Bench Production Has Accelerated OKC Thunder’s Early Season Success

Although the modern NBA is a league driven by superstars and top-heavy rosters, depth in the regular season matters. Rotations in the playoffs do tend to shorten, but in the 82 games it takes to get there, having depth and contributions from every single player matters. Over the course of an NBA season, teams deal with injuries, slumps and different matchups which could result in any of the players on a 15-man roster — or sometimes even two-way players — needing to step in and make an impact.

As the Oklahoma City Thunder enters Tuesday with the second best record in the Western Conference at 11-5, depth has been a key piece of the early success. The primary starters have been phenomenal, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander playing at a superstar level and Chet Holmgren emerging as the best young center in the league, but the bench has been equally as impressive.

Roughly 20% of the way through the 2023-24 campaign, Oklahoma City’s bench actually boasts the best net rating (+5.4) in the league. This is significant given one of the primary reasons teams lose games on any given night is the inability to maintain efficiency when the best players on the roster have to take a breather.

To this point, the Thunder reserves have not only maintained the high level of production that the starters have, but have also sometimes been even better. There has already been numerous occasions early in the season in which the bench sparked a comeback or even pulled away with a big lead.

As a unit, this is a team that plays extremely smart and unselfish. While the OKC reserve core only rank 11th in assists per game, it also boasts the fourth best assist-to-turnover ratio. Having several primary ball handlers off the bench that can not only score, but also facilitate and reduce turnovers is key.

The Thunder bench also plays very similar to the starters schematically, as positional versatility and two-way impact are traits that are leaned upon heavily. Efficiency is also of extreme importance, as quality shots are emphasized. This has resulted in the Oklahoma City reserves collectively maintaining the top True Shooting percentage (62.9%) of any bench in the league, as well as the second best 3-point efficiency (41.7%) thus far.

The bench has primarily been lead by the trio of Isaiah Joe, Cason Wallace and Kenrich Williams, who are all shooting better than 45% from beyond the arc. Joe has been one of the best perimeter shooter in the league for the second consecutive season, while Wallace is a rookie that has experienced one of the most efficient starts of any first-year guard in recent history. Williams missed the first part of the season with a back injury, but sparked a six-game win streak upon his return through his veteran leadership, toughness and two-way impact.

From there, Jaylin Williams and Aaron Wiggins have also been very good off the bench in limited action, primarily getting their minutes situationally or in advantageous team matchups. From there, we’ve seen much less of guys like Vasilije Micic, Ousmane Dieng, Davis Bertans and Lindy Waters, but they’ve each also contributed at different points in the season already.

While this isn’t a new phenomenon, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault has no problem playing every single guy on the roster. He’s found a way to map out developmental minutes for nearly everyone on the roster, including two-way players, while also staying very competitive.

A highly productive starting lineup paired with a deep bench with different weapons to insert when the time is right has proven to be extremely effective for Oklahoma City this season.