to see more of it from his seat at The Peake.
And Donovan is convinced the Thunder can play that way.
That’s no doubt in part due to the likely departure of Carmelo Anthony. Though Donovan was noncommittal about Anthony’s future on Monday — “We’ll see what happens,” he said — he spent much of a 20-minute interview talking about a team built around Russell Westbrook and Paul George focusing on a faster pace.
Anthony was “great” to coach, Donovan said, and he wanted to find ways to incorporate him in the offense. That was a struggle at times alongside Westbrook and George, who like Anthony have thrived in isolation during their careers — playing one-on-one against a defender with the floor cleared out for them.
“So to try to take Carmelo and run him all over the court and (have him) cutting, it’s just not playing to his strengths,” Donovan said. “I get the way the game is going and how it looks, but is that the best thing for our personnel? Is that the best thing for our team?”
With Anthony likely gone — ESPN reported on Monday that the Thunder could waive the 34-year-old veteran within the next seven to 10 days if it’s unable to find a trade — that faster style might be a better fit.
Regardless of Anthony’s status, though, pace and ball movement would be a shift for the Thunder, which ranked 16th in the NBA in pace of play last season and 29th in passes made.
It’s one thing to get Summer League players scrapping for an NBA roster spot to buy into a system.
It’s another to implement it with players with established styles of play and All-NBA credentials.
The pace should be no issue for Westbrook, one of the NBA’s most fleetfooted point guards. But for most of his career he’s dominated the ball, surveying the court and probing a defense with the dribble. Asking him to give up the ball more — and perhaps get it back in scoring positions — is a significant change. George, too, does some of his best work in isolation.
But Westbrook and George “are always open” to new things, Donovan said, and the hope is that the Thunder will buy into a system that moves the ball quickly and more often.
“Paul a lot of times feels a lot more comfortable playing in a rhythm, and sometimes that requires him with the ball in his hands, getting into a rhythm,” Donovan said. “I think Russell’s the same way. But there’s a balance between that and then trying to play faster with more ball and player movement.”
To get there, OKC needs to develop additional playmakers.
Terrance Ferguson, who’s playing for the Summer League team, has to get by his man and get the ball to Westbrook and George off the pass, Donovan said. Alex Abrines and Jerami Grant need to develop in that area, too, and that will be a focus leading up to the season.
The challenge for Donovan as he enters his fourth season in the NBA will be preparing his young players for a system that encourages ball and player movement — and getting his established veterans to buy into what no doubt will be among the first things on the whiteboard.
“I think we need to play faster and more open,” Donovan said. “I think we need to attack the paint and put the ball on the floor and generate and create.”