OKC Thunder: What to watch for during Thunder Summer League

The OKC Thunder tip off NBA Summer League action tonight against the Detroit Pistons and top overall pick Cade Cunningham.

The Oklahoma City Thunder rolled out an interesting roster ahead of the Vegas event, with a ton of storylines to follow over the next two weeks.

What to watch for at OKC Thunder Summer League

The Thunder are set for at least a five-game stretch in the Vegas NBA Summer League, and as a basketball junkie, I will watch every minute of it as if it is the finals. As I have since the dawn of time, or at least since I was old enough to know summer league was a thing.

However, this year is different than most. I will no longer be sitting in a dark room alone tweeting into the void about random Thunder players we will likely never see again performing well.

This year, the team is comprised of players who hope to be mainstays in Bricktown for a long time. If Sam Presti’s plan works, these same players will be the ones helping the OKC Thunder hoist a Larry O’Brien trophy.

There are plenty of storylines for even the most casual Thunder fans to watch the summer league this time around.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR:

Josh Giddey 

The 6th overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft will have a ton of eyes on him early. Sam Presti elected to go off the beaten path with this pick. Passing up Jonathan Kuminga, James Bouknight, and others to surprise the NBA Draft community with Giddey at six.

His first test? Fellow big rookie guard Cade Cunningham. The NBL Rookie of the Year was a triple-double machine. Can he put up a few in the NBA Summer League?

Perhaps the most important thing to watch for is Giddey’s shot, after stroking the trey ball at a 30-percent clip in the NBL, how much better can he get during his first taste of NBA action?

Giddey has also admitted he has never played next to a lead guard before, he has always been the lone player responsible for the ballhandling duty. How does he play off of Theo Maledon? The guard who led the Thunder in minutes played a year ago.

Theo Maledon

Theo Maledon had a phenomenal rookie season a year ago for a second-round pick. Due to the bulk of minutes he was forced to play, he did hit a rookie wall at the tail end of last year. However, unlike his fellow rookie Aleksej Pokusevski a year ago, Maledon did not get to enter the NBA G-League Bubble. His contributions to the NBA club were too valuable.

Now, Maledon gets to go up against players who are closer to his level, and players he is frankly better than. How much of a leap can he take in production playing against this caliber of competition? The OKC Thunder are hoping it serves as a huge confidence boost for the 20-year-old.

position-less basketball!

Sam Presti and Mark Daigneault have pushed their chips all in on “position-less basketball.” A phase you will get tired of hearing in the coming years. As a small market, the team hopes this is their version of baseball’s “Moneyball”, exploiting a market inefficiency.

Without a center on the roster for Summer League, and no player above 6’9, the Thunder will get their first look at just how valuable this new strategy can be. This is something the team will also deploy a lot in the regular season.

On the current Thunder roster for the 2021-22 NBA season, the lone bigs are Mike Muscala and Derrick Favors. While both are qualified and productive players, the organization will prioritize the minutes of players who still have room to develop. Once they run those two off the floor, the team will not have a true center in the conventional sense.

Look for Jeremiah Robinson-Earl to thrive in this small-ball five role and benefit greatly from Josh Giddey’s dump-off passes.

Tre Mann 

Maybe the player I am most looking forward to seeing is Tre Mann, the OKC Thunder’s 18th overall selection in the 2021 NBA Draft from the University of Florida. The Gators have been a strong pipeline for the team, as that program gave the organization Billy Donovan, Mark Daigneault, and now Tre Mann.

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Mann’s calling card is his offensive outbursts. The ability to shoot from all over the floor, and create shots for himself. As the Summer setting is not exactly going toe-to-toe with high-level NBA players, his transition should be made easy.

The hope is for Mann to be able to dominate offensively in Vegas. This five-game stretch will serve as a touch-point for Mark Daigneault and his staff to evaluate when crafting next year’s early-season rotation. Can he handle the NBA right away?

Josh Hall and Jaylen Hoard

Depending on how the Thunder want to maneuver roster spots, there is a real chance that both these players are battling for the final Two-way contract. After the organization extended the first of two spots to Aaron Wiggins, that leaves one spot for possibly two players.

They each have an argument for earning a full NBA contract, but the easiest path is to just nab that second two-way spot.

Hall is a phenomenal athlete that can leap out of the gym, finish at the rim, and even has shooting upside. A fun, young player, that could be a diamond in the rough.

Jaylen Hoard is a more polished player at this stage of his career, and while he never overwhelms you, he just does his job at a quality rate.

This sets up a fun Summer League battle and healthy competition amongst teammates. Who will stand out over these five games and get a boost entering training camp and preseason play at the end of September?

What are you most looking forward to at the NBA Summer League?