Andre Roberson has floated in and out of the Oklahoma City Thunder lineup over these past eight games as head coach Billy Donovan tries to re-acclimate him to the NBA and figure out what his workload can be.
Prior to the game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, which Oklahoma City lost 107-103 in overtime, Roberson was told by Donovan that he would have a set role during this game.
That’s different than the past eight, when his minutes came slightly more sporadically.
“Going into this game, it was a situation where Paul George and Kawhi Leonard were not going to play,” Donovan said. “It may be a game where if he’s not playing against those kind of level of offensive players, playing him some more minutes and getting him into a rotation and into a rhythm.”
That’s what they did. Roberson played 28 minutes Friday, by far his most in the bubble. Donovan thinks he saw improvements defensively.
Donovan said that in previous games, he noticed Roberson getting beat off the dribble more often than in the past.
“Some of that, to be quite honest, is he’s sitting over there during some of these games, not knowing when he’s going in and when he’s not going to go in, and kind of waiting,” Donovan said.
“Today we talked about getting him into a little bit more of a solid rotation with some significant minutes and I thought he handled it really well.”
With that expectation of having a set role with specific minutes, Roberson played better by Donovan’s standards.
“It was good to get him a good, consistent amount of playing time, and I thought defensively, he took a step forward,” Donovan said. “He was, I think, a little bit more physical.”
Donovan still needs to figure out how Roberson can fit into the rotation with against the Houston Rockets in the first round. The Thunder have a deep, versatile bench, and while Roberson is part of that, his injury and lack of minutes even in the bubble cause pause.
But a positive sign from Friday is good to see with four days before the Thunder’s first playoff game begins.
