Scott Brooks has gotten creative for the Oklahoma City Thunder
Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Scott Brooks has gained a reputation as a simple offensive mind. He’s had the luck of working with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook who both have the ability to break down a defense with their individual skills.
I fall somewhere in the middle when it comes to Brooks’ offense. The entire point of running a scheme is to create advantageous situations, simply handing the ball to Durant or Westbrook accomplishes this.
Just because you have good players doesn’t limit your ability to be creative. San Antonio has a complex offensive scheme and they feature three future Hall of Famers in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
In the Thunder’s Thursday night loss to the Los Angeles Clippers there were two plays Brooks ran that caught my eye.
The first instance comes with just over two minutes left in the fourth quarter and OKC trailing by seven.
The first action of the set initially starts with 18 seconds left on the shot clock, a nice job by OKC getting into the play with some controlled urgency. With all four players lined up there’s multiple ways for this to develop.
Perry Jones ran across the court slightly below the three point line and heads to the corner. After the initial action the Thunder still haven’t reveled the true direction of the play. Adams and Roberson continue to face the ball handler Telfair plus Ibaka is slowly trotting without any decisiveness.
As Jones finally hits the corner Oklahoma City gets into the focus of the play design. Ibaka has slow played Blake Griffin enough that he’s cheating towards the middle of Adams, PJ3 and Telfair. Roberson and Adams turned away from Telfair and are in the process of setting themselves in position to set the screens.
Jackpot — two Thunder players were able to take out three from Los Angeles to create a wide open three pointer at the top of the key. Adams and Roberson converge to set a screen Griffin, who was caught completely off guard. Jamal Crawford and Spencer Hawes don’t have a clue what’s going on. Crawford’s chilling a couple feet away from Roberson and not in any sort of defensive position the entire time. Ibaka bangs the three from the top of the key to make it a four point game.
Here’s the full video (sorry about the free preview in the video I’m an amateur to making videos)
Next with a chance to take the lead down 89-88 with under 1:30 left Brooks goes to a similar look yet if you look closely it was a little bit different. It once again worked, but the execution in the counter set wasn’t as sound.
Instead of four across it was three across and Roberson started in the strong side corner. Whether this was be design or the play was called after he was already there. Adams and Ibaka are still in the same places while Jones and Roberson have switched.
Just like Jones did in the previous play, Roberson triggers the action running across the top of the key below the three point line.
As Roberson hits the corner the Thunder go right back to the look that resulted in the Ibaka’s open three pointer. Griffin is sloppily trailing Ibaka in an upright position and was partially spun around because he reacted enough to Roberson’s action putting him a little bit out of position. You can see Redick cheating to the inside to make sure he can get through what he thinks is going to be another double screen for Ibaka.
Hello Blake you there? Anyone home? Griffin somehow falls for the same exact thing. Redick covers up for him and Adams is in position for another pick. What Blake and Redick don’t pay attention to is PJ3 isn’t setting a double screen. At this point in the play you can already see the Thunder forward in motion towards the basket.
What in the hell Blake? With Redick covering for his man, Blake goes with option run into Adams instead of falling back onto Jones. This very well could have been a lack of communication, but it seems like Griffin needs to have the instincts to read what was going on here even if there should be more talking. The action wasn’t disguised nearly as well as the first set and LA’s star forward was a step slow throughout the possession.
Lucky for Blake three things happen that bail him out — the pass from Telfair is late and under thrown, Roberson doesn’t hold enough gravity for Crawford to latch onto in the corner and Crawford was alert enough to break up the less perfectly timed OKC play.
Here’s the play in full:
The Thunder will need more of this now that they’re without superior individual talent. This is a great opportunity for Scott Brooks to prove he isn’t only the product of great individual players, but he has some coaching chops also.
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