OKC Thunder: Grading Theo Maledon’s tremendous rookie season

OKC Thunder season highlights for Theo Maledon

Maledon had a very rookie style start to the season. He had several double-figure scoring games, but also many more games where he made only one or two buckets. This all changed when the rookie became a starter. He started scoring consistently which had him averaging 12.3 points per game.

In just his third game starting, Maledon hit a then career-high 24 points. He missed one shot from the field and went 6-of-6 from deep which was just a joy to watch. His 3-point shooting had been spotty at best prior to this game.

Maledon would go on to have five games where he scored 20 points or more including a 33 point effort in the blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns. He was really good from deep again this game. His best game was his double-double against the Atlanta Hawks where he had 13 points and 12 assists, helping the team to a win.

Maledon is also able to use his court vision to get into the passing lanes on defense. He had 13 games where he had two or more steals. He had two games with three steals, a game where he had four steals, and in the win against the Houston Rockets, he had an amazing six steals.