Predicting Thunder Center Derrick Favors’ 2021-22 Season Stats
With no competition for minutes at the center position this season in Oklahoma City, Derrick Favors has the chance to play a key role for the Thunder. As the only traditional center on the roster, he’ll be the starter on opening night and should continue in that capacity throughout the entire season.
Favors has played a variety of roles throughout his 11-year NBA career. The former third overall pick worked his way into becoming a full-time starter by his fourth professional season and would go on to start 441 of 463 games over the next seven years.
This all changed for Favors last season with the Jazz, when he played in 68 games but logged zero starts. Now, heading into the 2021-22 season, he’s set to become a full-time starter once again.
With that in mind, which season is the best to use to predict Favors’ stats for the upcoming season with the Thunder?
All signs point to the 2019-20 season, when Favors played for the New Orleans Pelicans. During that season, he started in 49 of the 51 games that he played in.
This serves as a great analog because he’ll play a very similar role in OKC this season that he did in New Orleans. That season, they were an extremely young team with no playoff aspirations. While he played extended minutes as the starting center, the team went 30-42, finishing as one of the worst teams in the NBA.
The Thunder will likely be in a similar situation this season as they continue their rebuild. Favors clearly isn’t a long-term solution at center, but fills the void until they’re able to find a young big to develop.
In that one season with the Pelicans, Favors averaged 9.0 points and 9.8 rebounds in 24.4 minutes per game. At that time, Jaxson Hayes and Jahlil Okafor were also on the roster, accumulating more than 30 minutes per game down low.
With less competition at center in Oklahoma City, Favors could actually play more than 25 minutes per contest this season. While the Thunder will play some smaller lineups with stretch forwards at center, Favors will play nearly all of the traditional center minutes.
If his production is similar to what it was in New Orleans, don’t be surprised to see Favors average a double-double this season with just over ten points and rebounds per game.
Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the message board community today!
Like SI Thunder on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Thunder news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.
