The playoffs will give us their first great matchup when the Thunder and the Spurs clash beginning Saturday night. All eyes will be on the second-round battle, so it's the perfect time for two flawed young players that have been mercilessly picked apart by critics to improve their reputation.
Dion Waiters and Enes Kanter have been laughingstocks for much of their young careers, but with good performances against San Antonio, they could completely change the narrative surrounding them. The Spurs' bench has always been an X-factor and that won't change in this series. But the Thunder's could make a huge difference as well, provided its two best reserves continue to contribute as much as they did in OKC's first-round victory over the Mavericks. Combined, they averaged 26 points per game while hitting 58 percent of their shots in the five games.
Kanter and Waiters have important roles to play against San Antonio. How well they fill them could be the difference between victory and defeat for Oklahoma City.
Enes Kanter is a matchup problem for the Spurs
Kanter is a liability on defense and his former teammates claim that he only cares about his numbers. Both are true to some degree.
He's also huge at 6'11, 245 pounds, and has a soft touch. In his first full year in Oklahoma City, he averaged 13 points and eight rebounds in just 21 minutes per game while shooting 57 percent from the field. He's still a bad defensive player but he's incredibly productive on offense, like most sixth men. That's the niche Kanter found for himself and he's good at it. He gets to take advantage of backups in the post and benefits from the attention defenses pay to Westbrook and Durant when he plays with them.
Against the Mavericks in the first round, Kanter feasted to the tune of 15 points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes a game. He shot 70 percent from the field, got to the line at a ridiculous rate and his team outscored Dallas by more than 17 points with him on the court. Despite his weaknesses, he was a force off the bench because the Mavericks didn't have anyone who could guard him.
Though the Spurs are a much better team, the same applies to them. San Antonio only has one center in its rotation, and that's Tim Duncan. The other three big men that get regular minutes are LaMarcus Aldridge, Boris Diaw and David West. Aldridge lacks the bulk to match up with Kanter, while the others are too undersized to bother his shot or keep him off the offensive glass.
The Spurs were one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the regular season, but Kanter averaged five offensive boards in the Thunder's four games against them. He led the league in offensive rebound percentage by a large margin, so his glass performances against the Spurs were not coincidences. The guy is a beast on the boards and has a chance to badly make the Spurs pay for playing Diaw and West together.
A possible solution for Gregg Popovich is to alter Duncan's minutes so they closer mirror Kanter's. This means San Antonio would always have a top rebounder on the floor, but starting Thunder center Steven Adams is also a major threat on the boards. Dealing with his physicality could wear out Aldridge.
If Kanter can hurt the Spurs on the boards and with his interior scoring more than they take advantage of him on the other end, he will be a uniquely damaging weapon for the Thunder to use against a San Antonio team that lacks size up front.
Waiters can prevent the Spurs from hiding Tony Parker
Shooting guard has long been a weakness for the Thunder, which has allowed opponents to hide poor perimeter defenders on limited offensive players. The Spurs know this and have used it to their advantage in the past. Tony Parker typically guards Westbrook for a bit, but eventually switches to an easier assignment such as Andre Roberson so Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard can handle the real threats.
If Waiters can play as well as he did against the Mavericks, however, Parker won't have anywhere to hide and could be exposed on defense, especially in crunch time. We've seen that dynamic play out once this season, albeit a long time ago. In the first game of the regular season, Waiters was a major key to a strong fourth quarter that helped the Thunder pick up a victory.
This is Dion Waiters we are talking about. He was disaster in the second matchup with San Antonio and then chucked 22 shots (only hitting four) in the two team's last game, which Durant and Westbrook sat out. There are few players in the league as inconsistent as Waiters, so it's understandable to be skeptical about his ability to actually hurt a great Spurs team.
Yet his performance in the first round is nothing but encouraging. Against Dallas, Waiters scored efficiently both on assisted and unassisted looks. He played over 26 minutes, too, and the Thunder outscored the Mavericks by over 16 points per 100 possessions when he was on the court. At least for one series, Waiters was a solid bench role player who hit 40 percent of his three-pointers and played mostly under control.
If he can have a repeat performance, he could give the already-explosive Thunder offense even more firepower throughout the game and another weapon to use late in games. He doesn't need to have a huge offensive role. He just needs to be a viable option to make the Spurs pay for hiding Parker on him when Green and Leonard are doing a good job defending Westbrook and Durant.
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The mere thought of counting on Waiters and Kanter to be productive players probably sends shivers down Thunder fans' spines. Against a superior opponent, however, Oklahoma City will need to look beyond the familiar strengths to gain an edge.
If their bench can match the production of the Spurs' and Kanter and Waiters can affect the game in specific ways in a slightly bigger role, they could hide some of the Thunder's weaknesses while exposing San Antonio's. That would certainly go a long way towards helping Oklahoma City beat the Spurs and move on the the Western Conference Finals.