OKC Thunder: Dennis Schroder is in a dog fight for the Sixth Man award

Not factoring seeding games hurts more than helps Schroder’s cause:

The Clippers are currently seeded second in the West with a 1.5 edge over the Nuggets who’ll they face in their seventh game of the eight seeding games.

Doc Rivers needs to integrate new players such as Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris, and Joakim Noah into their rotation and also get his starting lineup minutes to find their cohesion. That could equate to Harrell and Williams not playing as much in the eight seeding games.

Conversely, the Thunder who’ll try to utilize their youth simply don’t have the same depth of talent and therefore are more likely to feature Schroder especially in the clutch time lineup.

OKC has a shot of moving up as high as second or third seed albeit a slim chance, with the fourth and fifth seeds more realistic and the possibility of dropping to sixth or seventh (perish that thought).

Depending on who the Thunder would prefer as a first-round matchup or align with for the second round could play a factor in how invested they are in playing their core more minutes.

For the purposes of this analysis, I’m sticking to the three players the 20 member ESPN panel extended votes to. However, there are numerous other players who merited consideration. They include:

• Davis Bertans: The Wizards record hurt the sharpshooter’s chances of getting strong consideration, even if he did average 42.4 percent from deep on 8.7 attempts per game.
• Spencer Dinwiddie: The Nets guard lost out on his chance to be a candidate because he started too many games when both Kyrie Irving and Caris LeVert missed time due to injury.
• Norman Powell / Serge Ibaka: The Raptors duo both delivered impressive seasons but injury took them out for 20 and 14 games respectively. Then other teammate’s injuries created the need for them to start. Powell averaged 16.4 points while Ibaka averaged 16.0 points and both players shot an impressive 39.8 percent from deep.
• Patty Mills: Although the Spurs point guard doesn’t register comparative offensive production he leads the reserve unit who rank in the top five of most bench categories.
• Jordan Clarkson: Prior to Bojan Bogdanovic having season-ending surgery the player who offered the x-factor for the Jazz was Clarkson. Now, it feels like he’ll need to be more than that just for the Jazz to get out of the first round!
• Goran Dragic: The Heat relies on the vet to quell the nerves of their young bench and his presence provides that as well as solid playmaking and consistent scoring.
• Derrick Rose:  The Pistons record and his poor perimeter shooting removes the former MVP from the top candidate list.