Lightning Report: Analyzing why the OKC Thunder offense is exploding

Everyone stepping up

Credit to the Thunder’s development staff: they’ve done an awesome job transforming talented, yet raw, prospects like Jerami Grant and Terrance Ferguson into legitimate game-changers. Both Grant and TFerg have been real catalysts behind the Thunder’s offensive explosion and reliable offensive production from prospects like that is a rarity.

There are a lot of organizations out there who take on raw projects and hope that they can somehow work out who almost never do (ala Phoenix Suns) but the Thunder have done an exceptional job developing their projects.

A big reason why they’ve been so impactful recently is that the team is empowering them to do more than they ever did before. While in the past, they were fairly passive players whose offensive production was largely borne from opportunistic positioning and solid finishing, they both now seem to be actively searching out shots in ways that open up the floor for everyone else.

That’s what happens in the following clip when Grant drives into the lane and creates a great look for himself:

For a team starved for playmakers at basically every position, having someone like Grant who can make plays like that is a huge relief. Not only are they both taking more active roles in the offense, but they both appear to be playing with more intention than before.

Take this cut by Ferguson, for example, which is becoming a pretty routine play within the Thunder offense:

It’s a relatively basic cut, but it’s still something that Ferguson wouldn’t have had the awareness or confidence to pull off last season. With the constant attention Russ demands from defenses, off-ball cuts will always be available.

Their most important value to the Thunder, however, might be their athleticism in transition where they can outrun and outjump almost anyone.

Transition offense

Because the defense has been so suffocating this season, the Thunder have been getting a lot of their offense this year in transition where they’re just short of unstoppable in part because of Grant and Ferguson.

That’s mostly because there really aren’t too many teams out there who can hang with the Thunder when they start doing things like this:

If this isn’t just an aberration and both guys can keep this up through the rest of the year, the Thunder are going to be right in the mix at the top of the Western Conference.