The Oklahoma City Thunder’s on-court chemistry was apparent this season. It helped them far surpass the expectations of most and end up the best team in clutch minutes.
While the team is confident they will continue to play with the identity they established this year, head coach Billy Donovan said it the return won’t be immediate.
“When the pandemic hit, I think we had a pretty good understanding of how we needed to play to be effective. What style was good for us, what identity was good for us,” he said Wednesday during a Zoom call with media.
“Now we’ve gotta work to try to recapture that … “Five months (of playing), now we just took four months off, so it’s going to take us some time to get that. This I think is our sixth day of practice, so it’s going to take us some time to do that.”
Much of that will be on the practice court. Some will be hanging out as a group; inside the bubble, there are only so many things to do. Players have already found group activities such as cornhole or fishing.
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Shooting guard Devon Hall said point guard Chris Paul called him over to go fishing with a small group.
“I was actually walking from breakfast back into our hotel room,” Hall said. “CP, Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) and Darius (Bazley) were about to go on a boating trip. And CP called me saying ‘Hey, you wanna go?'”
Additionally, player availability will affect chemistry. Wing Andre Roberson has been a full participant in practice. After being injured for two and a half years, he needs to not only be basketball-ready, but to fit into the team identity.
Guard Dennis Schroder plans to leave when his wife gives birth in early-to-mid-August, which will be another adjustment the lineup will have to make during the eight games before the playoffs.
But fortunately for the Thunder, every team is going through similar situations. And fortunately for the Thunder, they’ve already seen how their team looks and feels when it’s thriving.
This isn’t like a normal October training camp in that the players are meeting each other and learning the system.
“We know what it looks like, we know what it should feel like, and the more they’re out there playing, those things will start to come back and the timing will start to come back,” Donovan said.
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