How OKC hopes to be a disrupter this year
Fire and brimstone rains down on most teams when they head to Oracle Arena to face the Warriors.
But Tuesday night will provide the Thunder a whole new blueand-gold hellscape — Oklahoma City will be in the building as Golden State hoists a banner and gets its rings and celebrates yet another NBA title.
Oh, the horror.
An old Silicon Valley motto comes to mind: move fast and break things.
That's what the Thunder is going to want to do on the opening night of the season. Turn up the tempo like it has been promising, show off strengths it hopes will counter the Warriors’, and bust up the champs’ party.
Then again, that's what OKC would like to do this season.
Even though the NBA Finals are eight months away, the Warriors are the presumed champs. They won the last two titles, and all they did this offseason was add another All-Star to the roster. Arguably the
greatest team in NBA history got better.
How could they not win?
On the day that this season tips off, such overwhelming odds make the scenario daunting for the other 29 teams in the association, and yet, a handful of franchises are clearly bowing up instead of giving up. They are building rosters. They are collecting talent. They are making a go of it.
Count the Thunder among that bunch.
“We have length. We have speed. We have quickness,” Thunder wingman Paul George said. “That’s in our favor. We have to use that to our advantage.”
Much has been made of the Thunder not only re-signing but also extending George. It's a big deal, no doubt. But in many ways, it has overshadowed all the other roster moves. Thunder general manager Sam Presti and his frontoffice team have made this bunch more youthful, more agile, more athletic. Jerami Grant was re-signed. Dennis Schroder, Nerlens Noel, Timothe LuwawuCabarrot and Abdul Nader were acquired. Hamidou Diallo was signed.
It's not only that those guys are in but also that these guys are out: Carmelo Anthony, Corey Brewer, Josh Huestis, Dakari Johnson and Kyle Singler.
Having more guys like Grant and Schroder and less like Melo can help you win more in today's NBA. This roster now has as many turbo-charged athletes as any in the league.
George even talked after practice Monday about a "fast unit," a quick-strike bunch that would include him, Westbrook, Schroder, Grant, and either Adams or Noel. It's a group that can attack on both ends of the court.
"That's a unit where we can really pile on points because we can play in a fast break, play in transition, change the tempo of the game up," George said.
"And defensively, I think we can really switch out and just be a problem on both ends."
Fun to think about the potential, isn't it?
I mean, that group still lacks great outside shooting. Really, that's the biggest problem with this roster as a whole. It doesn't have a ton of knock-down, deadeye shooters — and in a shooter's league, that's a problem.
But bully for the Thunder for not sitting back and accepting its plight. OKC wasn't stagnant or resigned. It made moves. It implemented changes.
By all accounts, the buy-in has been good.
"It's a really good working group," Thunder coach Billy Donovan said Monday when I asked him what he liked best about this bunch. "One of the things we talked about was the consistency of last year — we were very, very inconsistent — and I appreciate the consistency with which they have worked this year.
"Any time you've got a team that's willing to work and put the work in, I think you've got a lot of room and opportunity for growth and improvement."
How will all of this work out for the Thunder?
That's anyone's guess — I'm still picking the Warriors to win it all again — but the Thunder has signaled that it isn't stepping back. It is still in the arena. It is up for the fight.
Techie types in the Bay Area will appreciate the Thunder's mentality.
Disrupt.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/ JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.