Oklahoma City’s Transition Offense Is Killing Them
Russell Westbrook is a freight train in the open court, but turning this asset into an advantage is key to the Thunder gaining leverage in the series.
When playing against the Golden State Warriors, the worst thing you can do is let Curry, Durant, Green, and Thompson get out on the fast break. Long rebounds, turnovers, or simply poor transition defense get’s the Warrior machine out and moving. On this play, the transition offense is triggered by Green’s help defense that all but ends Damian Lillard’s life with a block.
Before Curry has even secured the rebound the surrounding pieces are preparing to flank him on the break. The Warriors have successfully harnessed the skill of filling all of the fast break lanes without impeding each other’s progress. Following that same Green block, it is the transition plays like this perfectly discombobulated three-man weave that earned the Warriors 1.21 points per possession during the regular season.
This season, Golden State led the league in total transition offense possessions while also maintaining the second-best efficiency in such plays, only trailing the glacial Utah Jazz.
The Warriors were the fast break behemoths of the league, but the Oklahoma City Thunder were not far behind from a quantity perspective. Only the Warriors, Rockets, and Suns had more possessions of transition offense than the Thunder. While in many cases, more has in fact been more for OKC, this season, transition offense is not one of those areas. The Thunder, as a team, had the 22nd best offensive efficiency in transition (1.08 points per possession).
In theory, Thunder transition possessions should be advantageous as they have one of the fastest and strongest players in the league leading their break. But it is the singularity of Russell Westbrook that is the key difference between a Thunder fast break and a similar transition possession run by the Warriors. Golden State can lead the break with any one of their four key cogs — Curry, Durant, Thompson, or Green. This brings an inherent ambiguity to the Warriors push that Oklahoma City does not have while always riding the Westbrook train.
The Thunder transition offense was actually worse when Westbrook was on the floor, a dismal 0.99 points per possession. (Per NBA.com/stats)
During the regular season, 33 players had 200 or more possessions in transition offense. Westbrook was the fourth least efficient in that group. There are two key reasons for this inefficiency: pull-up threes and turnovers.
Brodie, Stop Shooting Pull-up Threes
This is the old, but true, “we can get that shot whenever we want” narrative. For Westbrook to come down and pull, as he does in the above clip, without a single teammate within the three-point arch is nonsensical as it mitigates offensive rebounding, one of the team’s greatest strengths.
Some of this logic could be forgiven if Westbrook was making a high percentage of those threes. He is not. Before this season, Westbrook was just patently bad at all three point attempts (below 30 percent last two seasons). This year, that number has improved. In the half-court offense, he made 35 percent of his threes. But his threes in transition remained awful, 29 percent. (Per Bballbreakdown.com)
Some of this could be forgiven if those three point attempts were just the occasional “heat check” but that also is not the case. In the last month of the season, one in every five of Westbrook’s shots was a transition three.
The fast break is where you are supposed to get paid as a team, against a retreating defense a high percentage look shouldn’t be more than a pass or two away. But passing is also an issue for Westbrook.
If Only Russ Could Pass to Himself
In that group of 33 players with over 200 possessions in transition during the regular season, Westbrook had the second-highest turnover rate. At 22.4 percent, nearly a quarter of Westbrook-led transition possessions are over before they start.
In a game against the Spurs earlier this season, Westbrook had eight turnovers. In those turnovers, he showcased his propensity to throw long downhill passes to teammates that simply were not open.
One of Westbrook’s greatest strengths is his ability to drive to the basket and finish with minimal space. He has an elite ability to use his speed and strength to create a space that did not appear to previously exist. A weakness is that he brings this same mentality in passing to his teammates.
Westbrook’s selfishness is what makes him great, but an unfortunate by-product has been turnovers in situations he chooses to pass. When Westbrook has to use others, his value is mitigated because he cannot control anyone on the floor but himself.
His supreme confidence is his greatest strength as a scorer but irrational confidence in his ability to pass does not work as more variables (players) are now involved. So long as it remains an impossibility to pass the ball to himself, Westbrook will continue to turn the ball over without a change in his mentality.
Solution: Stop Passing
Where Westbrook (and therefore the Thunder) excel in transition is when he attacks all the way to the rim. Again, this is because the defense is not set and therefore lanes to the rim are plentiful.
It is transition plays like this that unleash a fruitful fast break. Whether it is a finish at the rim or free throws the Thunder begin to find efficiency when Westbrook is able to get into the lane.
If his path to the rim is completely impeded, Westbrook needs to not be afraid to implement patience. Setting up the offense is a higher percentage play than a pull-up three and ten-fold better than a turnover.
This needs to change for the Thunder to get back in their series against the Rockets. Through two games (and two losses) Westbrook’s transition issues have been even more prevalent. In 20 transition possessions, Westbrook has converted just 3 of his 12 shot attempts.
Efficiency has been a problem for the Thunder as a whole, but specifically Westbrook has missed 17 threes and tallied 13 turnovers in just two games. Taking steps towards a more effective transition offense or simply steps away from pushing the pace could be crucial to the Thunder finding their stride in the stretch run of this series.
