While watching Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Miami Heat, I had the impression that professional basketball had made a complete and irrevocable shift into a new era. That’s a good thing. These two teams have reaped the rewards of their unconventional composition, and the result should be one of the best, most entertaining Finals we’ve seen in a while.
Let’s forget, for a moment, all of the background “Good vs. Evil” narratives that were so obvious from the second the Heat closed out the Celtics that many writers jumped immediately to refuting those narratives rather than watch them play out across the internets.
We'll talk about basketball instead. These two teams aren’t quite like any we’ve seen in the NBA thus far, in part because LeBron James and Kevin Durant are singular players, but also because the teams that were constructed around these players don’t follow any traditional blueprint.
The Thunder (then the Seattle SuperSonics) were fortunate to land Kevin Durant with the second pick of the 2007 NBA Draft after the Portland Trailblazers whiffed on Greg Oden. When faced with the prospect of building a team around a uniquely gifted scorer who’s almost seven feet tall but who can play the 2-4 easily, the Thunder thought outside of the box. In 2008 they (still the Sonics!) drafted Russell Westbrook, a tweener guard and supreme athlete from UCLA, to play the point. The following year, the Thunder (now the Thunder!) surprisingly selected James Harden, another 2-guard with point potential, with the third overall pick, even though there wasn't really a place on the team for him by traditional basketball standards. The Thunder’s core now consisted of four young, unconventional players in Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Jeff Green (acquired as part of the trade that sent Ray Allen to the Celtics). What to do with them?
After a few more moves, including another trade with the Celtics that sent Green north and netted Kendrick Perkins to improve their low-post defense, the Thunder settled in with a bizarre, but effective, team: Westrbook at the point, defensive stopper Thabo Sefalosha at the 2, Durant at the 3, Serge Ibaka at the 4 and Perk at center. James Harden is the super-sub who plays various positions depending on the situation (he typically shifts from the 2 to the point in crunch time). Derek Fisher, discarded by the Lakers and the Rockets earlier this season, has proven an invaluable cog in the Thunder’s Western Championship team even though he’s the third player who plays point guard on the team.
On Miami’s side of the ball, the foundation is a bit more obvious. LeBron James and Chris Bosh both signed with the Heat through free agency in 2010, joining Dwyane Wade as the latest NBA version of a “Big Three.” None of these players fits a position on the court terribly well, with the exception of Chris Bosh, who isn’t exactly the best rebounding power forward around. The result is an athletic, defensive, run-and-gun team that relies on role players around the three-point line to pick up the pieces when penetration fails or breaks down the defense. Mario Chalmers plays a point guard position that only occasionally requires him to bring the ball up the court, and the Heat essentially ask whomever plays center to work hard and grab a few rebounds. Between Wade and James they can overpower opponents, but the extra pass to find an open three is also a huge part of their offensive game.
How do these teams match up? Well, they don’t, which is part of the reason this Finals should be incredibly unpredictable. Commentator Jeff Van Gundy somewhat endearingly (and repeatedly) referred to the variety of mismatches that resulted from pick-and-roll plays and coaching tactics as “crossmatchups.” Defensive assignments change every possession, and the result is a dynamic game that can give viewers, for example, a double-digit lead at halftime and a double-digit loss when the final buzzer sounded.
It’s trite and unfair to compare sports to warfare, but when I think about the teams the Thunder and Heat beat in their respective conference championships (the Spurs and the Celtics), I couldn’t help but see innovative, fresh, and unconventional styles take down more straightforward approaches to basketball. Hence the headline about unconventional warfare.
As I noted above, these styles lend themselves well to unpredictability, so don’t let Game 1’s result deceive you into believing the Thunder have the upper hand. The Heat could come back and win the next couple games just as easily as they gave away their early lead in Game 1. Whatever happens, though, it’s going to be fun to watch.
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Follow on Ology: Anthony Schneck | NBA
Follow on Twitter: @AnthonyOlogy | @OlogySports
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