OKC Thunder: Theo Maledon is showing consistency
The NBA season is a month old and the OKC Thunder have been surprisingly good. They have also had games which were really bad but that is a nature of a young team. Through it all, Theo Maledon has been extremely consistent.
While consistency is not the most glamorous you can use to describe an NBA player, for a second-round pick to achieve this tag in the first month of his career is pretty special. Maledon has been able to find his niche in the rotation and is making good, so far.
In another plus for Maledon, Breacher Report released their piece grading every top rookie for the 2020 draft. Unlike his fellow Thunder rookie, they rated Maledon highly as he has managed to translate his potential onto the court while overcoming some perceived weaknesses. They also highlighted his poise on the court as a positive.
OKC Thunder rookie Theo Maledon is still a work in progress.
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Despite averaging 6.3 points, 2.8 assists, and 2.4 rebounds for the first month of his career, there is plenty to work on. He is currently shooting 37.4 percent from the floor, 30.0 percent from deep, and 45.5 percent from the line.
He is flashing tremendous potential getting to his spots and making jump shots. While he is not making them as often as he would like, he has the ability to make the slight correction and start shooting just north of 40 percent from the floor.
This should take his scoring average closer to 10.0 per game which will be beneficial in years to come for the franchise. This will also mean that his impact on the box score will come closer to zero as he only has three games where he has a positive impact on the box score out of 14.
On the flip side, Maledon has five games where the team has lost ground by more than 10 points. As the leader of the second unit, he needs to translate his consistency to the rest of this unit. That is the next challenge for Maledon and the coaching staff.