Part of the Oklahoma City Thunder rotation is very clear, but head coach Billy Donovan has a challenge of putting together other units over these eight upcoming games.
He needs to get players as much time on the court as possible, not just because they are playing well, but just in case a player gets sick in the bubble or misses a coronavirus test like Nerlens Noel did before the third scrimmage.
“We have a full complement of players. And we need all of them to be able to help and contribute. Because you just don’t know what this whole situation’s going to look like a week or two from now,” Donovan said.
“Certainly we all hope everybody stays safe and healthy inside the bubble, but you never know what’s going to happen.”
Donovan needs to find time for at least 10 players over these next eight games as they formulate playoff rotations.
“It’s premature to sit there and say, last week or now, this is our rotation, this is what we’re going to do,” he said after the final scrimmage Tuesday.
Hamidou Diallo looks improved and may have earned time moving forward. His minutes wildly fluctuated during the season; over the final 10 games before the hiatus, he had three games of 10 minutes or less, three with more than 17 minutes and four times did not play.
He played well over the last two scrimmage games, scoring nine points with six rebounds and getting to the free throw line three times against the Philadelphia 76ers and scoring 16 points with five rebounds against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Darius Bazley will also have to be re-inserted into the rotation after missing the final 11 games of the season with a knee injury.
The return of Andre Roberson also complicates things – not that anyone is complaining about it. While he is still trying to improve his conditioning, he looked good in the scrimmages, including getting a block from behind and making a couple big 3-pointers.
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Will Roberson move back to the starting lineup? Can he play more than 20 minutes per game? Will Donovan use him at the 2 through 5?
That’s not even including Terrance Ferguson, whose 23.4 minutes per game was sixth-most on the team, Mike Muscala, who made some big 3s during the scrimmages, or Abdel Nader, who played quite a bit the final month of the season.
Donovan said he plans to get everyone playing time over these next eight games.
“We’ve gotta keep these guys engaged,” Donovan said. “All these guys at different points in time have helped our team and they’ve stepped up … We need to make sure they’re in a position where if something does happen we’re all in the mindset that we’ve got a job and a role to play in supporting and helping the team.”
As far as challenges go, having too many solid players certainly isn’t a bad one.
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