It’s been a couple weeks since the last Kiwi Steve roundup. After those first three there just wasn’t much left to say that wouldn’t just be repeating itself, we had to let it all settle for a while. Steven Adams started slow but his shooting got much better after a couple games off to rest a wounded knee. His free throw shooting wasn’t improving yet his rebounding was always good... though Billy Donovan basically admitted that Steve-o was on an unofficial minutes restriction so the numbers were wonky regardless. And that’s where we left off.

What’s happened since is that the Thunder have started to figure things out as a team and that’s led to a little streak of six wins from eight that’s put them within a game of five-hundred and the last couple wins have come on the road too which is a big boost for a team that lost its first six games road games. Perhaps not coincidentally that’s happened as Steven Adams has been playing the best basketball of his season so far, looking as healthy as he has to date and living it up in the box scores as a result. Even his free throws have come good!

Although for all the increased shooting numbers, there’s one play that stands above the rest of them over the last few weeks...

QUARTERBACK STEVE WITH THE HEAVE

There were literally just seconds remaining on the clock as Steven Adams grabbed the ball under his own basket, the Thunder down by two. They had led the Timberwolves by double figures earlier in the contest but that lead had long since fizzled away into a nail-biting finish. Adams had grabbed an offensive board for an easy layup with a minute remaining to tie the game at 119-all but a Karl-Anthony Towns bucket driving past Adams gave Minnesota the lead again. Dennis Schröder then missed a shot of his own and Minny went into clinch mode.

A few wild plays saw the Wolves throw the ball away but Chris Paul missed a pull-up and Steven Adams basically had to scream at the ref while hanging onto Jordan Bell’s arm before the intentional foul was noticed. Shockingly, Bell missed both free throws... but then Minny got the rebound and called a timeout.

What happens next is absolutely bonkers. KAT misses the first free throw before both teams make a sub for the final play but Jordan Bell, who was checking in again as part of the late game musical chairs by the coaches seeking perfect situational matchups, hadn’t tucked his shirt in properly. Which is apparently a rule and Chris Paul being the veteran basketball genius that he is knew that perfectly and alerted the refs, who called a delay of game. A second DoG call on the Wolves which meant a technical foul.

1.1 seconds on the clock and Danilo Gallinari hits the free throw to cancel out the one KAT was about to make ahead of time. 122-120 to the T-Wolves. Towns would have actually been better off missing it because OKC had no more timeouts and there wasn’t enough time left to do anything but catch and shoot even if they did get the contested rebound.

From the imbounds though, they knew exactly what to do. Here’s a play from a couple weeks ago which was featured in the Kiwi Steve #3... Abel Nader didn’t get the shot off in time but note how he gasses down the court knowing exactly what’s coming. They’ve practiced this.

This time they had a little more time on the clock and they had Dennis Schröder doing the wide receiver thing. And this is what happened...

OKC went on to win it 139-127 in overtime and you can call that fair revenge for that time Anthony Wiggins hit a deep three to steal a win for Minnesota a couple years ago (sports fans never forget).

That pass travelled 94 feet in the air. That’s 28.6 metres, which is maybe a couple metres short of throwing a ball from the sideline to the near goalpost in rugby. It’s a rather hefty heave... and that’s what they’re calling it in Oklahoma City: The Heave. Plenty of NFL quarterbacks wouldn’t mind a pass like that.

Nick Gallo/NBA.com: “Adams steadied his base, arched his back and heaved the ball downcourt. It was the same motion he’s used hundreds of times in practice. Sometimes as a part of an end-of-game drill, other times as a friendly quarterback-to-receiver diversion with a Thunder teammate in between reps.”

(See, told ya they practice that).

Thunderous Intentions: “The Big Kiwi looked off for much of the early parts of the season. Although he was dealing with a knee contusion there was something else amiss which showed up in his efforts in the paint and specifically in terms of his rebounding and scoring. He also appeared a tad slow on defense at times as opponents sped past him to score. Towns made some big plays finishing with a massive line of 30 points, eight assists, five rebounds, two steals, and two blocks. And yet, Adams made life very difficult for Towns often beating him on the boards and forcing him to work on both sides of the hardwood. Aside from his stellar defense (and those KILLER SCREENS) the biggest sign Adams is feeling like his old self was on the glass and the offensive glass in particular where he grabbed six of his 11 rebounds. His full stat line reads like All-Star material as he registered 22 points, 11 boards, two assists, two steals, and FOUR big blocks.”

GOTTA MAKE YA FREE THROWS

A curious ponderance indeed. What if such an occurrence should happen... oh it did?

When asked at the end of last season about the possibility of Steven Adams shooting three pointers this time around, Thunder GM Sam Presti sort of dodged the question by talking about free throws instead and admitting that the number one thing Adams could do to improve his offensive output would be to up his percentage from the charity stripe. Which is completely true. Adams averaged just 52.7% FT success last season and has only once averaged above 60% from the line in a term – 61.1% in 2016-17. Start knocking those down at even just 65% and he’s no longer a guy teams are happy to foul. They’ll be forced to take him contend with what he can do in the paint more often and he’ll have one fewer excuse for Billy Donovan to take him off the court in crunch time of games.

But prior to the games covered in this piece, Adams had made just 8 of 27 free throws this season at 29.6%. Obviously we’re looking at a small sample size of eleven games played and he was dealing with that knee contusion in the middle of it all... but that’s atrocious and for someone who works on their game as fastidiously as Steven Adams does it makes no sense either. Why is he getting worse?

Well, over these last nine games he’s made 24 of 32 at 75%. That includes 4/4 games against the Lakers and Pacers (both losses) and that aforementioned 5/6 banger in a win away to the Pelicans. It’s been enough to lift his seasonal average back up to 54.2% which is above where he was at last campaign and if he keeps up his recent trend and it’s not just another hot streak (he’s had these runs before, you know – he shot 71.4% from the line in his first 14 games in the 2017-18 season but ended up with a season average of just 54.0%) then he can lift that number even more significantly.

The Oklahoman: “All six of Adams’s free throws came in the last three minutes of the Thunder’s 107-104 win at New Orleans. In Adams’s postgame interview with sideline reporter Nick Gallo on the Fox Sports Oklahoma broadcast, Thunder guard Dennis Schroder stood in the background, miming Adams’s free-throw motion. That’s how clutch those shots were. And they came from a player who made just one of his six free throws in the Thunder’s first game of the season.”

So what’s changed? Dunno because whatever it is, nobody’s telling. Steven Adams has spoken of just sticking with the process and perhaps it’s really that simple as thing just evening out as he gets more comfortable and confident. Billy Donovan’s been asked a couple times about Steve’s sudden surge and only said boring coach stuff about how he works hard and he’s happy for him to see the rewards. The only thing that stands out as a major change, because his form looks the same as ever, is that he’s recovering from that knee injury and playing a more prominent role in the offence in all aspects. Is the injury the main factor them?

Bloody Steve with his self-deprecating humour, making us laugh and not realise he didn’t even answer the question. Oh well as long as things are trending in the right direction. Speaking of trends, here are some updates on a few of those other notes to watch out for from previous editions...

Steven Adams has multiple assists in his last twelve games and is averaging 2.9 per game overall

That defensive rebounding percentage is sitting pretty at 22.3% now, so he needs to nudge that up to around 26% to have the best ever jump in DREB% between two consecutive seasons

He does now have two games with 30+ minutes played, including 36 in that Timberwolves game, but those were both overtime games so other than that we’re still in that sweet spot of around 27-28 minutes per night, give or take a few if the game situation doesn’t require him in the fourth quarter

Ah but we do have a first three point attempt of the season! Early in the second quarter against Minny he faded off to the right corner and Chris Paul picked him out before his defender could get there... very similar look to the one he knocked down in preseason... but he clanged it out. That’s one three point attempt in 542 minutes played so far – but it was his first drawn-up proper look of his career so there you go

In his last five games, Steven Adams has averaged:

29.9 MIN | 15.2 PTS | 76.3 FG% | 75.0 FT% | 10.4 REB | 3.0 AST | 2.4 BLK

In his last nine games, Steven Adams has averaged:

28.1 MIN | 14.4 PTS | 73.6 FG% | 75.0 FT% | 9.6 REB | 3.2 AST | 1.9 BLK

F-F-F-FASHION

Classic yarns from old mate Fred recently, getting into one of the most distinctive aspects of the Cult of Steven Adams... his fashionable attire. An attire that consists most regularly of a camo jacket, a pair of basketball shorts, and them cheeky orange slides with his cartoon face on them. Oh and if it’s cold he’ll have that weird fluffy hat thing... here’s a couple ex-teammates explaining it better...

Josh Heustis: “He continuously only wears flip-flops everywhere. … His attire in cold weather is so odd. He’ll wear flip-flops, shorts and then a big, heavy camo jacket with his Russian bomber hat.”

Russian bomber hat, that’ll do.

Enes Kanter: “He is really weird, man. I know. A lot of people wear flip-flops but they wear socks, like really, really thick socks with it. But this guy literally wears nothing in the winter but just sandals. Just sandals. I’m like, you’re not gonna get sick? I think that his genes are just different, man. I don’t know what kind of genes he got but it’s different.”

And a current teammate...

Andre Roberson: “He’s fucking Fred Flinstone. That’s a little bit far out there, but that’s Steve.”

It gets even better because apparently he’s got a reputation for walking around the Thunder practice facility in bare feet. He kicks off the old slides (which were sent to him free of charge as a promotional hail mary shot by some random company and now he wears them almost everywhere so how about that?) and just strolls around letting the toes and the heels and the soles of his feet truly breathe. Which, like, isn’t even that out of the ordinary in Aotearoa but apparently Americans are kinda soft when it comes to dressing for the weather. Imagine thinking jandals in winter is a bad idea. Amateurs.

Steven Adams: “It’s just comfy. … I don’t wear (flip-flops) while driving, so I just kick them off while driving and sometimes in the mornings. I just can’t be bothered, mate. That’s how lazy I get, mate. It’s just, yeah you can slip them on but I’m like, ‘Agh, whatever.’ Let’s go. Then just walk in.”

However the occasion does sometimes demand something more... traditionally tasteful. Like when he wore dress shoes and a suit to Russell Westbrook’s Oklahoma Hall of Fame induction...

Steven Adams: “That’s how I dress up, to be honest. I put on shoes and then people are like: ‘Wow, this guy’s fancy! Jesus.’ I go for the wow factor.”

There’s a very practical reason for all this: Steven Adams has size US 19 feet and finding comfortable shoes that actually fit him, as you could imagine, is rather difficult. According to Mr Katz, Adams takes this foot efficiency even further by wearing the same pair of sneakers in every single game until he can’t any longer. Some players wear new shoes every game. Some change them every couple weeks. And this is where that article really serves up your money’s worth... support good journalism folks. But give us your money on Patreon before you subscribe to The Athletic because we’re way poorer than they are.

Steven Adams: “The problem is that the shoe technology, it kinda favours those whose foot isn’t open if that makes sense. Just because I wear bare feet all the time, my toes are quite well spread apart. My physician would say it’s a ‘healthy foot’. But the problem is, the reason why my toes are wide, spread out, there’s gaps between them, it doesn’t actually fit into these narrow shoes that they make now. You know what I mean? So that’s one of the main things. Then, when I do try to go into a narrow show, my knees start kicking in.”

Markieff Morris: “Some people just want the comfort and more so it’s bigs. They don’t wanna be switching in and out of shoes. Fucking Steven Adams wears like a [size] 24 feet. They’re like three arms put together. His feet are crazy.”

For the sneaker nerds out there, Adams prefers the old Derrick Rose 7s which Adidas started running in 2014... but they don’t actually produce them any more so that’s been kind awkward for him. If anyone’s got any spare size 19s you know who to hit up with those.

Steven Adams: “I take a different approach. I’m not saying that I don’t care about fashion. I think there’s a time and a place for it. I’m more of a practical sort of guy if that makes sense, which seems ironic because I wear blazed shorts and slip-ons in fucking the middle of winter. So, maybe half-practical.”

BOX SCORES

vs LOS ANGELES LAKERS (L 130-127):

27 MIN | 22 PTS (9/10 FG, 4/4 FT) | 6 REB (2 OFF) | 4 AST | 3 TO | 4 PF

at GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (W 100-97):

28 MIN | 10 PTS (4/6 FG, 2/4 FT) | 10 REB (4 OFF) | 5 AST | 3 BLK | 2 TO | 1 PF

at PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (L 136-119):

25 MIN | 8 PTS (4/7 FG) | 6 REB (1 0FF) | 3 AST | 1 TO | 1 PF

vs NEW ORLEANS PELICANS (W 109-104):

24 MIN | 14 PTS (7/11 FG) | 12 REB (3 OFF) | 2 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK | 1 TO | 3 PF

at NEW ORLEANS PELICANS (W 107-104):

28 MIN | 17 PTS (6/7 FG, 5/6 FT) | 10 REB (2 OFF) | 2 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK | 1 TO | 3 PF

vs INDIANA PACERS (L 107-100):

29 MIN | 20 PTS (8/8 FG, 4/4 FT) | 9 REB (5 OFF) | 3 AST | 2 BLK | 2 TO | 2 PF

vs MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (W 139-127 OT):

36 MIN | 22 PTS (9/13 FG, 4/8 FT) | 11 REB (6 OFF) | 2 AST | 2 STL | 4 BLK | 2 TO | 4 PF

at PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (W 108-96):

28 MIN | 6 PTS (2/6 FG, 2/2 FT) | 9 REB (4 OFF) | 4 AST | 1 TO | 1 PF

at UTAH JAZZ (W 104-90):

28 MIN | 11 PTS (4/4 FG, 3/4 FT) | 13 REB (2 OFF) | 4 AST | 4 BLK | 2 TO | 1 PF

THE SCHEDULE

at SACRAMENTO KINGS, Thursday at 4pm (NZT)

at DENVER NUGGETS, Sunday at 3pm (NZT)

vs CHICAGO BULLS, Tuesday at 2pm (NZT)

vs MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES, Thursday at 2pm (NZT)

vs PHOENIX SUNS, Saturday at 2pm (NZT)

SLAM DUNKS

New Orleans Pelicans rookie big Jaxson Hayes on playing Steven Adams: “Yeah, I feel like I definitely should’ve done a lot better in that matchup today. He got a bunch of early buckets on me, but that just comes with getting older and getting bigger. That’s one strong dude. It was a struggle. It was definitely a struggle. I mean, I was shoving him as hard as I can, and he’s not even moving. So it’s definitely a struggle, but it will all come in time.”

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Keep cool but care