Looking at Oklahoma City's Center Rotation Early in the Season
Mark Daigneault isn’t rushing to set a rotation.
Just seven games into the Oklahoma City Thunder season, Daigneault is still trying to balance how to get all of his young pieces into the lineup so they can continue to develop.
But one position in particular has a weird mix of players to work with: OKC’s center.
The Thunder acquired Derrick Favors from Utah this offseason, resigned Mike Muscala and then drafted Villanova big Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
All three players bring very different skillsets, while still undersized.
And to this point, Daigneault has deployed all three of his centers about evenly.
Favors has only played in five of OKC’s seven games, and Muscala missed one game, but otherwise they’ve all played within one minute per game of each other.
Entering the season, Favors spoke about playing the role of the good professional and coming in to work every day and putting his best foot forward. Favors and Muscala both are being leaned upon for their veteran leadership, but as the season progresses, Robinson-Earl should be getting a bulk of the minutes at center.
Through seven games, Robinson-Earl has continued to look steady and unfazed by the challenges of playing as an undersized center in the NBA. His basketball IQ allows him to make up for certain limitations, especially on the defensive end of the floor, by reading the play and setting himself up in the best position for him to defend.
Robinson-Earl is also doing a nice job of developing his outside game so that he can provide the floor spacing needed in a modern center. He’s taking 2.1 3-pointers per game, and is knocking down those attempts at a 40.0 percent clip.
Isaiah Roby has also factored into the rotation, playing 10.2 minutes per game, but early season struggles against the Houston Rockets knocked Roby down the rotation a bit.
Still, the Thunder should look to Robinson-Earl to take a load of the minutes down the stretch this season.
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