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With Oklahoma City off to a 12-14 start, much of the blame has started to fall on the shoulders of head coach Billy Donovan. Some around the league have whispered that the veteran squad doesn’t respect their skipper, who is in his third year in the NBA.
However, Donovan’s players brushed those thoughts aside rumors and stood by their coach publicly.
“The respect level is high,” forward Paul George said. “No one is going against Billy. He’s given us an incredible game plan all season long. There is a high level of respect for his position and what he is wanting from us. There is no line of disrespect at all towards what the coach is wanting us to do.”
Through 26 games, Oklahoma City has been one of the worst offensive teams in the league. They are ranked 24th in scoring and 29th in field goal percentage. Those are stats not expected from a squad that has George, Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook.
However, Anthony doesn’t put that on Donovan.
“He does a great job of verbalizing what he wants and putting that in front of us,” Anthony said. “It’s up to us to go out there and execute it. He gives us the game plan, we have to go execute that. I think a lot of times when we do that, we’re very efficient, we’re a tough team to beat. When we shy away from that, we don’t know what team we are.”
Despite the horrendous start to the season, Anthony says the Thunder have not given up becoming the team everyone expected of them.
“For us, it’s more about finding that consistency. We think about that and I think that becomes frustrating at times. And disappointing. But what I like about it is guys are trying to figure it out. Trying to make it work. Guys are trying to be unselfish and figure this thing out. We are sticking with it. There’s nothing at this point that is so far gone or out of our hands. Everything that has happened, as far as losing a game, it’s on us. We’re out there playing, so it’s on us. We just have to stay with it, continue going through this process and believe that it’s going to work itself out.”
For Donovan, he seems to be blocking out the outside noise and just looking for his team to improve each day.
“Hopefully those are moments or situations that bring out the best in you and what your doing,” Donovan said when he was asked if the team is stressed. “If you are not in a stressful environment, a lot of times you’re not being stressed. If you are just comfortable all the time it’s hard to get better. I think you try to pet a level of expectations on yourself. To grow, to improve, to get better. When you get stressed, you inevitably improve.”
The Thunder begin a three-game road trip Wednesday night in Indiana.
