NBA 2017-18: 5 Most Inconsistent Teams So Far
It's common knowledge that the NBA's 82-game regular season is a grind. That's, of course, one way of looking at it, the other being that it's a chance for the teams to build good playing habits and a chance for the franchises to build a good culture.
As we kick into March, all of the 30 teams in the league have played at least 62 games. That's a decent sample size to start judging teams for their performances so far.
There's been a lot of conversation over the past week regarding changing the Playoff system, while, the battle for the Playoff spots in either Conference have been entertaining, to say the least. The results of each gameday impact the Conference standings.
A huge reason for the current state of the standings is the inconsistency of multiple teams. With such a huge part of the season under wraps, we rank the 5 most inconsistent teams so far:
Note: Teams with multiple key injuries have been left out.
#5 Oklahoma City Thunder
Paul George and Russell Westbrook
At the time of writing, the Oklahoma City Thunder have a record of 37-29 (.561). Every superteam has an adjustment phase and the Thunder were no different but even after they had found their groove they failed to capitalize and put up good team performances regularly.
At the end of November, through 20 games, the Thunder had gone 8-12. As December came, the team's superstars - Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony - came to understand their roles and began to thrive in them. Westbrook led the charge, while Paul played the two-way threat and Anthony started taking a reduced number of shots, a majority of which were high percentage ones.
The turned their season around with a 12-5 record in December (6-game win streak) and a 10-4 outing in January (8-game win streak). At the end of January, they placed themselves in a strong position in the Conference (30-21) but things turned once again with Andre Roberson's injury on January 28th. Since his injury, the team has missed him dearly especially on the defensive end of the floor.
In February, the team went 6-6 with five of their wins only coming against the bottom-feeders like the Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies, Orlando Magic and the Dallas Mavericks. They've signed Corey Brewer after he was bought out by the Los Angeles Lakers at the deadline but that isn't really going to solve any of their problems.
At some point, they have to figure out how to play well without Roberson, as he is not slated to return this season. There is still a month left for the Playoffs and the Thunder need to establish a system (without Roberson) that they can thrive in.