Can OKC Thunder use Australian NBL for talent building?

The OKC Thunder have had success once recruiting from the Australian NBL, why not try again?

Every year each team is trying to find a player who has something to impact the league. The OKC Thunder are no different in this. Like every other team, they are trying different methods to get the best results. It appears that they like what they see coming out of the NBL.

It all started when the drafted Terrance Ferguson with the 21st pick of the 2017 draft. Ferguson, a Tulsa native, chose to skip college and play in Australia for the Adelaide 36ers as a professional. During his stint with the Australian club, Ferguson was not a world-beater. While down under he played 30 games, starting in 17 of them and averaging 15.2 minutes per game. In this time, he averaged 4.6 points (38.1/31.3/60) and 1.1 rebounds per game.

Normally when an Australian club looks for an import, they are looking for a team leader. Ferguson, however, was a role player. Despite this, the OKC Thunder liked what they saw. Instead of putting up numbers against fellow college age student, Ferguson put up these numbers in a foreign country, against grown men.

Sure, the NBL is a lower level league than the NBA but they still target the opposition imports, trying to knock them off their game. Ferguson took this in his stride and gained more experience than most other NBA rookies do at a similar stage in their career.

Then, in the pre-season of that same year, the Thunder played a very plucky Melbourne United outfit that only lost by one point. This was largely thanks to the two blocks by Josh Huestis in the final 15 seconds; I bet Casey Prather still wakes up in a cold sweat thinking about that. Despite the OKC Thunder not playing their superstars for the entire game, this showed the level of talent in the NBL. It also showed that they can be difficult to play against, even as one of the top franchises in the world.

The next prospect

So, when the OKC Thunder drafted Devon Hall in the second round of the 2018 draft (pick 53), he signed with the Cairns Taipans, another team in the NBL. When interviewed by Nick Gallo of the OKC Thunder website, one question asked of Hall was “what he gained”. The first words out his mouth were “experience”.

Hall also stated how it was good for him to play with different players, different coaches and to play with different styles. As Gallo noted, when he came back from that stint overseas, Hall was lights out with the OKC Blue in the ten games that he played. Due to his path, Hall has earned himself a two-way contract with the OKC Thunder.

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While this is a small sample size, it seems that there are other players looking to try the same route. This season LaMelo Ball chose to come to Australia.

He is playing for the Illawarra Hawks and is really focusing on improving his defense. Because of his play in the NBL Blitz, which is the pre-season competition in Australia, Ball is being talked about as a top-3 pick in the 2020 draft.

This then raises the question, if this has worked so well for the two OKC Thunder draft picks and LaMelo Ball improves, could this be a legitimate development path for younger players looking to gain experience in a professional league. College ball can prepare you to a certain level, the G League is a lot of younger players as well.

Playing against seasoned veterans adds a whole new dimension to a players game, one that could be valuable to any team looking who has a slew of later draft picks and wants to fast track development.

Sometimes you have to look outside the box to gain an advantage and a General Manager like Sam Presti could make a partnership like that work.