A viewers guide to the OKC Thunder Blue and White scrimmage

The OKC Thunder Blue and White scrimmage is here to tip off the 2019-20 season, and here is your viewer’s guide to all the action.

Basketball is back! Well, for those of us crazy enough to settle in on an NFL Football Sunday grab your drinks and snacks of choice and at Noon central standard time…turn on the OKC Thunder Blue and White scrimmage.

The OKC Thunder tip-off their 2019-20 preseason with their annual Blue and White scrimmage that will get underway at noon on Sunday at the Thunder’s practice facility, the Thunder ION and will not be open to the public. However, this game will be streamed on the official OKC Thunder website, as well as the team’s social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. Links will be available closer to game time.

So what should you focus on during the team’s Blue and White scrimmage, and how much can you take away from it?

Well, let’s start by answering the latter question. Probably not much. Let’s think back to last year’s Blue and White scrimmage. A year ago, Patrick Patterson lit up the floor during the Blue and White scrimmage scoring 20 points on eight shots including five 3-pointers.

So how much you can take away from tomorrow’s scrimmage is strickly tied to how head coach Billy Donovan breaks up the two teams. A year ago in this scrimmage, the Thunder head man put all of his starters on one team, so of course, they dominated the lowly training camp invites and including the likes of Tyler Davis.

However, this year’s team is different. Sure, technically their can still be an uneven team if Donovan elects to literally put all of the full NBA contract players against the training camp and two-way invite players, but I do not think that will happen.

This year, the starting five is not so cut and dry. I mean, If every single one of you put your guess at the starting five in the comment section below we could get a lot of different answers.

The competition for minutes

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The OKC Thunder have a much more balanced roster with battles for minutes being hot and heavy entering training camp. I mean think about how many players want minutes in this rotation. You have three point guards who absolutely have to get minutes in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chris Paul, and Dennis Schroder. The wing spots do not get any easier with Terrance Ferguson, Andre Roberson, Hamidou Diallo, Deonte Burton, Darius Bazley, Lu Dort, and Danilo Gallinari. Down low, you have Steven Adams, Nerlens Noel, Mike Muscala, and Justin Patton all trying to crack the rotation.

With so many players and limited minutes, this Blue and White scrimmage have more stakes attached to it than in any of the previous games.

Possible lineups

The biggest thing to watch for Sunday is possible lineups that Billy Donovan will throw out there. It is important to note that while for example, Chris Paul may start on the white team, Donovan has been known to at the halftime break make a team change and send, for example, Paul to the Blue.

Do you already have a dream lineup in your head that you would die for Donovan to eventually deploy?

The young players

Again, these scrimmages have been deceiving in year’s past. But one thing to watch for is the young players such as Darius Bazley, Deonte Burton, and Hamidou Diallo. Billy Donovan normally puts the young players on opposing teams from his veterans so how does this trio of possible rotational pieces respond?

Will you be watching the OKC Thunder tomorrow afternoon during their annual Blue and White scrimmage? Let us know in the comment section below.

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The OKC Thunder tip-off their official preseason slate on Tuesday on ESPN against the Dallas Mavericks at 7 P.M. local time in Tulsa at the BOK Center.

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