One thought for all 17 Thunder players as they enter December
The first full month of the 2022-23 NBA regular season is officially history as the calendar flips to December.
Through 24 games, the Oklahoma City Thunder sit at 11-13 and are 1.5 games out of 10th place for a spot in the Play-In Tournament.
The Thunder have exceeded expectations and went from a projected bottom-five team to a team fighting to be .500 in December.
With nearly 30 percent of the season finished, let’s take a look at all 17 players — the 15 full-time players and two two-way players — on the Thunder roster and give one thought to each of them as they are near the one-third mark of the regular season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 31.3 points on 61.8 true shooting percentage. A massive jump in trips to the charity stripe has helped the 24-year-old keep up with his scoring pace, averaging a career-high 9.6 attempts and shooting a career-high 92.9 percent from the line.
With the season growing a month older, can Gilgeous-Alexander keep up his historic scoring pace or will there be some minor regression to the mean? There’s already been signs of that in recent games, as he’s shot 43.2 percent from the field in his last eight games. The saving grace of his scoring numbers during this span is his ability to frequently get to the line at 11.9 visits.
Josh Giddey
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In November, the Thunder played 788 total clutch minutes — the most in the league. The NBA defines clutch situations as being within five points in the final five minutes of a game.
Josh Giddey was fourth on the team in clutch playing time at 37.1 minutes. A pretty low ranking considering Giddey was the second-most important healthy Thunder player heading into the season.
Giddey has had an up-and-down start to his season, but if he’s going to develop, he needs to be in the top-two of clutch minute leaders on the team with Gilgeous-Alexander.
Those minutes are extremely valuable for such a young team and considering the investment the Thunder made on Giddey, it only makes sense to feed him as many high-pressure minutes as possible regardless of the result of the game.
Aleksej Pokusevski
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Outside of Gilgeous-Alexander, Aleksej Pokusevski has made the largest leap on the Thunder. A lot of that has to do with the fact that he’s finally shooting the ball efficiently.
In his first two seasons, Pokusevski shot 28.5 percent from three on 3.8 attempts. This season that number is at 41.3 percent from three on 3.3 attempts.
The dramatic improvement can be accredited to Pokusevski’s corner threes. In November, Pokusevski shot 7-of-14 (50 percent) on corner threes, which ranked him in the 91st percentile among bigs.
If he can shoot the ball at a similar clip for December, then that’s one step closer to convincing everybody that his improvement is legitimate and not just a hot start to his season.
Lu Dort
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After an ice-cold start from outside for Lu Dort, the streaky shooter is currently waving a hot streak.
In his first 11 games of the season, Dort shot 20.6 percent from outside on 5.7 attempts. In 13 games since then, Dort has shot 43.1 percent from outside on five attempts.
Can Dort keep Paycom Center warm in December with his three-point shooting? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Jalen Williams
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Jalen Williams has had a solid start to his rookie season that was rewarded with Western Conference Rookie of the Month honors. In 16 November games, Williams averaged 10.9 points on 51.1 percent shooting, 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
Williams did most of his scoring inside the perimeter as he shot just 29.3 percent from outside on 2.6 attempts.
While he wasn’t known as a sharpshooter at Santa Clara, Williams is definitely a better three-point shooter than he’s shown so far this season. Perhaps an uptick in attempts could help him find his groove.
Tre Mann
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Heading into the season, Tre Mann was viewed by many among the fanbase as one of the more exciting Thunder players to keep an eye on for the season.
While that can still be the case, a cold November has flamed out a lot of the preseason hype surrounding Mann.
In 13 games, Mann shot 29.2 percent from three on five attempts a game. The good news for Mann is there’s still plenty of time on the season to improve his numbers.
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
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Jeremiah Robinson-Earl has has a quietly-solid start to his season. In 23 games, Robinson-Earl is averaging 8.8 points and five rebounds. From outside, he’s shooting 40 percent on three threes a game.
Among the young core, Robinson-Earl gets talked about the least. Which really shouldn’t be the case. He’s been a solid contributor for the Thunder.
Aaron Wiggins
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Out of the entire roster, Aaron Wiggins has gained the most support on Twitter for a lack of playing time despite deserving it.
When Wiggins is on the court, the Thunder are a plus-7.6. Wiggins’ plus-10.8 on-off number is also eye-catching. When he starts, the Thunder are undefeated at 5-0.
In Wiggins’ case, it seems like he either sits or starts as he’s recorded seven DNPs. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said Wiggins not playing is not because of him, but more because of wanting to play other players and him getting the short-end of the stick.
Kenrich Williams
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In November, 15 percent of Kenrich Williams’ shot attempts were labeled as long mid-range shots. Williams shot 44 percent on all of his mid-range shots in November, which is in the 67th percentile among forwards.
It seems like Williams has taken more long twos this season. This checks out with Cleaning the Glass, where he 11 percent of his shots last season and 12 percent of his shots in 2020-21 were long mid-range shots.
Mike Muscala
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Regression is hitting Mike Muscala this season.
In his first three seasons with the Thunder, Muscala shot an efficient 39.2 percent from outside on 3.9 attempts. This season, that number is at 32.6 percent from outside on 3.1 attempts. In his first six seasons before he joined the Thunder, Muscala shot 36.5 percent from three on 1.9 attempts.
So while I doubt Muscala a borderline 40-percent three-point shooter, he is not as bad as he’s been shooting this season from outside.
Darius Bazley's blocks
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Darius Bazley is having his best shot-blocking campaign despite averaging a career-low 15.6 minutes.
Bazley ranked 20th in the league in blocks per game at 1.3 a game. While his future with the Thunder is likely not certain, he’s provided great defensive versatility and an elite ability to swat shots.
Ousmane Dieng
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When the Thunder drafted Ousmane Dieng with the No. 11 pick, they knew the 19-year-old was likely going to be a long-term project and would see limited playing time his rookie season.
So far that’s been the case. Among the healthy top-12 picked rookie, Dieng has played the second-fewest minutes at 220 minutes. Only Washington Wizards guard Johnny Davis has seen less NBA action at 45 minutes.
In six G League games, Dieng has averaged 14 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists.
Jaylin Williams
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Just like Dieng, Jaylin Williams has spent a lot of time in the G League so far this season.
In eight G League games, Williams is averaging 13.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 6.1 assists.
Williams has taken a bigger facilitating role on the OKC Blue’s offense. Occupying the patent Nick Collison role, Williams has done a nice job at using bounce passes to find cutting players.
When he eventually gets an NBA run later this season, it’ll be interesting to see how translatable those passing skills will be amongst NBA competition.
Isaiah Joe
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When the Thunder signed Isaiah Joe, not much was made out of the move. But since then, he’s had a couple of games where he’s provided a major spark for the Thunder with his outside shooting.
The biggest of those games coming against the Thunder’s overtime win against the Dallas Mavericks and Joe scoring a career-high 21 points against the Denver Nuggets.
On the season, he’s averaging 5.2 points and has shot 46 percent from outside on 2.9 attempts.
Eugene Omoruyi
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Outside of an impressive performance against the Toronto Raptors earlier this season, Eugene Omoruyi has had a relatively quiet season after an impressive preseason campaign.
The Thunder still have 42 games in which Omoruyi can be active in with his two-way status.
Lindy Waters III
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Lindy Waters III has had a quiet season so far. The sharpshooter has seen a drastic decrease in minutes compared to the final weeks of last season.
In his limited time, Waters III has also shot the ball poorly from outside, going 7-of-22 (31.8 percent) from three. The Thunder have 45 games left for Waters III to appear in under his current two-way deal.
Chet Holmgren
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This season has been a fun one for Thunder fans as their young core continues to take the next steps in their development. It’s hard not to feel bittersweet though as the No. 2 pick is sitting on the bench and not expected to join in on the fun until next season.
After losing the boot and participating in the occasional light shooting activities, Holmgren took the next step in his rehab by undergoing a second surgery on his foot to remove the hardware.
A positive sign that shows Holmgren is progressing as expected.
