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CoJo would put in work on that scrub. So would Mills.
Starting Adams or Collison would only with their spacing... On the other hand starting Jackson could be scary...
Who would the Spurs counter with?
Beli? The Thunder would get the worst defender of the Spurs on the court, no...
Manu? No way you start over playing the tosb this far from the finish line, plus starting Manu has been the kiss of death the last few years...
Boris? Meh not sure I like it, he could somewhat defend Sefo I guess and punish Durant in the post on offense but he could also get in foul trouble extremely quickly this way...
I guess it'd be Joseph or Mills depending on if you want the bench intact or not...
I'm like Hemisfair, I'm scared that Pop could end up outsmarting himself while Brook accidentally discovers a very potent lineup...
CoJo would put in work on that scrub. So would Mills.
Parker's defense was great against Lillard..if he's healthy, I'd put him against Jackson and hide Diaw or Ginobili on Sefolosha..
Unfortunately, Pop will probably have Manu guarding him, like he did against Monta Ellis, which killed the Spurs..
Would like to see how Mills plays, Jackson has abused him however maybe Mills' offense could cancel him out. Might as well try Cojo as well.
Just sprinkle some rice on the court and put a bucket of khat next to the scorers table. Dude won't even know there's a game happening.
At least try Splitter on Sef. I can't imagine Thabo getting many looks at all if he has to share the court with the Thunders three best offensive players at once.
I fully expect them to attempt to stay conventional, with Collison starting (Adams has no chance; they're not playing two true C's, with zero range, together), though it'll probably only last for roughly the first six minutes of each half, at which point Jackson will probably come in. If they opt for a change to the starting lineup at some point, they'll probably go to Butler, to replace Collison.
If/when they go to that, look for the Spurs to counter by starting Diaw and having him defend Butler. That way, Green can still defend Westbrook and Parker can hide/rest on Sefolosha . . . speaking of which, in addition to the obvious reasons, the Spurs need Parker to at least approximate his play from game 7 through game 3, so that they feel it's necessary to have Sefolosha serve as the primary defender on him. The more they can get away with Westbrook, the more they can play Jackson, Butler and Fisher and as minimal as the last two are, they're better spot up threats than Sefolosha.
Brooks is forced to play small like he did to close some games against Memphis with Durant at PF and Ibaka at C.
I don't think he'll start with Collison at PF and Perkins at C, so he could use Westbrook, Jackson, Sefolosha, Durant, and a bigman for most of the game.
If Brooks starts Jackson at SG and Durant at PF...Pop is force to go small, too. No more Splitter. Maybe Diaw on KD.
People think Pop could put Leonard at PF but I guess Parker-Green-Leonard-Diaw-Duncan is the starting lineup he'll choose.
I hope Pop finds another option, because in that line-up we'll miss Tiago rim protector and his rebounds, plus KD is a different player than Lebron. Yeah...physical play against Durant could make an impact but he's more mobible, so better shooter, it doesn't seem a good matchup for Boris.
The problem is all the more acute when Pop sits Danny and Kawhi and Parker/Mills-Ginobili/Beli are our backcourt to contain Westbrook and Jackson.
Just hope Pop'll realize he should play Green and Leonard 44 minutes every game of this series...
I expect Scotty to try all sorts of stuff if things aren't going his way... while going small is a fairly obvious move due to personnel, how long he sticks with it largely depends on how successful it is. The Spurs have a fairly successful brand of small ball to match up, IMO.
No, methkc will start Adams/collision, then bait the spurs into small ball when Adams/collision get in foul trouble
Don't think so. He'll be their top scorer off the bench though. He kills the Spurs..
I don't think he starts Reggie. It would cause too much disruption to their second unit.
Honestly, Ibaka is the 2nd worst player for OKC to lose as he's been healthy for the last 2-3 seasons. Brooks already struggles with lineups and adjustments, now he has to deal with losing one of their mainstays right before their toughest opponent.
I'm assuming he'll go with Collison and PJ3 will probably see some minutes as well in the series.
Diaw in place of Splitter is the natural counter if the Thunder decide to start small, but I don't think they will.
They can also move Durant to the 4 and play Caron Butler at the 3.
Brooks may try not to mess with his front court rotation and use butler in ibaka's starting spot. butler is 6'8" and may be able to muscle with Splitter in spurts.
Bring it on. You can hide Parker on Butler.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/t...ng-new-lineup/
The Thunder May Have Just Discovered an Amazing New Lineup
10:48 AMMay 16 By Ian Levy
In the third quarter of Oklahoma City’s Thursday night win over Los Angeles, Thunder coach Scott Brooks, long maligned for doing the same old thing, discovered something new: a lineup of Nick Collison, Steven Adams, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Reggie Jackson could bend the court to its will.
The group had rarely played together before — just six minutes during the regular season and just seven minutes in the playoffs. But that didn’t seem to be a problem. Over the next 15 minutes of play Thursday night, they scored 42 points and allowed just 24 points on 41 percent shooting, turning a 7-point deficit into an 11-point lead. Extrapolated to a 100-possession pace, the lineup’s point differential was +64.3.
Small sample size, of course, but whoa, what a sample. The Thunder’s most-played lineup in the regular season (with Jackson in place of an injured Westbrook) had a per-100-possession point differential of +5.8. If we look at just the Thunder’s most frequently used front-court pairing, Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka, we find a per-100-possession point differential of just +2.0.
Something about the fresh lineup on Thursday spaced the floor for Durant to do his best work of the night, scoring 13 points on just six shots. Neither Collison nor Adams is a particularly dangerous offensive player, but they are both are good offensive rebounders. When they were on the floor together for 494 minutes in the regular season, the Thunder rebounded 33.4 percent of their own misses, compared to 26.5 across the whole season. Collison and Adams can also set screens and roll hard to the basket, allowing the Thunder to spread the defense even without a great perimeter-shooting big guy on the floor.
Durant has played just a small percentage of his minutes with a Collison-Adams front-court pairing this season, but he’s been remarkably effective when he does, netting his highest true shooting percentage.
Front Court Combinations Playing With Durant
It’s hard to suss out whether playing this group together was a shrewd and intentional move by Brooks, or whether he stumbled upon the lineup after Ibaka’s calf injury. But it’s an important development as the Thunder get ready for the San Antonio Spurs. Going into Thursday night’s game, seven of the Thunder’s 10 most-used lineups in the playoffs had a positive point differential. With the emphatic arrival of this group, it’s now eight of 10.
Lineups matter especially for the Thunder, a team whose starting five tend to start slowly. That group finished the series with a negative first-quarter point differential and was outscored to begin four of the six games in the series. Inserting Collison and Adams into the starting lineup is probably not the solution to those slow starts, but the Spurs are waiting with a deep and versatile matchup nightmare. Every opportunity Brooks has to experiment with a seldom-used but potentially explosive lineup gives him more options to handle the varied scenarios the Spurs will throw at the Thunder.
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