OKC Thunder: The exponential rise of Darius Bazley
The bubble
Every so often, we witness the coming of age of a player and it is exciting. As part of my role at TI, I had the joy of covering Bazley and his game. When he is in transition or attacking the hoop, Bazley is a sight to behold. When he took the ball at Joel Embiid and dunked it earlier in the season – – wow.
However, as mentioned earlier, watching Bazley suffering from a lack of confidence behind the 3-point line was painful. This young rookie has the potential to be a really good rotation piece for the next couple of years. He can then craft his game into a starting role near the end of his rookie deal.
The way Bazley has played in the bubble has shown that this is a real and exciting possibility. If there was an award for it Bazley would be in the running for Bubble Most Improved Player. He averaged 13.0 points, 6.25 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in the eight seeding games.
Drained it. @BazleyDarius | #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/7qLO26PODV
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) August 29, 2020
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What is even more impressive is that Bazley shot the ball with confidence. From the floor he went 37-of-87 which is good for a solid 42.5 percent. However, it was his shooting from deep which was eye catching, going 19-of-41. This translates into 46.3 percent which is exceptional.
He had five games in double figure scoring and three consecutive 20 point games. This makes Bazley the first OKC Thunder to achieve this since James Harden. That is no bad company to keep in terms of OKC Thunder records.
Comparing these numbers to those of the pre-COVID regular season and you can see the cause for excitement. Bazley averaged 5.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 0.7 assists. He averaged 39.4 percent from the floor and 34.8 percent from deep. This has been a huge uptick in his efficiency.