Darius Bazley Finding Success In New Role with Thunder
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From New Balance intern to a late first-round pick playing meaningful minutes in the first round of the playoffs as a rookie, Darius Bazley has had quite the journey as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now, in the final year of his rookie contract, the 6-foot-9 athletic forward is finally making some noise in his first 13 games of the 2022-23 season.
If you watched Bazley in his first three years with the Thunder, you would come away thinking about both the flashes and frustrations. Every game it seemed that the Massachusetts product would make an awe-inspiring block or finish but turn around and showcase his ineptitude as a driver and decision-making shortly thereafter.
In those years, Bazley played mostly at the four, or power forward spot. It was also normal to see him at the three-spot, or small forward position, too. But now, in year four, all of that has changed.
After adding a bit of strength in the off-season, he’s now playing exclusively at power forward or center. And although it might be out of necessity due to the franchise not having Chet Holmgren available or having a real, viable starting big man, Bazley’s newfound role might just be the ticket to a long-term career in the NBA.
And it makes sense. The combination of his size, lateral agility, and vertical leaping ability has always been Bazley’s best trait as a basketball player. Now that he is playing most of his minutes as a small-ball center on the court, he is fully utilizing his tools to affect shots on the inside and be difficult to exploit when he’s dragged or switched out onto the perimeter.
Bazley’s success shows up in statistics, too. After averaging a steal percentage of 1.1 and a block percentage of 2.6 through his first years with the Thunder, he is now plucking balls from the opposition’s hands at nearly double the rate and has almost tripled the rate at which he blocks an opponent’s shot.
He’s also rebounding the ball more, too. In his first three years, Bazley grabbed 10.9 boards per 100 possessions and now he is snagging 12.8, or nearly 13 rebounds per 100 possessions while being asked to battle and box out bigger opponents.
The 2019 draftee’s defense has paired extremely well with Oklahoma City’s star guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, too. In their 129 minutes on the floor together, the Thunder have enjoyed a net rating of 19.7, the highest mark out of all players that have played at least 100 minutes with Gilgeous-Alexander. That success includes a 117.3 offensive rating while holding opponents to just 97.6 points per 100 possessions.
Offensively, Bazley is playing a slightly reduced role. He’s taking fewer shots and his efficiency is a little bit lower this year relative to his career average. The helter-skelter style in which he plays is still there, but there might be some incremental growth happening, too.
Currently, the statistics show he is making 35% of his 3-pointers, which would be a step in the right direction. But the season is still young and 3-point shooting has always been a high-variance shot for him. So it’s too early to tell.
Bazley’s free throw rate also shows an improvement. After earning his way to the charity stripe just 24.6% of the time through his first three years, this season has shown him bumping that figure all the way up to 28.2%, a seemingly small but important factor due to his scoring struggles.
And while his free throw percentage is sitting at an ugly 45%, you can expect that to smooth out over the course of time. Why? Well, Bazley has knocked down about 70% of his free throws in his first three seasons in the NBA and it’s almost unheard of for a player to get 25% worse at shooting free throws.
If Bazley can continue improving, even in a slow and steady manner, there might be some light at the end of the tunnel for the former 23rd overall pick. Let’s face it, there are not a lot of guys who bring rim protection and perimeter defense to the table at his size with his speed and upside.
Accounting for the fact that Bazley still has a long way to go on offense but seems to be finding a way to make small strides each year, Oklahoma City could be looking at something similar to former Thunder project Jerami Grant. And at just 22.5 years old, Bazley still has plenty of time to earn himself a solid payday in the next offseason.
Whatever happens, it will be fascinating to see what becomes of the young, enigmatic athlete.
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