Despite the end result, the past two years can be defined as
successes for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
They did not reach their personal goal of an NBA
championship but lost to the eventual champions in both of the past two years
(Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat) in the conference finals and NBA Finals.
When you have a starting core that are all younger than 25,
there looks to be years—maybe more than a decade—of championship title
opportunities.
But with that said, Oklahoma City’s title chances for next
season rest solely on point guard Russell Westbrook.
Kevin Durant is the face of the franchise but Russell
Westbrook still manages to repeatedly take more shots. Somehow, Durant has
managed to win the past three years’ worth of scoring titles. In large part due
to his efficiency, Durant is a quietly dominant scorer who is a nightly threat
to put up 30 points.
While limiting Durant’s opportunities to score the
basketball may only prevent the three-time scoring champion to reach his full
potential as a scorer because Westbrook takes a significant portion of the
shots in 48 minutes, it also prevents the Thunder from performing their best
against the league’s elite teams.
OKC has the talent to dominate the majority of the league—that
has been proven. But they will not be able to win a championship with Westbrook
taking the shots that he is and not taking on more of a traditional role as a
play-maker.
This was more than apparent in the NBA Finals.
They went into the Finals as favorites against the Miami Heat. But the wear and tear on
Westbrook caught up with him, if not physically, it did mentally.
Westbrook had some brilliant performances in the Finals
including a historic Game 4 where he went off for 43 points and only took three
free throws. But it didn’t matter after his careless mistake in
the finals seconds of the game where he fouled Mario Chalmers unnecessarily.
The loss to the Heat in the Finals rests no way solely on
the shoulders of Westbrook—Miami earned the title and Harden and the Thunder
big men were less than stellar offensively (which was to be expected).
But to get to the top of the mountain in 2013, the Thunder
will look to Russell Westbrook. As a star and starting point guard, OKC needs
him to mold into more of a traditional point guard. Facilitating for Durant and
Harden first and then looking for his
shot will be a recipe for success.
Doing so will take some wear and tear off Westbrook’s legs,
too. And that is a good thing because he has been taking his chances running
the risk of injury playing in every
single regular season game since his first game in the NBA.
Not only that but it gives Durant and Harden the chance to
spot up more and use their strengths.
Is that something Westbrook can do? Or can he
succeed as a shoot-first point guard?
That remains to be seen, but one thing to note with
Durant preferring the lead-by-example model: the Thunder will go as far as
Westbrook can help lead them.
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