#86: Cooking with Daequan

Why are the Thunder such a frustrating team to play against?

Play Podcast #86: Cooking with Daequan
February 10, 2012

The Thunder are finding ways to win in spite of a grueling 5 game road trip. What players have most stepped up to fill the void left by Thabo Sefolosha’s injury? And why do the Thunder leave so many opposing teams grumbling? Brent and Blayne share their take.

Fan Insight
  • Mark (February 13, 2012 12:29 pm)

    Great podcast! Congrats to Scott Brooks, too! Thunder up!

    The reason that I am posting is that I was getting fairly annoyed with the way the national media often says things like ‘you can’t win a championship with the way Westbrook plays point guard, he’s got to get more assists!’ So I looked up the last 12 point guards to win the championship and here is what I see:

    yr pt. guard assists/gm
    00 Fisher 2.8
    01 Fisher 4.4
    02 Fisher 2.6
    03 Parker 5.3
    04 Billups 5.7
    05 Parker 6.1
    06 Williams 4.9
    07 Parker 5.5
    08 Rondo 5.1
    09 Fisher 2.5
    10 Fisher 3.2
    11 Kidd 8.2

    Westbrook is averaging 5.7 assists/gm which would be the third highest per game total of the last 12 years by an NBA champion point guard. He’s not a perfect player but he’s easily good enough to be the starting point guard on an NBA champion.

  • Blayne (February 16, 2012 11:03 pm)

    Totally agree. Man, those are interesting stats. Can’t help but be struck by the paltry production out of Fisher. And I’m with you on the national media. The Lost Ogle has a good post on Thunder disrespect where Clark Matthews points out, “Charles Barkley consistently downplays Oklahoma City’s legitimacy as a title contender by suggesting the team relies too much on only three scorers (Durant, Westbrook, and Harden score 65.6% of the teams points). Meanwhile, Barkley has no qualms about the Miami Heat’s chances despite their three stars accounting for 66.9% of their points.”

Share Your Insight