Really interesting insight from Dennis Schröder about Billy Donovan. When Durant mistakenly revealed his love for burner accounts to the world in 2017, guess who was specifically namedropped in the tweets as a reason for him leaving Oklahoma City? If not for LeBron James leading the famous 3-1 comeback over the Warriors in the Finals, that postseason would probably best be remembered for the Thunder blowing a 3-1 lead of their own and allowing Golden State to glide past them in the Conference Finals. Since joining the team prior to the 2015-16 season, Donovan has made it past the first round of the playoffs just one time, that first season where he had both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook at his disposal. You can make the case against him almost entirely using words from his own players, in fact. If you were fed up with Brett Brown because of weird rotations, uninspiring schematic choices, and an inability to get through to star players, then boy, is Billy Donovan not the coach for you. Combined with his experience nurturing two-big teams at the college level, it's not completely out of the question that he could find a way to make Philadelphia's overloaded frontcourt work. It's not hard to envision how a Donovan-led team would use Simmons as a ball-screen weapon, provided they actually bring in some guards to initiate the offense. With Simmons presumably getting more time and reps at forward in the years to come, sets that have him starting from the elbow will likely be a focal point for any Sixers offense. That's useful experience for a team built clumsily around Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Historically, Donovan has liked running a lot of sets out of "Horns" formations, dating back to a different era of basketball where the two-big frontcourt was still en vogue. (Whether that's actually something he achieved/sought to do at the NBA level is a different story, though it could be argued that Russell Westbrook's presence throughout his tenure was the biggest driver of their year-to-year style of play.) "And then, the job of the coach is to maximize those individual talents as best they can.” “A lot of times your personnel can change - whether it’s through graduation in high school and college, or whether it’s through different changes in the NBA - I think you’ve got to locate and figure out what each guy’s strengths and talents are," Donovan said, according to the Oklahoman. The Thunder were known to be cycling into a rebuilding (or at least re-tooling) period after trading Russell Westbrook and Paul George last season, but with Donovan watching over things, Paul and his OKC teammates surprised many in 2019-20.Ĭonceptually, Donovan is a coach who wants to mold his scheme to suit the players, as he told coaches during a virtual clinic this spring. You can't untangle that success from the presence of Chris Paul, one of the league's elite tacticians and leaders at the point guard position, though it was far from a given that OKC would absorb Paul and turn in the season they did. OKC was perhaps the league's best team in crunch time this season, thriving in close games and executing down the stretch as well as any team in the league. Five years into his pro-level career after a terrific stint at Florida, Donovan has been a competent, if unspectacular NBA coach.Įarning praise this year for an Oklahoma City Thunder team that overachieved after trading away two stars, Donovan was finally able to implement an offensive scheme that resembled something closer to his Florida offense, utilizing a spread pick-and-roll style with multiple playmakers on the floor, boosted by Danillo Gallinari's shooting when teams collapsed on the paint. The case for DonovanĪt the very least, Donovan has shrugged off the idea that he couldn't hack it as an NBA coach. So who is he, what does he do, and is he a good fit? Let's discuss. 10 candidates to replace Brett Brown as Sixers head coach, and why they will or won't work.Would former Pacers coach Nate McMillan make sense for Sixers' needs?.Villanova's Jay Wright won't be the next Sixers head coach.Simmons named to NBA All-Defense team, Embiid misses out. Multiple reports, including name drops from Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer and Sam Amick of The Athletic, suggest he will be on Philadelphia's radar this offseason. Following a first-round exit, the team has decided to part ways with head coach Billy Donovan, presumably kicking off a downturn/rebuilding period once the team moves on from veteran talent.Īs it turns out, the Sixers have a head coach opening, a former player of Donovan's from his University of Florida days, and some early buzz about his candidacy for the job. The Oklahoma City Thunder were one of the pleasant surprises of the 2019-20 NBA season, but the fond feelings are fading already.
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