Josh Giddey Impresses in Win Versus Jazz Amid Criticism Over Early-Season Performance

It's been a recurring talking point within this Thunder team for nearly the entire season — Josh Giddey's fit within Oklahoma City's starting core and offensive play style as a whole.

As it's already realized head coach Mark Daigneault has marked the beginning of this season as an experimental period, testing a number of different lineups in various on-court situations.

Through this mindset, Giddey's efficiency struggles and, at times, stagnancy within the offense, he's seen less minutes in pivotal moments late in games.

On top of that, the third-year guard is seeing his lowest amount of playtime in his career thus far, averaging 26.6 minutes per game in November. And now, four games into December, his minutes continue to sink at 22.5 minutes a night.

Daigneault's now looking at different pathways to enhance Giddey's performance along with cohesion within certain lineups, including the second unit.

"The non-starting minutes have been a moving target, we've moved a lot of things around," Daigneault said pregame Monday night. "I think the beginning of the year is a good time to do that so we learn as much as we can about our team.

"We've had [Giddey] out there in those times a good amount... But we've moved him and a lot people around. Once we get six minutes into the quarter, that's different just about every night right now."

Giddey remained in the starting lineup, as he has all season, against the Utah Jazz, and had one of the most productive and efficient games of his whole season so far.

He'd end up with a near triple-double, having 12 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Most notably was his caution with the ball, registering those passing numbers with no turnovers, making it just the second game this season where he hasn't turned the ball over at least once.

While it's been a rough start to his third season with virtually all of his season averages at a career-low, maybe some lineup changes catered to Giddey's on-court style can be advantageous for him.

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