The OKC Thunder wrapped up their first preseason game and have a few days off before taking their first road trip of the year, going to the defending NBA Champion Milwaukee Bucks. What were the key takeaways from the Oklahoma City Thunder preseason-opening loss to the Charlotte Hornets?
When watching a game live, especially when covering a game keeping fans updated on Twitter, writing game recaps, podcast outlines, you are bound to miss things. The game simply moves too fast, these athletes are too good, when you look down to type, you might have missed a possession. That is why it is important to go back and watch the game over again, multiple times. Including replaying plays over and over again before hammering away a takeaway piece.
This game was streaming on the Thunder website, mobile app, and social media platforms, the Bucks game will return to a traditional broadcast as the Oklahoma City Thunder play on ESPN against the Bucks.
Film Study from the OKC Thunder first preseason loss
The jaw-dropping takeaway from this game centers around Josh Giddey, who was so good I have already produced three podcasts and two articles about the young guard’s first preseason game. Mark Daigneault announced before the game that Giddey would be inserted into the starting five for his NBA debut. It seems as though this will be a long-term plan for the Oklahoma City Thunder to start their prized sixth overall pick rookie all season long next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Josh Giddey had great highlight passes featuring over-the-head flings, off-hand whip passes to the corner, great pocket bounce passes, and a ton of “potential assists” rather than actual assists. At 18-year’s-old (I have to type that as much as I can before his 19th birthday on Sunday) he looked like a veteran on the floor. his maturity, vision, and passing stood out above the rest.
One of the biggest takeaways from Giddey is how effortlessly he collected 18 points. Without hunting his shot, he attacked the rim with relative ease against NBA defenders. He understands how to use his body to shield the ball from defenders and finish at the rim.
That was an easy takeaway and the biggest story of the game, but the team defense stood out as well throughout the first contest.
OKC Thunder try to play team defense in preseason game number one
The Oklahoma City Thunder are projected to finish last in the Western Conference, and one of the worst teams in the entire National Basketball Association. A lot of that is due to the fact the team has one of the youngest rosters we have ever seen.
Young NBA players struggle to play defense, their bodies are not mature enough, they are not skilled enough, they do not understand the tips and tricks yet, to stop high-level grown men in this league. That problem gets compounded as the OKC Thunder want to play small-ball being undersized on the floor and young can result in more than a few busted coverages and fouls.
The first thing about this takeaway is, I am trying to analyze the defense without knowing how much effort OKC Thunder players are truly giving in a preseason game, and also just using my basketball knowledge to guess at who has which assignment.
Mark Daigneault has been a stellar defensive coach at each stop, a year ago you saw him raise the defensive level on every player on the OKC Thunder roster. He understands the small-ball faults and is trying to counter them by playing team defense.
Isaiah Roby in the starting group mainly played drop coverage as the Hornets ran a ton of pick-and-roll actions for LaMelo. The problem is the Hornets are playing a five-out offense, leaving no one in the paint as the action starts.
Melo takes the screen and begins to drive. Ball is a fancy ball handler, elite passer, and a nice finisher, so as Roby plays drop coverage (not hedging on the screen and running Ball off the three-point line, but rather setting back in the paint) and is staring down the barrel of a one-on-on scenario with Ball coming downhill, Darius Bazley begins to rotate down behind Roby toward the restricted area, leaving a corner shooter open.
With SGA on his hip, Roby in front, and Bazley sinking off the corner, Ball goes into the air prematurely, Bazley understands Ball has taken off at the Elbow and does not have a shot with Roby in front of him so he races back to the corner and intercepts a no-look LaMelo Ball pass. That sparks a 3-on-1 fastbreak Bazley-to-Roby-Roby-to-Giddey for a Layup.
That is the picture-perfect example of the benefit of having a small, but extremely long and athletic lineup. Everyone else stayed home, Bazley is the only one to sag off so he knows the pass is coming his way, and he almost baited Ball into this mistake like a safety baiting a quarterback in football.
The Hornets come back down the floor, starting with LaMelo Ball off-ball they run a meaningless pick-and-pop and a dribble handoff gets the ball back to Ball who immediately gets a screen while receiving the ball freeing LaMelo from the Thunder’s top defender, Lu Dort.
Ball turns the corner and again has a one-on-one matchup in the paint with Isaiah Roby. Giddey, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Darius Bazley had to stay home on their men, so they are in no man’s land giving Ball a lane to challenge Roby at the cup and he finishes high off the glass.
If OKC was playing drop coverage with a more traditional center and not a 6’8 wing, would Ball still finish this heavily contested look? Who knows. The beautiful thing about Roby is he will at least stay in front and contest shots. Even against Nikola Jokic last year, while Jokic continued to score over him, with each shot Roby got a hand in his face to disrupt it.
Sure, it might end in a bucket, but sometimes it is a monstrous block by Roby a few plays later on LaMelo Ball.
At times the team concept lead to easy buckets, and the young players looked lost. However, putting lineups on the floor that allows you to switch everything, like when Bazley is at the five, and relying on the team’s length and speed is one of their few advantages on that end of the floor. Trying to bait highly skilled NBA players is a dangerous game, but so is playing a 6’8 center without any other wrinkles. The team even played zone for portions of this game which will be a regular sight this season.
Roby’s replacement, a 6’9 small-ball five, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl entered the game and you could tell was shocked by the pace of the game at first. That led to four quick fouls before the rookie settled in. After getting those fouls out of the way, JRE was great defensively in his debut, hopefully, Sunday of course, it does not take four fouls for him to settle in.
At times this will be fun, fast, aggressive defense. In some games, the OKC Thunder will be noticeably small, lost on rotations, and be scored on at will. It is all part of the process and development of young players. Playing drop coverage was the plan against the Hornets and not just LaMelo Ball. That will likely be the plan against the Bucks as well when Giannis has the ball (if he makes his preseason debut on Sunday in front of the home faithful, after his first practice on Wednesday, the Bucks play on Friday as well, but on the road against the Nets).
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.