On Friday, the Thunder played a Los Angeles Lakers team reliant on perimeter attackers. On Sunday, it was the New Orleans Pelicans twin towers approach, and it’ll be a similar frontcourt heavy burden on Tuesday against the Utah Jazz.

But as the Thunder moves along throughout the remainder of the regular season and into postseason play, it will be vital that it can be what in football is called, “an all-weather team”. Before the trade that brought in Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott, the Thunder certainly could play a multitude of styles, and be successful at them. But now with the new duo, the Thunder’s versatility and flexibility on both the defensive and offensive ends has expanded.

Thunder Talk: Coach Donovan

“I felt like that all along. With a guy like Taj now, he gives you another guy in the same realm as Jerami (Grant) where those guys can kind of switch pick and rolls, switch and guard perimeter players even though at times they’re playing in the frontcourt,” Head Coach Billy Donovan said.

So, as the team gels, it will be up to Donovan and his staff to figure out the best player combinations, lineups and rotations to maximize the group. So far in the short time the team has been together, Donovan has experimented with Gibson and Grant on the floor together, McDermott with Alex Abrines and the mix-and-match of big men together. It will be an evolving process, oftentimes dependent on matchups, but the Thunder coach has plenty of options.

Watch: Thunder Minute

“We tried to work on some of that today, just different combinations of guys on the floor in different positions or spots,” Donovan said. “Also, packages of things to run offensively where they’re all on the same page.”

- After missing the past two games with back spasms, Victor Oladipo returned to the practice floor today in a limited capacity. It remains to be seen whether he’ll suit up against the Jazz, but the team will have a better feel after shootaround tomorrow. He’s progressing and moving better, but did not go through much contact today.

US Cellular highlight. Enes Kanter is THERE. He's got 6 quick points late in Q1. A post shared by Oklahoma City Thunder (@okcthunder) on Feb 26, 2017 at 4:32pm PST

- Speaking of contact, Thunder center Enes Kanter is just getting used to receiving all of that physicality. After a game to shake off the rust against the Lakers, Kanter took on the heavy load of defending DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis against New Orleans. Despite still getting used to the metal plate in his arm and getting past the mental side of getting hit again, he bounced back nicely for 20 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

“I think (I did) pretty good. For four weeks I did almost no contact,” Kanter said. “I’m slowly starting to get used to it more and more. I felt way more comfortable last night.”

- While Oladipo has been out of the lineup, Alex Abrines has stepped in for the Thunder and gone 8-for-18 from three over the past two games, good for 44.4 percent. The fact that he’s even attempted 11 and then seven three-pointers is a good thing for the Thunder, especially given Russell Westbrook’s attacking style. He’s also wowed teammates with a few athletic moves, like an alley-oop slam off a backdoor cut, to prove he’s more than just a spot shooter.

“Sometimes he just takes off and everybody is like ‘where did that come from?!’” Kanter said.

Thunder Talk: Alex Abrines

- A particularly impressive aspect of Abrines’ game is his ability to hit shots from behind the three-point arc even when passes aren’t in rhythm. Of course in the heat of a competitive 5-on-5 game, every pass to a shooter isn’t going to be on the mark. To account for that. Abrines practices catching off of those types of passes every day with Thunder assistant coach Darko Rajakovic.

“I have Darko. He’s a really bad passer,” Abrines quipped.

- The unsung hero of Sunday night’s win over New Orleans was Andre Roberson. He was tasked with defending Pelicans point guard Jrue Holiday for most of the night, and helped hold him to 3-for-9 shooting for six points, in addition to five turnovers. On the other end of the floor, Roberson simply did his job – scoring nine points on 4-for-4 shooting to go with six rebounds.

“The job (Roberson) did on Holiday and the way he defended the entire game was totally unnoticed and had a huge impact on the game,” Donovan said. “He guarded a multitude of guys and was phenomenal defensively.”

“(Roberson) is being selective with his threes and he’s getting back to slashing and cutting to the basket,” Donovan added. “He’s playing to his strengths.”

Thunder Talk: Enes Kanter

- McDermott, along with Gibson, are still getting used to Western Conference basketball after coming from the rough-and-tumble Eastern Conference, where the pace is typically a bit slower. In his first game, McDermott was quick to catch and put the ball on the deck and against New Orleans, showed his ability to move off the ball with a quick catch-and-shoot off of a pin-down screen. Where the sharpshooter can be really effective moving forward, is in transition, running alongside Westbrook for open threes.