Scouting the Oklahoma City Thunder under Billy Donovan

Sam Amick | USA TODAY Sports

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OKLAHOMA CITY — The early returns on an NBA season should always be viewed as such.

But when the Oklahoma City Thunder fired coach Scott Brooks in April and replaced him with longtime Florida coach Billy Donovan, they knew the before and after comparisons would be there from the very beginning. And six games in, even Donovan himself is giving mixed reviews.

The Thunder, 4-3 after Sunday's 124-103 win over the Phoenix Suns Sunday, are still very much a work in progress. Yet while Donovan has grand plans in place to take their offense to the next level with increased ball movement, and to get the defense back to the elite level it was for so many years before their injury-ravaged 2014-15 season, the numbers are equal parts pretty and pathetic.

The offense is humming along in terms of overall rating – second in the league at 107.4 points scored per 100 possessions (behind only Golden State’s 111.3). As Charles Barkley and others on the TNT panel noted after the Thunder’s loss to Chicago on Thursday night, however, questions remain about the enormous load being carried by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and whether they’ll learn to share it more with Oklahoma City’s supporting cast going forward.

On the defensive end, the Thunder – who were ranked 16th last season but fifth and fourth in the two seasons before – are 22nd (103.3 points allowed per 100 possessions). Contrary to popular belief, it’s not all Enes Kanter’s fault. While he is a terrible defender, the problems go well beyond him.

USA TODAY Sports spoke with an NBA advanced scout to get the early read on Donovan's coaching. The scout spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not approved to speak publicly about another team. Donovan, who had a rare practice to work on such matters on Saturday, shares his view as well.

The Scout's take

On what’s different defensively to this point…

“Honestly, nothing. The talk is different, but as far as the numbers go, it’s the same (as last season). They talk about getting stops, but they’re not getting stops. I think their opponent is averaging 108 points a game right now (108.7, 27th in the league). They’re talking about being a defensive team, but it’s not what the outcome is so far on the floor. Teams are able to score with them, or more than them in these last three games (losses to Houston, Toronto and Chicago). I haven’t seen much of a difference. You’ve got a couple of guys who are known as defenders on the team, and then everybody else is looking to score. I don’t see a difference.

“The guards are still pressing and fighting over screens and stuff, but as a team they’re not on the same page defensively. The bigs are too far back, sagging too far back I think. They’re not impacting the ball enough, because the other team’s guards are able to score and do what they want to do. It’s ‘You score, (they) score.’ And then whoever goes on the run in the fourth quarter wins the game. People talk about Kanter, and sure he’s a bad defensive player. But basketball is a team sport, and it takes everybody. I mean he’s not the one giving up all the points. It’s a joint effort.”

On Durant’s defense…

“I see the effort. That’s the one thing that I see. He’s trying to be a better defender, and he wants to be a better defender, because he’s one of those guys who takes things personally. And if you talk about a flaw in his game, he’s going to step it up. He’s definitely playing harder on the defensive end, and can be a good defender – a versatile defender – when he’s consistent.”

On Westbrook’s defense…

“He’s another guy who can do it when he wants to. His athleticism and his agility is unmatched. And when he hones in, (expletive), he can gets stops, he can get steals, he can lock down. But I think he exerts so much energy on the offensive end that he has to take off a little bit on the defensive end.

On whether Serge Ibaka is the same elite defender we’ve come to know…

“No. No, he’s not. Ibaka, he’s a good weakside defender. He can block shots from the weakside (three per game, fourth in the league so far). He’s not the defensive force that he came into the league as. He is a three-point shooter. And he has fallen in love with jump shots, and they’ve allowed it. I think that’s what his focus is – that’s what it appears is his focus now. He still runs the floor great in transition, but he’s taking more threes than I’ve seen him ever take and the defense has fallen off (in the interest of fairness, Ibaka – whose 205 combined three-point attempts last season far surpassed his previous career high of 60 - has only taken four so far in the six regular season games).

“As loaded as they are, and as talented as they are, you expect more. It’s early, so we’ll see what kind of impact Donovan really has maybe by January.”

On perceived changes to the offense…

“To me, the only difference is the play-calling. I’ll say this, there’s a lot more pick and rolls with Donovan, but it’s slowly gravitating toward the same stuff that it was. Isolation basketball, guys not passing to the open guy because they’ve got to get their shots, i.e. Russell and Kevin. They’re playing heavy minutes, and they’re getting pretty much all of the touches – which, they should get most of the touches. But still, if you’re going to be what you say you’re going to be as far as moving the ball around more and having a more open offense and less isolation, then you’ve got to show it. (They’re) not there yet, and that’s why everybody’s seeing these flaws now. They lost three games in a row because they played these teams that play defense.”

Donovan's take

“(The practice) was good for these guys, I think, defensively to go through pick and roll coverages again, and kind of rehearse some of those things. It was good to work on half court execution. We got them up and down playing a little bit. Any time there’s new things coming at them, it’s going to take them some time and understanding. But they’ve been really good in terms of coming and trying to work when we’ve asked them to work.

“We’ve been right there in all these games, and I think there’s an opportunity for us to grow. And I think that we’ve played good teams. ..We just need to keep getting better, keep getting better. It’s only been one week into the season right now, and we need to just try and keep improving.

On his changes on both ends being absorbed by his players…

“I think like anything else, whatever the covers are, the things that we’re trying to do defensively, when they’re new they just need to be rehearsed over and over and over. I think it’s like the same thing from an offensive perspective, just even our timing sometimes. There’s times where we review it, we review it, and I can see it getting better, and then all of a sudden we have four games in five nights and as we start to get back toward the back end of those two games, you start to see some of that slippage again and you don’t have practice to bring it back in. For me, on both ends of the floor, it’s going to be a constant working to get better to improve and do those things.

“Their willingness and open-mindedness to try to do what we’re asking them to do has been terrific, but I also understand that if a guy like Russell comes off pick and roll and he feels like he can attack the basket, he’s going to attack the basket. But (you) maybe say, ‘Russell, there’s guy open over here, guys open over here. Or Kevin, you catch it in the short corner, now you’re being trapped. Here’s what’s open on the backside.’ That’s the balance for me is keeping those guys really, really aggressive in who they are as individual offensive players, but also understanding that, ‘OK, how is the defense rotating? If you don’t have a great (shot), then who’s the guy who’s open that you can find.’ I think it’s the same thing defensively. We’ve got to get to a point where collectively we’re doing it together, we’re playing off each other well, and we’re having good possessions on offense, good possessions on defense.”