Thunder ball handlers try a Steve Nash method against Rudy Gobert

Even while the Thunder continue to rest players and lose games, head coach Mark Daigneault has found different areas of evaluation and training for the young Oklahoma City team.

In the 109-93 loss to the Jazz on Friday, it was all about how they played against star Utah center Rudy Gobert.

Gobert is likely to win the Defensive Player of the Year award for the third time in his career. The presence of the 7-foot-1 French athlete forces the ball handlers to adjust their way of play and find new ways to attack.

“It’s good experience for all of our players to go against Gobert,” Daigneault said. “I thought there were some good plays there and I thought there were some not-so-good plays that we can learn from.”

On Friday, they tried out a page from the playbook of Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash.

One of the ways the two-time MVP broke down defenses was keeping the dribble alive after penetrating the rim. He would drive and circle under the hoop, dribble out, and then go right back down low in a circle. He would eventually find room for either a pass, layup or a patented short-range fadeaway.

There was a little of this from Thunder players including Theo Maledon and Svi Mykhailiuk on Friday.

“We were supposed to use a lot of ‘Nashes,'” Maledon said. “… Against a great defender like Gobert that sits in the paint a lot, I think trying to get him on the perimeter more and spacing out was something that was beneficial for us and something that we have in the game plan.”

Driving and keeping the dribble alive under the hoop allows the ball handler to do a couple things.

One, as Maledon said, if the big switches on to him, the ball handler can pull him out of the paint and create room for a big man. It confuses the defense. It also helps the ball handler read the court around him. Nash was a master at pulling out from under the rim and passing to open shooters whose defenders had been watching Nash take the ball to the hoop.

Here are two examples from Mykhailuk:

“I dealt with teams like that who play deep drop, kind of like Gobert, who blocks a lot of shots, it’s very useful,” Mykhailiuk said. “You try to get a defense confused, and when you do that and the guys cut, it’s easier to pass and find the right play.”

The wing scored 17 points in the first half alone and finished with a team-high 19. He went 3-for-4 from 3.

Maledon had 18 points on 7-for-16 shooting and was the only starter in the Thunder lineup to reach double-digit points.

The final score, a 16-point Thunder loss, showed a little bit closer of a game than it really was. Oklahoma City again allowed 30 or more points in each of the first three quarters and trailed 92-66 at the beginning of the fourth.

The bench unit at the end, led by Gabriel Deck’s 12 points in the fourth quarter alone and 18 total, helped the Thunder cut the loss to a respectable number.

The Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons also lost on Friday night, leaving the Thunder tied with the Magic for the third-best odds in the NBA draft and one game back of the Pistons for the second-best.

All three teams have one more game this season.