Oklahoma City Thunder part ways with head coach Billy Donovan

Billy Donovan (Google Images)

Billy Donovan of Rockville Centre, New York has parted ways with the Oklahoma City Thunder according to Erik Gee of Sports Illustrated. Donovan had been the head coach of the Thunder over the last five seasons since 2015. The news comes as somewhat of a surprise because the Thunder clearly exceeded expectations this past season.

The Thunder were expected to take a step back after trading Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets in an offseason blockbuster which saw Chris Paul coming to OKC. However, at the age of 35, Paul clearly showed he had more left in the tank, as he averaged 17.6 points per game and provided a stable presence at the point guard position throughout the year, as the Thunder made the postseason with a record of 44 wins and 28 losses.

In five seasons as a head coach for Oklahoma City, Donovan had a record of 243 wins and 157 losses, for a winning percentage of .607. He also guided the Thunder to the playoffs in each of his five seasons. However, in the playoffs, the Thunder only had a record of 18 wins and 23 losses for a winning percentage of .429. Both of the Thunder’s series wins with Donovan as head coach came in 2016 (Donovan’s first year in Oklahoma City), as the Thunder beat the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the Western Conference quarterfinals and then the San Antonio Spurs in six games in the Western Conference semifinals.

In addition to coaching the Thunder, Donovan had great success as a college coach with the University of Florida. He coached the Gators from 1996 to 2015, and won back-to-back championships at the NCAA level in 2006 and 2007.

Now there is a belief that Donovan could be a candidate to be the next head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. Philadelphia fired Australian National Team Head Coach Brett Brown on August 24.

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