An 8-12 record out of the gate appeared to confirm the doubters' suspicions of the new-look Oklahoma City Thunder's incompatibility, but to the team's immense credit, it's now sitting on a 25-20 record. Russell Westbrook has tapped back into the top-dog attitude that lifted him to MVP heights last season and Paul George is doubling down as a two-way threat.
Perhaps most impressive, however, is 10-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony adapting to a secondary scoring role for the first time in his career - a role he's now embracing.
"Once you accept something, regardless of what it is, I think you become comfortable with it," Anthony told reporters after Wednesday night's 114-90 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. "You start putting your all into it, you start working on that role and on that acceptance, and it becomes fun. I think right now, after accepting that role, I think early in December, the game is starting to become fun again for me, fun for us as a team. Any time you get to making shots and winning basketball games, it makes it that much more fun."
In the Thunder's first 20 games, Anthony averaged 16.7 shots in 32.5 minutes. Since then, the Thunder are 17-8, with Anthony averaging 14.8 shots in 32.8 minutes while shooting 1.1 fewer pull-up jumpers per game - decreasing the reliance on his former diet of jab-step isolation plays.
"I think he's finding opportunities to get threes, but I think the other part of it too is having an awareness of when there's matchup problems against him where we can go into some areas where he's got a smaller guy on him or it's a tough matchup against him," Thunder coach Billy Donovan said, according to ESPN's Royce Young.
