Alright folks, let me tell you about something I was messing around with way back when – the whole idea of a “thunder lineup 2016”. Yeah, that old chestnut.
So, it all started because I was bored, and watching a ton of OKC games. I’m talking peak Westbrook, Durant still around…man, those were the days. I was just thinking, “What could they have been?” if things had gone just a little bit differently, or if they’d made one different call.
First, I pulled up all the game logs, right? Started digging through stats, box scores, player rotations. I wanted to see what worked, what didn’t. I used some simple python script to help me quickly see the numbers, calculate averages, plus/minus when certain guys were on the floor together. Really down and dirty stuff.
Then I looked at that year’s roster. The key dudes: Russ, KD, Ibaka. But then you had the supporting cast. Guys like Adams, Waiters, Roberson. Figured out who was playing well together using the stats I grabbed.
I started experimenting with different lineup combinations using those stats. What if they’d closed out more games with Adams instead of Kanter? What if Waiters had been benched earlier in games when he was chucking? Stuff like that.
The “what if” part was fun. Like, what if they hadn’t traded Harden? I tried to imagine how things would’ve been with that “Big Three” hitting their stride later on. Crazy, right?
Here’s what I learned messing with those lineups:
- Chemistry is king. You can have all the talent in the world, but if the pieces don’t fit, it ain’t gonna work. I knew it already, but this just hammered it home.
- Sometimes, the best lineup isn’t the “most talented” lineup. Some players just mesh better together.
- Billy Donovan got some of the rotations wrong. I’m not saying I could coach better than him (hell no!), but looking at the numbers, you could see some obvious tweaks that could’ve been made.
Now, I know it’s just fantasy stuff, but messing around with those old lineups was a cool way to spend a few evenings. It made me think about basketball in a totally different way.
I even started messing with some visualizations. I was trying to map player tendencies – who passed to whom, where guys liked to shoot from. Never got it to anything super polished, but it was a fun side project.
So, yeah, that’s my little “thunder lineup 2016” story. Mostly just screwing around, but I learned a few things in the process. Always good to revisit the past and wonder, “What if?”
