OKC Thunder: How Isaiah Joe Improves His Game in 2025-26

The OKC Thunder's deep rotation was crucial in the team's quest to win the NBA Finals last season, and guard Isaiah Joe was a crucial part of that depth. That deep rotation causes competition; Joe has his hand in the mix of potential candidates for key roles off the bench.

The guard out of Arkansas said his job is just to "focus on basketball" and make sure he is the best player he can be.

"Every training camp we have a lot of competition. And we get better and grow... my job is to focus on basketball, continue to grow personally and continue to find ways to help the team win," Joe said at Thunder media day.

He exclaimed that lineup decisions are all up to Head Coach Mark Daigneault. Basically, Joe has been in OKC long enough, entering his fourth season with the team, to know how this coaching staff works.

Despite playing 21.7 minutes per game during the regular season, Joe dropped to 10.0 minutes per game during the playoff run. This is due to a few flaws in his game that hinder his chance to showcase his three-point shot.

Last season, Joe averaged 10.2 points and 2.6 rebounds per game while shooting 43.1% from the field and 41.2% from three-point range on 6.3 attempts a night. He played 74 games and started 16 of them.

In the playoffs, those numbers dropped to 5.1 points and 1.4 rebounds per game. Despite shooting 41.1% from three on 2.7 attempts, Joe could not find consistent minutes in the playoffs.

The 6-foot-5 guard has struggled with defense throughout his career, and that caused his role to diminish during the playoff run. Joe stated at media day that defense is one of the many parts of his game he has been working on.

"...continuously working on my shot, trying to create more space out there on the floor. I think my game complements our main guys quite well that like to get downhill and like to play through space. Always working on my defense, my size, my IQ, things like that," Joe said.

Defense has always been Joe's weakness, and if he can just slightly improve on that, end he will become a top role player in the NBA. He has already been able to compensate for his weakness in on-ball defense with his knack for drawing charges.

Joe was fourth in the NBA in charges drawn per 36 minutes last season with 0.38.

With one improvement to his game, Joe will go from a good player to a great one.