Roundtable Sessions: Ranking OKC Thunder in key stats categories and the 16 playoff seeds

Tamberlyn Richardson:

So much relies on Billy Donovan and his insistence on the reserves buying into the system. Dennis Schroder proved at FIBA he could quarterback a club and understood when to take over. We’ve yet to experience that same effect and restraint consistently with the Thunder.

Notably the top benches last season weren’t all teams with Lou William types on them. Rather, they were typically youngsters who understood system and role.

With so much athleticism on this club if Billy D pushes the team to prioritize aggressive defense, pushing pace and then ball/player movement I could see the Thunder moving into the top half. That in itself would be a huge leap over the past few seasons. To wit, OKC’s 2018-19 reserve unit ranked 28th in scoring and 29th in efficiency as per hoopsstats.

Rylan Stiles:

I think when it is all said and done the reserve unit will still finish below average. While this is a pretty deep team compared to other iterations of the OKC Thunder, it still is not enough to rank higher than other NBA bench mobs.

Chase Beal-Sharp:

12th

Aidan E:

30th

Matthew Hallet:

The reserve unit is near the bottom still this year, they will fall between 20th and 25th this season.

Kevon Stewart:

8th

Tyler Barger:

12th