Is Durant to blame for OKC collapse?

[tlance]

Obviously, the series would have played out a lot differently with a healthy Westbrook. Conley was able to continually expose the Thunder's weakness at PG and was able to initiate the Memphis offense with little resistance.

Durant was miserable in game 5, shooting 5 for 20 from the floor. His game 4 efficiency wasn't a lot better. He clearly needed to play better for OKC to compete in this series, but I am surprised that more people have not picked up on Barkley's halftime comments regarding Brooks' poor game plan.

Scott Brooks has enjoyed a lot of success as a head coach in terms of wins and losses, but he gets far too much credit for the Thunder's success and not enough blame for their short comings. This series against Memphis was a prime example. Brooks was thouroughly out-coached by Lionel Hollins and the Grizzlies staff.

The OKC offense has worked because they space the floor reasonably well and they have two transcendant offensive talents who can create offense out of nothing (last year they had 3). Take away one of those pieces, and this is where the coach needs to step up and get creative.

Brooks needed to find ways to get Durant the rock in spots where it wasn't so easy for Memphis to collapse on him. He needed to use all that attention paid to Durant to find open shots for guys like Kevin Martin. Brooks failed his team when they needed him most.

The Memphis roster is > the the Thunder roster minus Westbrook, so they should have won the series anyway. My issue is that Brooks continues to be considered as one of the better coaches in the association when in fact he (along with the luxury tax and a small market) may be the 2 things holding OKC back.

If Memphis had an elite coach like a Doc Rivers, Greg Popovich or Tom Thibodeau, they would have likely won the title last year and would still be playing today. Rivers and Pops may become available in the next couple years and the Thunder should consider an upgrade before their window closes. They still have a championship calibur core, even without Harden.

 

[bone3421]

i would say....no......i think he was let down by ibaka and the rest of the guys

 

[BOTSLAYER]

I agree with bone and what was said about brooks, not impressed with his coaching. Disagree they would have won the championship last year.

 

[tlance]

I agree with bone and what was said about brooks, not impressed with his coaching. Disagree they would have won the championship last year.

Maybe, maybe not. The Heat are really, really good.

Bottom line though, Harden and Ibaka were criminally under-utilized last year while big minutes went to Fisher and Perkins. Harden was awful in the finals, but maybe he plays better if he had a different role? Hard to say. Talent wise, the Thunder were pretty darn close to the Heat last year. Spoelstra was the better coach.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

Memphis is really good. As good as Gay was, they had shown that they could win without him. Exchanging him for the players they did to fill out the roster gave them that extra depth they needed to be in the position they are now.

 

[tlance]

Memphis is really good. As good as Gay was, they had shown that they could win without him. Exchanging him for the players they did to fill out the roster gave them that extra depth they needed to be in the position they are now.

To take it a step further, I think they are better with Prince than they were with Gay. Prince is a better team defender and he is less involved offensively, which is a good thing. Gay is a very good player, but not very efficient. His removal allows the offense to flow through the bigs and Conley. Great trade for Memphis.

 

[bksballer89]

I would only blame him for mainly game 5 and maybe game 4.....But the role players mainly Ibaka and Martin needed to step up and they did not.

 

[tlance]

I would only blame him for mainly game 5 and maybe game 4.....But the role players mainly Ibaka and Martin needed to step up and they did not.

Also true. And perhaps I am not giving enough credit to Memphis, who is an excellent team. Bottom line though, I don't see OKC winning any rings with Brooks as their head coach.

I hope that I am either wrong on this or that they make a change soon, because Durant deserves a ring at some point. He has a lot of years left to do it though.

 

[BOTSLAYER]

Also true. And perhaps I am not giving enough credit to Memphis, who is an excellent team. Bottom line though, I don't see OKC winning any rings with Brooks as their head coach.

I hope that I am either wrong on this or that they make a change soon, because Durant deserves a ring at some point. He has a lot of years left to do it though.

I hate their offence. Far too much westbrook not nearly enough Durant. Some analyst was asked about if they should have traded Westbrook or Harden and he said someone else turning westbrook into a 2. THAT I think is brilliant!!!

 

[logic]

I believe that Durant is partially to blame. He clearly underperformed as one of the leagues top players. He may be tired of being #2, but his performance in this series leaves questions if he should be ranked that high.

Brooks, too, is partially to blame. He could not adjust his teams play to make up for the loss of Westbrook. But while he may be slightly overrated as a coach since he is blessed with some very talented players, when someone goes down with an injury you can only coach with the pieces that you have.

Which brings me to where the majority of the blame lies--the GM. No team can ever be ready for one of their stars to go down--hell, that is what makes them stars. But when Westbrook went down it did expose the weakness of the rest of the roster. The end result may have been the same if they still had Harden (I think Memphis wins this series even if both teams were healthy), but it sure would have been a better series. Unfortunately for Presti, small market teams have a hard time even holding on to their great players, much less bringing in more top tier talent. Last year's Finals loss may be as good as it gets for OKC unless the GM can work some unprecedented magic.

 

[tlance]

I hate their offence. Far too much westbrook not nearly enough Durant. Some analyst was asked about if they should have traded Westbrook or Harden and he said someone else turning westbrook into a 2. THAT I think is brilliant!!!

Westbrook does play more like a 2 for sure. In a lot of offenses, his style would work fine, but it is tough when a scorer as good as Durant is playing alongside.

I don't think there is anybody in the league who is directly comparable to Westbrook, but perhaps Wade's relentless, slashing style comes closest. Obviously Wade is not a 1.

 

[trojanfan12]

I wouldn't blame Durant. He stepped up, but had to play so many minutes and was depended on so much that he was tired by the end of those last few games.

When a team loses a player of Westbrooks caliber everyone on the team needs to step up to fill in the void. Durant did his part, his teammates did not.

 

[Hornsstampede2.0]

Durant failed in the task he was given.

He was dealt a bad hand with the loss of Westbrook, but instead of elevating his game.....he shrunk from the moment.

But, he coaching has a lot to blame though. Durant never played point-forward all season.

I did not understand why they suddenly decided to have Durant be the primary ball handler.

It makes no sense. Why have a backup point guard at all then??

Trust your system and backup pointguard. Run the offense that Durant is better at playing.

Brooks got exposed a bit more than Durant.

 

[shitsho]

I think it was a coaching issue more so. I dont know if OKC would have won but Brooks abused Durant. He did everything and everyone else was under utilized.

 

[tlance]

Glad to see that others are starting to see that Brooks is not as good as some in the media give him credit for. I made a few posts on CBS last year about Brooks being overrated by pointing out the flaws in his rotations and offensive strategy, but there were very few who agreed. Most, in fact, disagreed adamantly.

Now that Harden has established himself as a near superstar player after leaving OKC and the team has performed poorly after losing Westbrook, people are starting to see Brooks for what he is. He has been successful because of the talented players in his charge, not because of his ability to lead them.

 

[JeremyLambert88]

I'm usually harsh on Brooks, but I don't think he coached a terrible series. He made some smart defensive switches, played Collison more, and even drew up some halfway decent plays at the end of the game. He still did some things wrong (not bringing in Martin early enough, especially in the second half of games) but after the game 5 debacle in Houston I thought he did a good job. I still have my doubts about him, but I'm hoping he takes what he did right without Westbrook and carries that into next year with Westbrook.

As for Durant, he simply wore down I wrote all about it here. But to sum it up: he wasn't used to doing everything offensively and it finally caught up to him.

 

[bksballer89]

Durant failed in the task he was given.

He was dealt a bad hand with the loss of Westbrook, but instead of elevating his game.....he shrunk from the moment.

But, he coaching has a lot to blame though. Durant never played point-forward all season.

I did not understand why they suddenly decided to have Durant be the primary ball handler.

It makes no sense. Why have a backup point guard at all then??

Trust your system and backup pointguard. Run the offense that Durant is better at playing.

Brooks got exposed a bit more than Durant.

I disagree with you about KD not elevating his game and shrinking from the moment. Through 3 games of the series he avg 32, 11, and 6 apg on 50% shooting . He shrunk in games 4 and 5 due to his Head Coach not only having him as the primary ball handler, MEM sending 2 & 3 defenders at him, and also playing nearly 46 MPG wore him out

 

[Sman2011]

How did Lebron do against Boston in 2008 in the 7 game series? He was pathetic, shooting 29 pct from the floor that series, including games he went 2-18, and 6-24.....

How did Lebron do against Boston in 2010? Well we all know he quit...

Or how did Lebron do against dallas in 2011?

Let's just say Lebron is very fortunate to have a team stacked with superstars.

 

[raptorlife4]

Memphis is really good. As good as Gay was, they had shown that they could win without him. Exchanging him for the players they did to fill out the roster gave them that extra depth they needed to be in the position they are now.

They got Daye,Davis and Prince for Gay

Daye and Davis are not even playing

 

[True Lakers Fan]

You can't blame Durant because he was missing both Hardin and Westbrook - the kid can't do it by himself. Can't avoid injuries, but you can blame the front office for being too cheap to re-sign Hardin.