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Four Big Questions For The Oklahoma City Thunder If NBA Season Resumes

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This article is more than 3 years old.

As the 2019-20 NBA season is still on pause, there is growing optimism that the season at some point could continue, whether the regular season is played out before post-season play or if the playoffs begin immediately. As COVID-19 continues to keep organized basketball from being played, the league is coming up with unique ways to potentially return to action.

Per a Thunder spokesman, the Oklahoma City Thunder practice facility opened this week for voluntary individual workouts. While this is a step in the right direction, it is still unclear when or if the season will be played out.

Regardless of the scenario if the season were to resume, there are quite a few big questions for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

1. Can the Thunder continue the hot streak they were on and not lose momentum?

After a slow start to the 2019-20 season, Oklahoma City has been on fire. Since Thanksgiving, they have the league’s third best win percentage with a record of 34-13. Prior to that streak, they started off the season at a poor 6-11.

They also entered the NBA hiatus as one of the NBA’s best road teams. The Thunder started the season losing their first six games on the road. Since then, they have won 20 of their last 25 games outside of Chesapeake Energy Arena. Their success over this span is good for second best road record in the entire NBA behind only the Los Angeles Lakers.

As one of the best teams in the league for a good portion of the season and players trending in the right direction individually, the pause in NBA action might end up hurting Oklahoma City. Their chemistry was at an all time high and they were clicking on all cylinders.

If the 2019-20 NBA season is indeed finished out, will the Thunder come out rusty and play like they did at the start of the season, or will they find a way to continue their momentum into the playoffs?

2. Is Oklahoma City’s style of play sustainable?

The Oklahoma City Thunder have won over 15 games when trailing entering the fourth quarter this season. They have also come back to win games after being down 26, 24, 18, 17 (twice), 15, 14, and 12 points, among other deficits. 

Thus far in the 2019-20 season, Chris Paul leads the NBA in clutch points with 146 and field goals made with 46. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has also contributed 87 clutch points (13th), along with Danilo Gallinari scoring 83 (T-17th) and Schroder contributing 72 (28th) points in the clutch. When taking a look at the top five NBA players in box plus/minus in the clutch, they are all members of the Thunder.

Oklahoma City leads the NBA in clutch points (449), field goals made (139), field goal percentage (52.1%), steals (35), plus/minus (+116), and total wins in the clutch (29). This just goes to show how great of a team they are in crunch time.

They are also the league-leaders in overall mid-range scoring, at the top of the league in field goal percentage. In the modern NBA, relying on mid-range shots to win games has not been proven to be successful to this point.

The fact that Oklahoma City relies on comeback wins, being historically great in the clutch, and being efficient in the mid-range is somewhat worrisome. It is extremely difficult to have long-term, sustainable success when these types of things are relied on. Can they continue to win games and make a playoff run with this style of play?

3. Can the Thunder avoid injuries?

While it is becoming more likely that if the season resumes, it may be a situation where we head straight into the playoffs. This means the Thunder may not have many games ahead of them to need to worry about injuries occurring. Either way, Oklahoma City has had their fair share of injuries this season. Steven Adams, Hamidou Diallo, and Darius Bazley have all missed quite a bit of time due to injury.

They also heavily rely on veterans Chris Paul and Danilo Gallinari who have a well documented injury history over the course of their careers. In fact, most recently for Paul was him going down in the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors in 2018.

If the Oklahoma City Thunder can come back fully healthy and remain that way, they will be a tough team to beat in the playoffs. But can they stay healthy?

4. Is Andre Roberson healthy and able to contribute?

Andre Roberson, known for being one of the elite wing defenders in the league, suffered a gruesome leg injury in a game on January 27, 2018 against the Detroit Pistons. Now, nearly 850 days later, he still has not made his way back on the court to play in NBA action. His rehab journey has been something Thunder fans and others around the league have been puzzled about for over two years now as he wasn't originally expected to be sidelined this long.

During the NBA hiatus, Roberson went on the Catching Up With The Family show, hosted by former University of Colorado director of player development Nate Tomlinson. Roberson was optimistic that his return to action could be very soon.

“I’m kinda past the rehab stage. I’m almost to the point where I should be playing, honestly. But I’m still taking it a day at a time until I get back into our medical staff’s hands and get re-evaluated. I’m just staying patient through it all and knowing that the light is right there at the end of the tunnel. … It’s definitely been a long journey and it’s coming to an end.”

Recovering from a ruptured patella tendon is not easy. Considering the fact that lateral quickness was a huge part of Roberson’s elite defensive ability, there is a chance that he may not be the defender he once was. Additionally, undrafted rookie Lu Dort has been a diamond in the rough for the Thunder this season and has done excellent guarding the opposing teams’ best offensive guard. This means Roberson’s value on defense if he cannot perform at 100 percent may be lower.

With how well the team was playing before the season came to a halt, would it even be worth working Roberson into the rotation? Head coach Billy Donovan had found a lot of success with the lineups he rolled out all season and there is plenty of depth at the shooting guard position that Roberson has played for the majority of his career.

Regardless, with his length and ability to play the small forward position, he would be a great addition to the team regardless of if he can defend at the level he was at prior to the injury. Small forward is a position Oklahoma City has failed to get much production out of to this point and is their least deep position.

Overall, the Oklahoma City Thunder will be a tough matchup in the playoffs and are a team few thought would be in this position at the start of the season. If they are able to play the way they were all season long before the league shut down and avoid injuries, they have a great shot of at least making it out of the first round. This would be something they have not accomplished since Kevin Durant left the team in 2016.

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