Opportunity For Young Core To Step Up

For the past week, teams around the NBA have been orchestrating training camp in preparation for the upcoming 2022-23 season. Not only does this give players an opportunity to spend time on the court in a practice setting, but every team will also compete in preseason games.

For the Oklahoma City Thunder, a six-game slate will begin on Monday night in Denver against the Nuggets.

• Oct. 3: at Denver Nuggets
• Oct. 5: Dallas Mavericks
• Oct. 6: Adelaide 36ers
• Oct. 9: Maccabi Ra’Anana
• Oct. 11: at Detroit Pistons
• Oct. 13: at San Antonio Spurs

Over the next ten days, the outcome of these preseason contests and practices will truly dictate not only who makes the final roster in Oklahoma City, but also who earns a spot in the starting lineup and the rotation itself.

What are the primary questions entering this preseason slate for the Thunder?

The New Guys

In a massive trade last week, Oklahoma City and Houston made a deal that involved eight players. In that deal, the Thunder acquired Sterling Brown, Marquise Chriss, Trey Burke and David Nwaba.

Brown was waived shortly after, leaving three players from that deal on the Thunder roster. Oklahoma City now has 17 players on guaranteed deals, meaning at least two more players will be cut before the Oct. 17 deadline to have a finalized 15-man roster.

While Nwaba is with the team for their first preseason game in Denver, Burke and Chriss are not with the yet with the group.

Is that a sign that they won’t be competing for a roster spot, or were there just logistical hurdles in getting them with the team quickly enough?

This will be perhaps the most interesting storyline to follow during the preseason, as roster cuts are coming.

Center Rotation

For the second-straight season, the Thunder are extremely thin at the center position. Following the season-ending injury of Chet Holmgren, the only 7-footer on the roster is Aleksej Pokusevski, who doesn’t even play center.

Oklahoma City should be able to have success playing an undersized center rotation, but guys like Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Darius Bazley and Mike Muscala can only take the Thunder so far.

The preseason will provide a sneak peek into what the center depth could look like for the Thunder in the 2022-23 season. Especially in game one against a Nuggets team that has quality bigs, this team will be tested early.

Playing Without Two Starting Guards

The Thunder will be without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort for what will presumably be the entire preseason.

Gilgeous-Alexander is recovering from a minor knee injury while Dort entered concussion protocol on Monday afternoon. Even if these two end up being ready by one of the last preseason games, it probably makes sense to keep them sidelined.

Without two starting guards in the lineup, there will be plenty of opportunity for younger guys to step up, it just becomes a question of who will rise in their absence.

Keep and eye on rookie Jalen Williams along with second-year guard Tre Mann to step up. They’re both key pieces of this young Oklahoma City core and will have fairly significant roles during the regular season, even upon the return of Gilgeous-Alexander and Giddey.

Josh Giddey’s Jumper

The one thing holding Josh Giddey back from reaching his potential ceiling is his jumper. He was a poor 3-point shooter last year, which limits his ability to emerge as a legitimate scoring threat.

With that in mind, the Thunder hired one of the best shooting coaches in the world during the offseason in Chip Engelland. After spending the last 17 seasons in San Antonio with the Spurs, he’ll now start enhancing the shots of the young members of the Thunder organization.

Since joining the staff, Engelland has really put an emphasis on spending time with Giddey working on shot mechanics. In fact, Giddey has mentioned that they’ve been working out together upwards of 2-3 times each day.

Altering a jumper always takes time, so we may not see material improvement in Giddey’s shooting splits until several months to a year down the road. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see if his mechanics and form have changed much in the preseason from his rookie campaign.

Ousmane Dieng’s Defense

Although most rookies struggle in their first NBA season, there’s always something they bring to the table. After being selected No. 11 overall in the 2022 NBA Draft, Ousmane Dieng brings a ton of versatility on both ends of the floor.

At 16-years-old Dieng was a 6-foot-3 guard, but has now grown to 6-foot-11 and has maintained those guard skills. While he might be one of the tallest players on the team, he’s more of an off-ball guard or wing than a big.

This size and mobility is ultimately why Dieng is such an impactful defender. Even early in his NBA career, there’s a real chance he can make a difference on that end of the floor for the Thunder. While big minutes will be relatively difficult to come by during the regular season, he should have plenty of opportunity to showcase his defensive upside during the preseason.