Thunder Ready to Roll Out 'Positionless' Roster
The Oklahoma City Thunder have a clear and determined path in their rebuild.
Versatility seems to be a large factor in the team’s current construction, but the ability to handle and pass the ball seems an absolute must for general manager Sam Presti.
Nearly every recently acquired focal piece, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Aleksej Pokusevski, Josh Giddey and plenty more, posseses an innate handle and feel for maneuvering and passing the ball.
Oklahoma City seems so determined to roll out a versatile squad, it seems, that it’s left them without a true traditional center on its roster.
“Well, I think one of the things that I think is pretty evident, especially when you watch the Playoffs -- the teams that are the most formidable in the NBA are the ones that offensively have multiple creators,” head coach Mark Daigneault said. “Multiple ball handlers, multiple sound decision makers, and those teams figure out a way to function together and to make the whole better than the sum of the parts.”
“Having multiple versatile players and ball handlers is not a weakness. That's a strength, and that's something that we certainly have to work to figure out and make sure that we're optimizing everybody's talent.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City’s shining star amidst the rebuild, knows all too well about having multiple ball handlers on the floor.
Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
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“I think especially in today's NBA with the positionless basketball, it'll work just fine.” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “My first year in OKC we played a lot of the games, a lot of the games with three point guards, and it worked just fine. So I think me, Josh and Theo will make it work.
Just to speak about those guys, those guys are multidimensional players and can do multiple things on the court and are guys that I have trust in,”
Giddey, the Thunder’s top pick in the 2021 draft and likely to be the best passer in his class, will need to get more used to the system than his teammates.
“I’m really excited about that,” Giddey said at Monday’s media day. “And obviously playing with Shai, it's something I'm going to have to get used to and kind of learn how to do so. Obviously we're both ball handlers, but as you said, there's a lot of those on this team, and we're going to all have to figure out how to play with each other, learn how to play off the ball, as well. It's exciting and I'm really looking forward to it.”
Thunder rookie Josh Giddey.
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Oklahoma City will roll out its ball-dominant squad in its first preseason game against the Hornets on Oct. 4 at 7 p.m.
