OKC Thunder grades: Ty Jerome has breakout season

The first move the OKC Thunder made when they blew up their roster was to trade Chris Paul and Abdel Nader to the Phoenix Suns. In return, they received a first-round draft pick, Jalen Lecque, Kelly Oubre jr, Ricky Rubio, and Ty Jerome.

The Thunder then traded Oubre, Rubio, and Lecque on to other teams and kept Jerome. This was strange considering that Jerome did not play for the first half of the season, with the exception of the G-League bubble.

He played nine games in the bubble, starting seven of them. He averaged 12.1 points, 3.2 assists, 2.6 rebounds, and 0.9 steals in 24.2 minutes per game. He shot the ball at 39.4 percent from the floor, 29.5 percent from deep, and 93.3 percent from the line.

The OKC Thunder saw something in Ty Jerome’s bubble performance.

The Thunder liked what they saw in Jerome’s game during this time. He came back to the NBA and averaged 10.7 points, 3.6 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 0.6 steals in 23.9 minutes per game. This was well above his numbers from last season when he played with the Suns.

The way that Jerome has produced since he played his first game for the Thunder shows that he deserved to be a first-round pick. He was taken with the 24th pick in the 2019 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. He was traded twice before he was traded to the Thunder.

Now that he has found a home, it appears that coach Mark Daigneault has found a way to unlock his NBA potential. This is why the Thunder have guaranteed the third year of Jerome’s rookie deal.