OKC Thunder: 3 reasons why James Bouknight is the right pick

James Bouknight plugs one hole immediately for the OKC Thunder

Let’s assume the Thunder selected James Bouknight at six, for a team that trotted out a historically bad offense a year ago, Bouknight becomes at worst the third-best offensive weapon on this team with an argument for second. Falling only behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Kemba Walker who will not be long for OKC, Bouknight adds an immediate lift to the Thunder offense.

Synergy ranks James Bouknight as a very good offensive weapon, his most impressive skill is the fact that he rates out as excellent in isolation situations. The soon-to-be NBA rookie scored on nearly half of his isolation attempts.

James Bouknight also thrives after timeouts, scoring nearly a point per possession out of a timeout (45.6-percent of the time). This is music to Mark Daigneault’s ears, in his first year as the Thunder’s bench boss Daigneault thrived in setting up plays out of a timeout, or any time the Thunder earned a half-court side out.

The only issue was, his best option for most of the season was Svi Mykhailiuk in those situations. Now, it has the potential to be James Bouknight who is incredible in these spots.

Against man defenses, Bouknight scores at a 41.5-percent clip not being phased by defenses hounding him, a good indicator of NBA success is the fact he is not just finding soft spots in college zone defenses. He is creating space for himself, scoring in isolation and against man coverage in the half-court set something he will see a lot of at the next level.

One area of his offensive game that we did not get to see much of in college just due to team personnel, but we should see more of in the NBA, is Bouknight’s bounce. He is a great athlete who can cut into the teeth of the defense and throw down dunks with the best of them. Using him as an off-ball cutter next to SGA would lead to some highlight plays.