As the Thunder make their final preparations between restarting their 2019-20 season against the Utah Jazz on Saturday, head coach Billy Donovan was asked bluntly about Andre Roberson and his status in the team’s rotation.
Consistent with the coach’s comments on Thursday, Donovan wouldn’t commit to giving any player anything in the realm of an endorsement and, at the very least, left open the possibility that finding minutes for Roberson could be something that is determined by the game and the specific circumstances.
“Andre’s done a really good job and we’ve gotta utilize him,” Donovan told reporters on Friday.
“I think the three scrimmages, we played a whole entire roster — that’s not gonna be feasible going into tomorrow’s game, and we’ll work out the rotations.”
As of Friday, Donovan declared his entire roster to be healthy, which essentially means that Roberson will be battling the likes of Terrance Ferguson, Hamidou Diallo, Luguentz Dort, Dennis Schroder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chris Paul for minutes in the backcourt.
Having depth is a good thing in the NBA until you find that you have more players who need minutes than rotation minutes available.
“I think what’s made our team a good team this year, is that when we have had guys down and out, somebody else just stepped in and has really filled a role, and we’re gonna need everybody to stay engaged,” Donovan said.
“We’re not gonna be able to play every player tomorrow night but that doesn’t mean that if someone’s not playing tomorrow night they couldn’t possibly be playing later here in August.”
In other words: someone is going to get squeezed out. One thing that does bode positively for his chances of getting some increased run is that Donovan has made it clear that Roberson’s length allows him to play multiple positions on the court, and the coach has made it clear that the former starting shooting guard could see minutes at power forward.
“I think keeping everybody engaged is really important and Andre falls into that category,” he said. “Like I said before, I’ve got a lot of confidence and belief in him, I know he can do a lot of different things, he’s played in a lot of meaningful games throughout his career. He’s extremely bright and intelligent as a player, he’s got a wealth of experience and however we use him — whether it’s at a perimeter spot or a power forward spot — I feel comfortable doing that.”
Thanks to his somewhat triumphant return, Roberson has emerged as one of the major storylines for the Thunder as they begin their schedule of seeding games on Saturday.
It’s been four months in the making, but they’ll finally get a crack at the Utah Jazz.