Positive start for Donovan
New Thunder coach and players are ready to win together
Oklahoma City Thunder players organized a half-week voluntary workout session at UCLA during the summer, and it gave Billy Donovan an early taste of the NBA.
Workouts began at 7 a.m. Superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were there, along with nearly the rest of the team, working to regain the form that had many thinking last season that a championship was not far away.
“It was a great thing,” Donovan says. “I’ve said the one thing I feel very, very good about is these guys all appear to have very, very good relationships. They get along very, very well.”
Last season was a disaster, as Oklahoma City missed the playoffs after a series of injuries and coach Scott Brooks was ultimately fired. Enter Donovan, the longtime coach at the University of Florida.
This is perhaps the franchise’s most important season to date with Durant’s free agency looming next offseason and the Thunder not winning a championship since moving from Seattle for the 2008-09 season. And the team has been entrusted to Donovan, who is known for changing his mind about coaching the Orlando Magic in 2007 just days after accepting the position.
This time it’s for real, and most experts think Donovan will be as good as any other coach making the transition to the NBA.
He has the knowledge. He has the energy. He has the success of winning two national titles at Florida while developing several talented NBA players.
Rarely does a rookie coach take over such a talented roster with all-world players Durant and Westbrook alongside Serge Ibaka. But those three combined to miss 88 games last season because of injuries, leading to a 45-win season, no postseason and the dismissal of Brooks, who grew as a coach while the team itself grew.
Yet the Thunder players are embracing Donovan.
“A great basketball coach but more so a better person,” Durant says. “We’ve hit it off since the beginning. I’m excited to play for him. He is a rookie, but he’s been coaching forever. But in our league it’s a little different.”
To aid the transition, the Thunder also hired former NBA head coaches Monty Williams and Maurice Cheeks and brought in Donovan’s longtime assistant/confidant Anthony Grant.
“I think there’s a high level of humility inside that room in terms of that we know that we can probably take things from each other to make us better, and that’s been really enjoyable,” Donovan says.
Donovan’s history of developing talented big men such as Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford and Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah also bodes well for Enes Kanter and Mitch McGary. Kanter was traded from the Utah Jazz in midseason and instantly became the team’s best offensive threat on the low post but also the biggest defensive liability.
Donovan also is expected to bring a spread pick-and-roll offense, which fits the Thunder with strong shooters such as Anthony Morrow and Kyle Singler supporting Durant and Westbrook.
“He’s exactly what we need,” Singler says. “We need a guy with his energy, his mind-set. He’s ready to prove himself. He wants to win. He wants us to be successful. He’s just determined, and we see it, we feel it.”