Oklahoma City’s Rebounding Problem Creates an Advantage, Not a Weakness: Due to the fact that the Thunder do not possess a traditional rebounder, the club has benefits on both ends of the court.
Rebounding has been the primary source of frustration for the Oklahoma City Thunder throughout this season; yet, it is not nearly as significant as it is being portrayed to be. It’s true that the squad has been outrebounded on occasion, but it seems as though the coaching staff and the organization have been preaching that the strategy is intentional without actually stating it.
- The game I played versus Phoenix on Sunday night was a wonderful illustration. In the past, Jusuf Nurkic has consistently been an outstanding rebounder.
- Even if he is not perfect as a player, he does not have any problems with rebounding. During the course of the season, he is averaging 10.7 rebounds per game. He stood seven feet tall and weighed close to three hundred pounds, and the ESPN broadcast was in awe of his height the entire night.
- On paper, it could appear as though he would take advantage of Oklahoma City’s shortcomings, but in reality, he is considerably smaller than the other players
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Oklahoma City’s Rebounding Problem Creates an Advantage, Not a Weakness
- In a sense, he did, but the Thunder still managed to find a way to use it to their advantage all the same. In addition to having a monster night in terms of his stats, Nurkic also set a new franchise record for the most rebounds in a single game with 31.
- Of them, 13 came from the offensive end of the court. Despite this, Oklahoma City continued with its regularly planned commercial activities.
- The young squad was able to cover the spread and win in Phoenix by defeating a Suns team that was headed to the playoffs by 118-110. Despite giving up a significant lead, they were able to maintain their hold on the game in the fourth quarter.
- If it had been that significant of a problem, the Thunder would have been forced to forfeit the game.
- However, as Mark Daigneault has been preaching throughout the entirety of the season, the Thunder will find a way to transform that weakness into a strength.
After the game, Daigneault provided the following statement to the reporters: “A lot of nights we lose the rebounding battle.” In addition, we are going to continue to accept the trade-offs so long as the benefits continue to be greater than the costs. Our team is not going to be flawless in every way.
At the end of the day, there is more to the game than simply grabbing the ball at the end of the game… If we attempt to find solutions to every problem, then we will be acting as if we are chasing after our own shadow.
The mentality that Oklahoma City adheres to as a team is well understood, and the team has enthusiastically embraced Daigneault’s playing style.
- The group is aware of its inadequacies, but they do not concentrate on them and continue its work.
- The Thunder choose to take advantage of Nurkic’s defensive abilities and stretch the floor wide in order to force him to cover all areas of the court when he is facing a dominant rebounder like Nurkic.
- He is beaten down the floor by the team as they run with the ball in transition. In order to protect his three-point shooting, Chet Holmgren will compel big men to move out to the perimeter of the court.
- Should Oklahoma City strive to achieve perfection in every aspect, they run the risk of losing sight of what it is that makes them a good team. Putting more of an emphasis on rebounding would be detrimental to both a fast-paced offense and a defense that is highly chaotic and causes turnovers.
- It is possible that Oklahoma City’s offense would be slowed down and their excellent ball movement would be hindered if they substituted in a typical big man to counter the rebounding of other teams. There is a great deal of work that goes into it.
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