After the Oklahoma City Thunder completed Summer League in July, general manager Sam Presti was ecstatic.
The team was installing a new offensive system and over the week in Orlando, Florida, the Thunder team constructed of first- and second-year players, plus some D-League castoffs, had gone from scoring 63 points in its opener to 103 in its final game.
It was Presti's first look at how the new system would look, even if it was Semaj Christon and Mario Little playing the parts of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. The idea was to take the Thunder's already very good offense to a new stratosphere. To unlock the potential of the roster, and go from effectively acceptable to an efficiency juggernaut.
The Thunder had finished second in the league in offensive efficiency two of the past three seasons, but did that largely on the back of brilliant scoring from brilliant scorers. The Thunder struggled in the postseason generating consistent offense, often bogging down to stagnated isolations that required either Durant or Westbrook to hit a great shot.
The Thunder had lost out to the Spurs machine in six games in the Western Conference finals, watching them carve up OKC's stingy defense with passes that pinged all over the floor, leading to consistently clean looks. In Game 6, the Thunder's second unit produced only five points to the Spurs' 51, in part because of a lack of depth, but also because of a lack of systematic structure that involved more than two players at a time. Presti and the front office saw it as a wake-up call to grow something already good to something better, to something more refined.
The Thunder ranked dead last in assists in 2011-12 -- the season they went to the Finals -- and had steadily improved to 13th in 2013-14 as Durant especially evolved into more of a playmaker. But they were still only scratching the surface of what they could be. Durant and Westbrook often had to work too hard for good looks while three other players stood and watched. It wasn't so much in just increasing raw total passes numbers -- something the Thunder consistently ranked in the bottom third of the league in, per SportVU tracking -- but in maximizing an offense that already had a strong foundation simply because of the absurd talent.
"There's been a lot of film sessions over the summer with our staff where we're seeing those type of trends. Like, 'OK, we could've made the extra pass there,'" Scott Brooks said in training camp in October. "We've been focusing on the details of setting up, setting screens, good spacing and making that extra pass. And we've put in a few extra wrinkles that entail some more movement."
This new offense's focus was on more passing, more spacing, more cutting, more post-ups for emerging big men and an emphasis on weakside actions. To put it simply: The Thunder wanted to implement a lot of Spurs-y elements, while still holding on to what they did best -- score with ridiculous athleticism and explosive attack-minded players.
"A lot of times movement is not good if it's not with a purpose and sometimes you have to look at those stats and factor in what you want to get accomplished," Brooks said. "We have attack players and we want to put defenses in a tough position to guard our attack players. We don't want our attack players to play conservatively. If we had a different group, maybe we would play a little differently."
The plan carried into training camp, with Brooks and his staff installing the reconstituted offense with the Thunder's actual good players. Then Durant had surgery on his foot a few days before the season started. Then Westbrook broke his hand two games in. The Thunder's new offense was suddenly simplified again, with Brooks forced to get pragmatic just to survive games in November.
But even when Durant returned in December, the Thunder didn't really change. It was back to the basics, as they ditched the idea to evolve on the fly with a better mind to just crawl out of the hole they were in. Many of the new elements were designed with Durant in mind, and the fact he played only 27 games obviously hindered it taking flight. Still, even when Durant was ruled out for the season and the team was turned over to Westbrook and a newly deepened roster built at the trade deadline, the Thunder were a straightforward team offensively: High screen-and-roll, side screen-and-roll, lots of Horns, and lots of Westbrook just doing stuff.
The Thunder's 2014-15 season was supposed to be about growth and offensive evolution. Instead it became about nightly survival at all costs, illustrated best by Westbrook's 54-points-on-43-shots performance on April 12 against the Pacers. A breathtaking, inspiring effort from Westbrook, but also one in which any notion of better sharing and passing was bulldozed by one player's jarring domination of the ball. He took more than half his team's 95 shots that night, and 27 more than his next closest teammate.
Not only had the the Thunder failed to evolve, but there were signs they might actually be regressing.
Scott Brooks is no longer the Thunder's coach. It's not because the offensive renovation didn't take, but it's certainly part of it. There were factors outside his control, such as Durant missing 55 games, but the general principles flew out the window in favor of pragmatism. Presti saw a team stagnating and in desperate need of stimulation, otherwise a remarkable roster was in danger of stalling. And in today's NBA, it's evolve or die.
The Thunder announced Brooks' replacement to be Billy Donovan, who now is tasked with picking up the baton from his predecessor to carry the franchise over the line. This isn't supposed to be a complete change in philosophy or direction. Presti is calling it a "transition," saying "change and transition are the engine for progress and evolution."
Brooks, for all his good coaching qualities, was more of a traditional leader. He resisted analytical assistance, favoring instinct over data. Donovan aligns more closely with the Thunder's data-driven front office. Brooks was often stubborn with lineups, leaning on veteran intangibles and continuity, while Donovan is a tactical adjuster, ready to flex when the moment calls for it.
The 49-year-old Donovan is one of the most decorated, accomplished coaches in the world, but his next challenge is a hefty one. He's known as a tireless worker, an innovator and an ace adapter. His Florida teams haven't been successful only one way, they have adjusted to the strength of each roster, winning consecutive national titles with two dominant big men, to winning with Chandler Parsons as a stretch 4, to winning 30 straight games two seasons ago with four non-NBA seniors. Donovan is a learner, relentlessly driven to stay ahead of trends.
Donovan won't bring a new system to the Thunder. He has been running NBA offense for more than a decade in Gainesville with plenty of spread pick-and-roll and pace-and-space concepts. It's not that he's going to remake the Thunder. He's tasked with getting a star-laden roster to buy in. He needs to connect them, to re-engineer the on-floor culture to rely more on trust than individuality.
That starts with Westbrook, who for all his jaw-dropping brilliance, can suffocate the Thunder's offense. He finished the season with an eye-popping usage rate of 37.3, and averaged 56.1 passes per game, fewer than Blake Griffin and Joakim Noah. The Thunder ranked 29th in 2-point assist percentage last season, and 11.4 percent of their field goal attempts came after seven or more dribbles, ranking them fourth in the league. The Thunder do a good job of saying the right words, of preaching movement, trust, spacing, balance. But they have never actually done it, at least with any consistency.
How do you get superstars to buy that concept? They want the ball because they're good when they have the ball. How do you convince them having it less is a good thing? According to sources close to the team, Brooks struggled with player accountability, which possibly related to best laid plans getting chucked out the window.
Donovan is a world-class communicator, but he also has never coached a Kevin Durant or, more importantly, a Russell Westbrook. Like last summer, offensive reform can look good on paper and in principle, but in actual application has tangible roadblocks. Namely, stars don't like to play that way. But Presti has a vision for the Thunder, and that's Billy Donovan's challenge ahead.