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In the Butler

Rolling Thunder: 16/01/2016

It’s taken a number of weeks into the season but Week 8 presents the first real adversity for the Thunder. They’ve had a few guys miss games off the bench along the way, but that is it. Now, it’s Jimmy Butler. The Thunder’s Captain, team leader and leading scorer is a BIG out. He leads the offence and sets the tone on the defensive end and is their star in every sense of the word.

“Yeah Jimmy has the flu”, said Nenjabin. “He tried to get up for the week, but couldn’t fight it off. At least it should only be the one week missed.”

Usually we’d just be saying, well they’re deep, so the loss can be covered. But as it turns out the Thunder will also be missing key SG reserve Josh Richardson and their 3^rd string SG also, Tomas Satoransky. So the entire shooting guard rotation has been removed, in one week.

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles!” commented Nenjabin.

So with the entire shooting guard chain removed for the week, who steps up? Evan Fournier can slide to the 2 spot to cover the starters, and should work nicely as the offensive threat next to the defensive MKG, but the bench gets murky. They’re going to need to run with both of their rookie wings who have consistently been their 12^th and 13^th men, and rely on them to produce as key reserves. Alex Abrines has had experience overseas in such a role, but Patrick McCaw, is he ready for minutes?

“We have faith in our kids. We think very highly of them and they know how to play their role. We don’t think they’ll come out and force things or try to make things happen for themselves, more-so just play a role and allow the more experienced guys like Dennis and Nikola continue to do their thing for our bench.”

The Thunder have a mixed bag of a week really with the lower ranked Detroit and Indiana to start, but match-ups with perennial powerhouses the 76ers and Lakers to round out the week. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle the adversity!