NBA: How Oklahoma City Thunder can improve to see a much brighter future
The Seattle SuperSonics who are now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder have raided the National Basketball league leaving basketball fanatics flabbergasted. The City Thunders’ won 50 games this year, which is twice than what they did last year.
That was not the only big achievement for the team this year; they came 4th in the Northwest Division and ranked 8th from the wild Western Conference.
However that was unlucky for them this year as they faced the Los Angeles Lakers who are arguably the toughest team of the NBA currently and were eliminated in the first round of the 2010 playoffs. Nevertheless Oklahoma City has shown that it’s striving for the top and keeps on improving itself as a team.
They once lonesome $300 million franchise has had a few good picks over the years and are on their way to become true contenders for the very first time after more than 30 years. Although there are still a few pieces missing from the puzzle and to in order to become a champions worthy team they need to add a few changes to their philosophy.
Analyzing the Oklahoma City Thunders and what they need to do to improve as a team.
The team lacks experienced players, it consists of five-rookies who are the starters for the team. The franchises to key star players are Kevin Durant and Brian Westbrook who have not played in the league for more than two-years. The 21-man powerhouse is led by Scotty Brooks who is the team’s head coach. Having youth on the roster is not necessarily a bad thing for the team as they have more energy than the aging teams and have room much room for improvement. Except the bad thing about having youth on the team is they don’t know how to deal with extreme pressures and how to go about in the playoffs.
The team needs a player who knows how to play as a true center. Their huge roster consists of six big men who play a centers, Nenat Kristic, Serge Ibaka, Nick Collison, Etan Thomas, Byron Mullens and Tibor Pleiss.
Nenat Kristic has played more than 70 games for the Thunders however his best average with the Thunder was, 7.2 points per game with 5.8 rebounds that is below average performance for a center his size. Nick Collison who is 2inches shorter than him plays as a center and performs much better than Kristic. However Nick stands at 6’10” and should play as a power forward solely.
Another thing the team is in dire need of is another guard, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have both proved to be outstanding players with an extremely high average at only 21 years of age. Having two amazing young players who lead the whole team is a plus point for them but the fact that the two have too much load on their back is a lot for them to handle.
This could lead them to burn out very soon, Oklahoma City thunders need to pick or move one of their players to a guard position to so they could spread the load amongst three players. Experts say Jeff Green could be a good option to become a small forward, while Kevin takes the role of shooting guard exclusively.
Last point being adding depth to their bench, despite having 21 men on their roster the team does not have enough depth. As it was determined before the team has only two star players Kevin and Westbrook, the team needs more explosive sharp shooters in the team. The team recently got a hold of Daequan Cook and Morris Peterson but the two did not score well in the few minutes they were given this year. The need to add players who will alleviate pressure from the two starters and get rid of substitutes who are becoming a liability for the team.
Sports analysts say Oklahoma City Thunder has a bright future ahead of them i.e. is if Kevin and Russell stick together and not depart the team. They insist if the team adds a tint of two veteran players to mentor the two rising stars, the team could really give trouble to the NBA favourites.
Tags: