OKC Thunder Lightning Report: Film breakdown on why Patrick Patterson shouldn’t start

Jerami Grant now and into the future:

Grant’s improved dramatically since he arrived in Oklahoma, and he’s now at the point where he should be competing for starting minutes and looking to take on a bigger role–and the Thunder should be trying to find any ways to give him both.

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If the team is going to ever get over the hump in the NBA or even in the Western Conference, they need their young guys like Grant, Nerlens Noel, Hamidou Diallo, and Terrance Ferguson to develop into useful players.

OKC don’t project to have any cap space going into the next few years so chances of them getting meaningful, external help are slim. Given that, they should be looking to give their best prospect, Grant, as many reps as feasible to catalyze his development and try to max out on his ceiling.

Even though he would theoretically be a prospect in that role, it’s not like we’re talking about a raw project who’d hamstring the team’s overall success–in fact, he’d arguably boost it. The Thunder have had a fair amount of trouble for the last two years figuring out how to get stops without their best defender in Andre Roberson on the court.

Grant has risen to challenges:

But, Grant has proven time and time again he has the wherewithal and athleticism to be a plus-defender against a variety of different positions. The difference between him and Patterson  isn’t immense, but it’s big enough to make an impact at some level.

Offensively is where the real difference starts to presents itself. Whereas Patterson’s game on that end has essentially been “stay in the corner and stay out of the way,” Grant brings a dimension of dynamism and explosiveness the Thunder have been missing at the four since their move to OKC. He’s a bouncy leaper who can wreak havoc diving to the rim sure, but he’s also a sneakily good playmaker off the dribble who can create his own shot–albeit inconsistently–and get to the rim.

Like in the possession below where he blows by Nemanja Bjelica and gets to the rim where he finishes through the trees:

Though there are times when he’s wildly out of control driving to the basket and it doesn’t turn out this well, the mere addition of a player like him offensively could do wonders for an OKC Thunder offense that’s run into a myriad of problems in recent years simply because it doesn’t have the creators to meaningfully alter defensive schemes.

He’s not going to step in and be the third star for them offensively, but he can surely take spot minutes as a fourth option and that might be enough.