There is no sugarcoating the fact that the Oklahoma City Thunder didn’t not live up to expectations this season.
After blockbuster moves to acquire Paul George and Carmelo Anthony this summer, many thought they would be the biggest threat to the Warriors throne in the western conference and maybe the NBA.
Fast forward 7 months and they are watching the 2nd round of the NBA Playoffs from home as they were defeated 4-2 in the 1st round by the Utah Jazz.
Because of this, many fans are calling for the firing of Head Coach Billy Donovan after three seasons. In fact, it was somewhat assumed by analysts and the best online sportsbooks USA that he would be fired, but that will not be the case apparently…
Just to be clear, Sam Presti is saying Billy Donovan will be back.
— Brett Dawson (@BDawsonWrites) May 2, 2018
If you didn't pick it up from Sam Presti's comments, Billy Donovan is returning next season as Thunder coach.
— Erik Horne (@ErikkHorne) May 2, 2018
The Thunder are far from the NBA’s most organized and schematically impressive team, they seem to just roll the ball out an go on many a possession, but that might be more of the trade off of having Russell Westbrook as your premier star and not completely a poor reflection of Donovan’s coaching ability.
The Thunder need to change their style of play and acquire more depth if they want to take a step forward in a competitive western conference, and step one may be taking the ball out of Westbrooks hands on a possession and enact a more movement based offense.
Donovan hasn’t been the guy to do that yet.