Lindy Waters III Dishes on Thunder Playoffs, MVP Pick

Oklahoma City's backup guard gave his pick for the MVP on Trae Young's podcast.

Apr 14, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Lindy Waters III (12) / Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports

Lindy Waters III has been one of Oklahoma City’s best stories throughout the rebuild and has shown real improvement on the court. He was arguable the OKC Blue’s best player as the Thunder’s G League affiliate took home the championship trophy.

Now he’s back with the Thunder as a voice in the locker room and a leader on the bench. He’s helping out wherever he can. He might not see many minutes in the postseason, but he still brings value to the team in different ways right now.

This week, Waters made an appearance on Trae Young’s podcast and dished on all things basketball — from the Thunder, to Norman North, and the Bedlam rivalry. As expected, he had nothing but good things to say about Oklahoma City’s MVP candidate, and detailed his leadership within the team.

When Waters was asked whether Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the MVP this year, his answer was short and sweet: “Yeah. For sure, I think so.”

“He just does it all, both ends of the floor,” Waters said. “He brings the energy every night. He’s the most consistent player I’ve ever seen. He can just carry us, it’s incredible. He can go, man. Some of the stuff he does, it’s just like ‘Man, I need to get in the gym.’ He’s such a good dude and he’s on top of everything. Definitely a leader on our team that we can model after. I think that’s what makes us so good.”

In 38 games with the Thunder, Waters shot a career-high 43.5% from the 3-point line on 2.2 attempts per game. Mark Daigneault has praised his fit and consistency within the system on multiple occasions and he trusts him as a player.

Waters saw SGA’s brilliance throughout the offseason and regular season, which is why he believes his teammate deserves the MVP. Young gave his take on the award, too.

“He’s definitely right there, it’s between him and Jokic,” Young said. “Luka’s right there too, and Luka’s numbers are better than both of theirs, but record wise they’re not competing. I think they’re going to give it to Jokic just because.”

As Oklahoma City moves to the second round, awards are the last thing on the team’s mind. Waters’ mindset echoes the rest of the team and sounds just like his head coach when explaining the team’s goals and expectations.

“We gotta stay humble,” Waters said. “It’s easy to get excited and look forward, past the matchups. Just continuing to grow through our experiences, even when we win we have to find out where we can get better. Not just turn the page and say ‘We did everything we could right.’ There’s always something you can learn, having that mentality and taking it one game at a time. Because whenever you get to down 3-0 or down 3-1, it’s that desperate mindset, you don’t want to get there. Just taking it one game at a time, one possession at a time, knowing that everything matters at this point.”

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