When the Thunder congregated the likes of Russel Westbrook with the once-upon-a-time Scoring Champion Carmelo Anthony and 4 time All-Star Paul George, we all likely anticipated them to flourish into a offensive juggernaut, powered by Russel Westbrook’s explosive motor, Carmelo Anthony’s clean jump-shooting, and Paul George’s scrappy play making. However, the last thing I expected was them to develop into a team predicated on a grueling defense and a pseudo second coming of some sort of ’89 – ’90 Pistons and Grit and Grind love child. The Thunder have quite a few offensive problems — something I’m certain Thunder fans don’t need to be reminded of — however, defensively is where they’ve been able to find a source of stability amidst all the tumultuous disarray of this season.

The Thunder’s most recent 100 – 95 slug fest against the Indiana Pacers has been something of a microcosm for their season thus far. The trio of Westbrook, Anthony, and George shot a combined 10/45 (22%), yet still managed to just barely eke out a win on their stingy and pestering defense. The Thunder mucked up the game, forcing Oladipo into 9/25 (36%), whilst finding a steadying hand in Steven Adams’ 23 points & 13 rebounds, as has been a recurring theme this season. That’s been how the Thunder have won a lot of games this season — sub-100 point melees. Quite honestly, it’s reminiscent of early 2000s Basketball; hard nosed defense, and high volume with low efficiency scoring. That’s the most prominent reason why I am not ready to write the Thunder off. If they do manage to exorcise their demons offensively, then they can pair it along with the 2nd best defensive rating in the league.

It’s not unreasonable to postulate the idea that the Thunder might have 3 All-Defense candidates. Paul George has been a clear cut Defensive Player of the Year candidate by being an absolute pest on defense this year, badgering wings and ball handlers alike, whilst also having an uncanny knack for finding himself in the passing lanes at the right time (averaging a career high 2.4 Steals per Game!). Meanwhile, Steven Adams has contested his fair share of shots at the rim whilst being able to handle himself when switched out onto guards on the three point line. And of course, Andre Roberson’s prowess on that end of the floor is no secret.

However, Roberson is a double edged sword. He may be one of the main contributors to OKC’s stifling defensive culture, however he’s been a cinder block tethered to the leg of a flailing Thunder offense that is desperately trying to drag him along. Due to Roberson’s astoundingly bad 21.9% 3-point percentage, opposing defenses ignore him for entire possessions at a time. The Thunder have tried to mitigate this by having Roberson perform backdoor baseline cuts to the basket when opposing defenders seem to forget about him completely, like in this play here, for an easy 2 points. That’s why Roberson is posting an incredibly efficient 53.5% field goal percentage, despite his ugly 3 point percentage — he’s actually been able to convert on quite a few cuts to the basket this season due to the fact that opposing defenses are so used to sagging off of him that they actually get so lackadaisical in guarding him that they forget to watch where he moves.

However, despite Billy Donovan’s best efforts to alleviate Roberson’s offensive disadvantages, he’s too hard of a pill to swallow for him to be sustainable in a playoff series. Consider him the Tony Allen of the Thunder’s metaphorical reiteration of those late 2000s Memphis Grizzlies “Grit n Grind” teams; a valuable asset defensively, but a crippling one offensively. His poor shooting allows defenders to clog the lanes against Russ’ drives, double team earlier in the shot clock on Carmelo’s (albeit ill advised) isolation plays, and just generally make things difficult in what is an already fragile balance between OKC’s big 3.

Already, the Thunder have found preliminary success by injecting some shooting into the line-up. With Roberson out for injury against the Pacers, Alex Abrines absorbed most of his minutes and showed promise in his compatibility with the starting line-up, supplementing the Big 3 with 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from 3 point land. Abrines’ shooting, in only his second season, is not where the Thunder need it to be, at just above 38% from outside the arc, however he shows the chops to be a knock down shooter in the coming years. The line-up of Jerian Grant – Abrines – Westbrook – George – Adams has shown great promise, albeit in limited minutes, posting a 25.0 Net Rating per NBA.com. Time will tell if Roberson’s defensive dexterity or Abrines’ perfunctory spot up shooting is more valuable to the Thunder.

However, on the obverse side of the Thunder’s defensive trio, Steven Adams has been satisfactory offensively. One might even go as far to argue that Steven Adams has been the Thunder’s lone bright spot on that end of the floor — 14 points per game on 64% field goal percentage (Wow!) and just under 5 offensive rebounds per game. Part of that has been the evolution of the Westbrook – Adams pick and roll. The play has always been a strong play to run, however this season it has reached another level of reliability. In plays where Steven Adams is the roll man, the Thunder are converting on just over 63% of those possessions. A prime example is this play here, from last night against the Pacers, in which Russel Westbrook driving to the hole demands so much attention from the two defenders defending the Pick and Roll that Adams is able to slip to the hole for an easy lob.

Another example of why the Adams and Westbrook pick and roll is so effective happened in the very same Pacers game just a few possessions later. Even when Westbrook can’t shake his defender, or can’t find Adams through the double team on the roll, Adams is in perfect position for a put-back or an easy offensive rebound. So even when Westbrook’s tendency to hoist up an ill-advised shot over a double team shines through, there are no defenders in the hole to stop Adams from gobbling up those offensive rebounds. This is the main reason why Adams has been seemingly destroying teams on the offensive glass when you look at the box scores. Billy Donovan seems to have realized Adams’ value offensively in their most recent game, which saw the Thunder actually run plays for him on quite a few separate occasions (Adams went out for 23 points & 13 rebounds on 11-16 shooting).

But while Adams has been solid offensively, the rest of the Thunder have not. Their inefficiency cannot be overstated, with every single member of the Big 3 having career low shooting splits. Right now, the only thing keeping the Thunder just under .500 is their rock solid defense. This is either cause for alarm or cause for hope, depending on the lens that you view it through. On one hand, if the Thunder somehow figure it out on offense, than they would be potentially the scariest team in the league — with an explosive offense and a staunchly entrenched 2nd best defense, they would be quite the foe to run into in the first round of the playoffs. On the other hand, what if defense is the only thing they can hang their hat on? I mean, logistically, how the hell are they going to sort this out?

Either way, Billy Donovan has his work cut out for him. But you know what they say, defense wins championships … but in this case, probably not.