Areas of Improvement for Key Thunder Summer Leaguers
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Through five games in multiple Summer League stops, the Oklahoma City Thunder boast a 3-2 record, with some of the more fun players in the events.
But with a team so young, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. And that's exactly what players and coaches alike are wanting to get out of the summer games.
Here’s a few highlights from Summer League that OKC’s key young players can work on in the offseason:
Josh Giddey — Tightening Handle/Limiting Turnovers
Giddey has looked a tier or two above most of his competition in the NBA Summer League, but there’s certainly still room for improvement.
While outside shooting would be the most obvious workable skill for Giddey, his handling and carelessness with the ball has been a little whelming through five games.
Most of it has come at the cost of trying new stuff — advanced dribble moves, flashier passing and top-tier self-creation — but there’s still plenty of work to be done in all those areas. And it starts with limiting turnovers.
Chet Holmgren — Conditioning
Kelley L Cox / USA TODAY Sports
Firstly, this isn’t about strength or lifting. Holmgren has been successful at all levels of basketball and will likely continue to be despite his thin frame.
This anecdote is solely about conditioning. In nearly every game, Holmgren has had periods where he looks gassed, hands on hips or knees, and moving at a slower pace than normal.
It’s to be expected making the jump from offseason straight into a higher level of play. But the NBA regular season will be a grueling one, and Holmgren will likely need to be in the best shape of his life to be productive for 82 full games.
Tre Mann — Getting Back into Rhythm
It’s no secret Mann hasn’t exactly had the start to Summer League he wasn’t expecting. In his two Vegas games, Mann is shooting 14% from the field on quite a few less-than-clean shot attempts.
But this isn’t something we haven’t seen before. Mann struggled in his initial Summer League as a rookie before going onto have a fairly successful rookie campaign that showed plenty of room for growth.
While it’s clear there’s still plenty of room to grow, Mann might just take a bit more to get going than others at this point in his career. A few bad games won’t derail a likely successful career, but a few good games could get him back into the right headspace.
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