OKC Thunder: tale of the tape in preseason opener

Darius Bazley’s offense was better than the box score

The OKC Thunder forward has been an easy punching back for over a year now. After a scoreless preseason debut, the smattering of Darius Bazley slander started up again. However, when you look past the box score, Bazley had a really good night offensively given the circumstances.

This was about as preseason as it gets for the Oklahoma City Thunder. It felt like Mark Daigneault hardly ever called a player or an action in this game to set the team-up. It was mainly a game that was meant to get the team’s feet wet and in shape. That leaves a player like Bazley in a bad position offensively. His role, from my vantage point, should not be to hang out on the three-point line and fire off catch and shoot threes. He should be relocating, playmaking, and cutting.

Darius Bazley’s offensive possessions started at the 10:50 mark in the first quarter. The ball goes inside to Isaiah Roby who is doubled in the paint, he kicks it out to Bazley at the top of the key who looks to have an opener three-point shot.

LaMelo Ball rotates over and off of Josh Giddey in the corner. Mason Plumlee leaves Roby and darts out to contest Bazley at the three-point line. Bazley starts his shot motion gets Plumlee in the air as Gordon Hayward has also left Roby to take away the Giddey three.

Roby, all alone in the paint inside the restricted area, now receives a lob pass from Bazley out of his shooting motion. As the ball is in the air, Hayward comes crashing back down and Miles Bridges rotates to the backside of Roby. The ball beats the defenders, Roby quickly turns and goes up, but the high-flying Bridges swats the ball into the stands.

Isaiah Roby immediately raises his hand and points to Bazley, who like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is at half court anticipating a made layup, almost to say “my bad” understanding he should have gone up stronger off that pass.

Bazley also had a great drive in this game. Lu Dort threw a cross-court skip pass to Bazley who was covered by Kelly Oubre Jr. Darius Bazley dumped the ball to the corner for Giddey who was wide open before an aggressive closeout by McDaniels and Oubre nearly trapping him in the corner. Giddey gave it back to Bazley who saw Ish Smith rotate over to him, Bazley used his long strides to get a step on Smith toward the rim. after one dribble at the elbow, the forward with Smith on his hip went up aggressively and pulled back a behind the head dunk that was blocked by Oubre from behind into the arms of Lu Dort.

This drive does not finish the way the OKC Thunder wants it to, but it is about the process, not the results. For over a year, everyone has pleaded with Bazley to be more aggressive, and you saw that aggression on the play which resulted in a quality look at the rim just a better defensive slide from Oubre.

Darius Bazley went 0-for-4 offensively, but each shot was advised and something that in the film room the next day, Mark Daigneault and his staff would encourage Bazley to keep shooting because eventually, they will fall.

The OKC Thunder may have lost the game against the Hornets, but some of the film was encouraging. Let us know if you want more of these film rambling in the future.