OKC Thunder grades features Ty Jerome career-best in loss to Warriors

Clearly, the pregame chalkboard strategy was to make Darius Bazley the primary scoring option as evidenced by his 19 shot attempts.

Since he’s still developing and the goal is to get him to be more aggressive that’s an understandable choice.  He responded with 22 points adding three rebounds, two assists, and a steal.

The positive is he’s staying aggressive. The negative (or the learning point) is when his perimeter shot isn’t falling he needs to attack the paint, move in two feet and take a mid-range shot instead or pass the ball to force opponent defensive movement. He kept shooting the 3-ball and at some point prior to attempting his 13th shot from behind the arc (he only made four) he has to figure out there are better options.

In recent weeks Bazley is taking on the challenge of being a scorer and aggressively hunting his shot. During that time his defense has suffered a bit as he adjusts to the energy it requires to be a two-way player.

Just as TI has ranted about his obvious offensive advantages – the same is true of his defense. His height, reach and quickness make him an ideal candidate to grow into a dominant two-way player.  He’ll get there — it’s only a matter of time and TI still believes he’ll be an essential member of the core as this team grows.

With no college experience and only 20 years old, his trajectory might be a bit behind his peers but many of the league’s young stars make a leap in their third season.  Mark my words — he’s got the talent to be a star in this league, he just needs to believe it.

It was one of those off nights for Isaiah Roby who watched the ball go halfway down the net and pop back out on a couple of occasions. He made uncharacteristic turnovers (three) and suffered some defensive lapses which aren’t typical of his play.

Hey, everyone has those nights and maybe he just needed to be more involved on the offense (only got six shot attempts) resulting in six points. He crashed the glass grabbing five rebounds and added a steal.

He was visibly frustrated and you could see him talking to himself. Perhaps all the losing is taking a toll.

Roby also served up a couple of sweet plays which we’re getting used to seeing in every match from him. No need to be worried about Roby as he’ll bounce back and if I had to bet we’ll see a much better result from him on Saturday.

I’m torn on my assessment of Moses Brown and trying to keep an open mind as I’ve been down on his performances lately. He brings energy to the court and is a solid rebounder. But, his defense isn’t up to the standard of a starting big (in my humble opinion).

He may grow into that role but tonight’s match offered numerous examples of those lapses and how it impacts his teammates.  Lu Dort’s night was made harder simply because Draymond Green was allowed to roam freely on the Warriors’ offensive end. The result was Steph and Dray could run pick and roll or Draymond could set screens to free up Steph or knock Dort just enough for Curry to get loose.

While the box score and Steph’s hot night will all fall on Dort that’s not fair because he was hung out to dry by his teammates. And, it wasn’t always Brown — but his role is to rebound, block the paint and be a defensive presence. He failed on two of those counts in this match.

Perhaps this was Daigneault’s defensive strategy but it seems unfathomable the intelligent coach would just let Dray roam freely on the court knowing how closely he works with Curry.

I could be on an island but I’m more impressed with Tony Bradley (overall game/skillset) than I am with Brown at this point.