OKC Thunder: Darius Bazley laser-focused on growth this offseason

TNT host Kenny Smith popularized the saying in the regular season you make your name and in the playoffs, you make your fame! That proved prophetic in 2020 when OKC Thunder youngsters Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, and Darius Bazley each offered glimpses of their potential.

It will be some time before the Thunder youngsters have another opportunity to participate in the playoffs. That’s because Sam Presti recognized it was time to enter a rebuilding phase and his best path to create a title contender would be through the draft.

Presti immediately traded the core talents retaining the youngsters and amassed copious draft picks. This offseason began with the addition of four prospects with Josh Giddey headlining the group. No specific timeline has been stated but the belief is the Thunder will be purposely tanking for the next few seasons at a minimum.

That means those same young Thunder stars will embrace another main concept NBA players follow every offseason. Specifically, that is for players to take the lessons they learned in the season and focus their efforts on expanding their skills.

Players tend to isolate on specific areas of their game to improve such as shooting (mechanics or range), ballhandling, or adding muscle. Every player develops an offseason regimen working with the team and often employing their own team of trainers.

OKC Thunder forward Darius Bazley invests in growth this offseason

Rookies and a few sophomores represent their teams at the NBA Summer League. Some varsity players who desire game action participate in the Goodman and Drew Leagues. Similarly, it’s becoming more trendy for players to train together in order to play pick-up ball and gauge how well their offseason work is progressing.

The goal is to add something new every season although earlier tenured players experience the greatest improvements. Historically, the greatest leaps in production typically occur in the third year.  Rookies are learning what it’s like to be a pro, second-year players make adjustments based on what they learned but between the second and third year they’ve learned how teams will defend them and can more accurately pinpoint the weaknesses in their games.

Darius Bazley is at that stage of his career. This past season offered highs and lows for the forward who dealt with injury missing 17 games.  In his rookie season, Bazley started in only nine games but started in all 55 games he played in 2020-21.

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Despite the loss of several of the core talents, Bazley experienced growth in his second year averaging 13.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game. His perimeter shooting took a dive but he was taking more than double the attempts and facing starting rotations.

Like many of his peers, Bazley is putting in the work this offseason (specifically working on his shooting) and is poised to make a leap next season. A few of the key areas the OKC Thunder are hoping he’ll demonstrate growth is his ballhandling, passing, and perimeter shooting. Undoubtedly, coach Mark Daigneault will be looking for more consistency along with the forward improving defensively and being more aggressive on the offensive side of the floor.

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Having just turned 21 in June, Bazley is younger than many of this summer’s draft prospects so it’s important to keep that in mind when judging where his performance ranks. And, unlike those rookies, the former New Balance intern is getting the benefit of training and playing pick-up with some of the league’s top young stars.

Specifically, Bazley is getting in practice and pick-up games featuring the likes of  Ja Morant, Ben Simmons, Aaron Gordon, Tyrese Maxey, Jaren Jackson Jr., Trey Lyles, and Jordan Bell.

It’s one thing for a player to post a video of themselves hitting copious 3-point shots with only a trainer in their face. But as evidenced in the above film clips posted on Bazley’s Instagram he’s hitting deep balls, driving the basket, and defending at a high level against these stars.

In addition, his body is clearly showing time spent in the weight room. All this points to optimism for the Thunder youngster to be poised to take a big step this coming season.