Rotational Ripple: G League Season To Make Impact On Roster
The Oklahoma City Thunder are due for a rotational ripple.
With the Thunder onboarding four rookies, including three Top 12 selections, the organization is due for a shuffled deck in the rotation. After the waiving of forward Isaiah Roby in July, the franchise holds a standard roster of 18, three spots above the league maximum. Upon the franchise’s duo of two-way signings and pair of Exhibit-10 additions, they currently hold a roster of 22 – exceeding the training camp maximum of 20.
In preparation for the 2022-23 season, roster turnover is a given for the Oklahoma City Thunder. However, their roster is expected to be fluid throughout the regular season.
Throughout the week on Inside The Thunder, I have broken what I believe will be the Thunder’s day-one rotation. With all 240 minutes allocated, Oklahoma City’s day-one rotation will be a polar opposite to that of their closing segments.
For reference, of the Thunder’s entire day-one rotations the previous two seasons, only three played in their regular-season closers. In the 2020-21 season, Aleksej Pokusevski played nearly 11 minutes in the season opener and recorded a career-best 29 points in a 41-minute closer. Last season, Isaiah Roby and Vit Krejci netted a combined 17 minutes in the Thunder’s season opener and logged 18 and 40 minutes, respectively, in the season closer.
A large change is due when comparing game 1 to game 82. However, the franchise’s biggest shifts tend to come in December. While there are a multitude of reasons for this, the Oklahoma City Blue are a prime place to start.
Last season, the Oklahoma City Thunder sent the likes of Tre Mann, Aleksej Pokusevski, Isaiah Roby, Aaron Wiggins, Theo Maledon, Ty Jerome, and Vit Krejci on assignment with the Blue during last November and December.
Those two months denote a 15-game stretch of Winter Showcase Cup games. These contests set the table for December’s Showcase Cup Tournament, which awards the winning team $100,000. However, the games do not impact regular season records in the G League. Basically, these 15 games come with less stake than those in the new calendar year.
For the Thunder, this tidbit likely makes zero change to their protocol. However, these two months are pivotal in structuring rotations. The Thunder opened November of last year toying with sending the likes of Mann and Pokusevski to the G League, but by the All-Star break, they were etched into the regular rotation. With the Thunder permeating with talent, sending players down to the G League early will expose them to high in-game reps while fostering their game for a jump to the NBA.
This season, the Thunder have multiple players who are in G League consideration to start the season.
Most notably, No. 11 pick Ousmane Dieng has all the inklings of being an early assignment to the G League. As a 6-foot-10 initiator, Dieng carries a special set of tools. However, he’ll need to add a few more to the toolbox. In particular, his three-ball needs some fine tuning. If he earns time with the Blue, not only can he be the offensive initiator but he can also receive a high sum of reps playing off-the-ball, which is likely his starting role next to players in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Josh GIddey.
The same sentiment can be made with No. 34 pick, Jaylin Williams. Out of Arkansas, Williams nearly averaged a double-double with the Razorbacks en route to the most fouls drawn in D-1 play. But he likely won’t have Thunder minutes right out of the gate. With a flaky pick-and-pop game and work needing to be done on screen defense, allowing Williams to start for the Blue can hand him a high sum of reps while mutually benefitting a player such as Dieng off screens.
Outside of the Thunder’s incoming talent, Oklahoma City’s pairing of Lindy Waters III and Eugene Omoruyi are likely to be G League bound. While two-way restrictions now allow for the Thunder to essentially use either two-way piece solely on the main NBA roster, stints in the G will allow them to hone their skills in pursuit of an NBA opportunity. Additionally, a player such as Vit Krejci or Theo Maledon, who may not have rotational minutes if they make the roster, could use the G League as a platform to bolster their skill set.
The Oklahoma City Blue are slated to begin play in the first week of November, roughly three weeks after the NBA season.
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