Drawing Charges Has Become a Vital Part of the OKC Thunder's Defense

Drawing charges in the NBA is an art, and the Oklahoma City Thunder have perfected it.

Last season, the Thunder were in the middle of the league defensively. That is an impressive feat on its own, given the Thunder’s youth, but their unique style of defense deserves the credit.

Oklahoma City’s defense is designed to help its offense. As a team that sometimes struggles to play in the half-court, Oklahoma City needs to speed things up. That means forcing turnovers and getting out in transition.

The Thunder led the NBA in forcing turnovers, with their opponents giving up 16.8 per game. While charges are turnovers, they are dead-ball turnovers and do not allow the Thunder to run on the fast break. But they may be more impactful.

Live-ball turnovers come in many forms, from bad passes to a player dribbling off his foot. Those turnovers can start fast breaks and sometimes end with easy buckets for the team that forced it.

Charges, however, almost always have a direct impact on the scoreboard. The Thunder cannot create a transition chance, but they can guarantee the other team will not score on a possession that would have likely ended with a shot in the paint.

Without any big man to consistently alter shots and snag rebounds, the charge was often the Thunder’s way to protect the paint. Jaylin Williams is the perfect example of that strategy in action.

Williams was Oklahoma City’s starting center for much of the 2022-23 season and led the league in charges drawn. At 6-foot-10, Williams is not the tallest or most intimidating center, but his defensive IQ and awareness helped him protect Oklahoma City’s painted area.

With 43 charges drawn, Williams led the league by a wide margin, beating second-place Kevin Love’s 33. Williams’s 43 charges taken accounted for more than 19 teams’ totals from last season.

While Williams had some outstanding numbers, he was not the only Thunder player ready to put their body on the line. Isaiah Joe and Kenrich Williams joined him near the top of the league.

Those Thunder players were three of the only seven players last season to take more than 20 charges. With an abundance of great charge-takers, it should be no surprise that the Thunder led the league in that stat by a healthy margin.

By drawing 118 charges last season, Oklahoma City outdid the Miami Heat, who had 91. After those two, no team surpassed 61 charges drawn.

However, the Thunder’s approach to protecting the paint should be different next season. With rookie center Chet Holmgren thrown into the starting lineup, the Thunder will have someone who can protect the rim and consistently finish defensive possessions with a rebound.

While adding a seven-footer likely means the charge will be less prominent, Oklahoma City’s top charge-takers will still be valuable. Jaylin Williams is unlikely to play with Holmgren, but the other two are poised to play big minutes with the rookie.

When Holmgren is on the floor with any of those guys, there will essentially be two layers of protection at the rim. With a high threat of an opponent getting called for a charge or Holmgren forcing a tough shot, the Thunder could have one of the most impenetrable defenses at times.

The Thunder used the charge last season as a unique way of defending the paint since there were few other options. But next season, the charge could be the ingredient the Thunder use to secure one of the NBA’s top defenses.

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