By Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City Thunder held their 11th annual Blue-White scrimmage Sunday afternoon inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Thunder began training camp this past Tuesday. This afternoon was the first pubic showing before Wednesday’s first preseason game. The Thunder have run a lot of five-on-five through the first week of practice but today head coach Billy Donovan got to showcase and play with several lineups.
Russell Westbrook and Andre Roberson obviously didn’t play as they continue to rehab from surgery. Alex Abrines and Abdel Nader both missed today’s scrimmage as well. Terrance Ferguson played but exited the game after he was tangled up and then fell on. He could have come back and kept playing but since it was a scrimmage they decided to hold him out.
You can only learn so much from an intersquad scrimmage, but here are today’s five observations.
The New and Improved Patrick Patterson
Patterson came into camp in really good shape. He looks noticeably different. He changed his diet and leaned up. He has really prepared for this season and I feel like he is in line to start at the power forward spot. He fits really well with the starters. Today, he played perfectly alongside Paul George and Dennis Schroder. He shot the ball incredibly well, too. He dropped 20 points on an impressive 7-8 shooting including 5-6 from three. He really stole the show this afternoon and made a great argument for why he should be starting.
Our First Look at Dennis Schroder
Schroder is a really skilled player. The Thunder haven’t had a player like Dennis coming off their bench since Reggie Jackson. Honestly, Dennis is better than Jackson. He is a really skilled passer. He showed that off today. He had great passes in the pick-and-roll as well as throwing backdoor passes on back cuts. He ran the offense smoothly and it seemed like he, Steven Adams and Paul George have been playing together for awhile. Their chemistry was noticeable. While Dennis and Russell Westbrook do a lot of the same things, they do it in different ways. Dennis can get to the rim but he can score in a variety of ways. He displayed a scoop shot at the rim, a floater and a pull up jumper that we’ve seen Westbrook master over his career. Schroder also nailed his only two three point attempts. Schroeder finished with 22 points on 9-13 shooting, 12 assists and eight rebounds. It was a really impressive showing from Schroder.
Paul George Shined
It should come to no surprise that PG was doing PG things. He got hot early from three in the first half. He did a nice job getting others involved as he dished out six assists. He had surgery on his knee this offseason as well as his elbow. Both seemed to have healed and he had no ill effects from them. He looked like his old self, hitting shots and deflecting passes. He finished with a team high 23 points on 7-14 shooting including 3-6 from three. He was the best player on the floor by far.
Rotation Notes
Billy started with Schroder, Terrance Ferguson, PG, Patterson and Steven Adams to begin. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Jerami Grant both played with the blue but switched to the White in the second half. The White squad was the real team. In the second half, OKC started with Dennis, TLC, PG, Pat and Adams. We did see Schroder and Raymond Felton play together as well as Adams and Nerlens Noel at the same time. Billy wanted to see what that looked like. In the second half, Grant came in for Patterson and Noel came in for Adams which seemed like more of the likely rotation Donovan is thinking about.
Other Standouts
Two-way player Deonte Burton made some plays today. He was guarding Paul George. PG had his way at times with him, but Burton managed to score some on PG too. He held his own and even switched from the Blue over to the White in the second half and played some with the big club. Overall, Burton scored 16 points. Nerlens Noel showed some nice play. He has a baseline jumper he showed off and he runs the floor really well. TLC scored 10 points while with the starters in the second half. Hamidou Diallo only scored two points, but he shows raw ability. He could carve out a role for himself by seasons end.
Again, all of this is in a scrimmage against your own team. So that all of this with that in mind. But there are a few things we can takeaway from today. But the preseason portion of the season will begin on OKC on Wednesday as the Thunder host the Detroit Pistons. Tip is set for 7 p.m. inside the Peake.
