OKC Thunder: Preseason hints at Lu Dort’s ascension to 3 and D master

With the OKC Thunder finished preseason play the club turns their attention to this coming Wednesday. They’ll be in Utah to open the regular season versus the Jazz.

Preseason offered some hints or who is most likely to help Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to produce offensively. Two players, in particular, stood out as the most likely secondary and third scoring options and both offered an argument to be the OKC Thunder preseason MVP.

Rookie Josh Giddey lived up to the hype filling up the three key statistical categories. However, the player who perhaps served up the biggest surprise was Luguentz Dort. As per usual his defense was on point, but it was his offensive growth that stood out.

Lu Dort serves up 3 and D mastery in OKC Thunder preseason play

Specifically, the Thunder wing’s stats by match were:

Hornets vs. OKC Thunder: Shot 4 of 9 from the field, 3 of 6 from deep for 11 points, plus 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 2 turnovers in 17 minutes

OKC Thunder at Bucks (first game): Shot 7 of 11 from the field, 4 of 6 from deep for 19 points, with 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 1 turnover in 19 minutes

Nuggets (starting core) vs. OKC Thunder: Shot 4 of 7 from the field, 3 of 4 from deep, 3 of 4 from the line for 14 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 turnover in 26 minutes

Dort only broke the 20-minute threshold in the third match featuring the Nuggets (who played their presumed starting lineup).

Although it was an extremely small sample size the clear takeaway was Dort’s improved 3-point shooting. He shot 10 of 16 from the perimeter for a whopping 62.5 percent efficiency.

The Canadian seems more comfortable shooting in general. His shooting motion is fluid although his tendency to pull the ball down first is still a factor.

https://twitter.com/okcthunder/status/1448464339980234754

The work he put in this offseason made a difference and it’s feasible his time with Nick Nurse and Team Canada also helped. Evidence of Nurse’s success can be found throughout his tenure in Toronto. Copious players the Raptors acquired were deemed to be bad shooters like Norman Powell, OG Anunoby, Yuta Watanabe, etc who all mastered perimeter shooting under Nurse’s tutelage.

Whatever Dort did to improve at least in this extremely small preseason sample size the results proved fruitful.  Of players who attempted at least three 3-pointers and appeared in at least three games, only Joe Harris (65 percent on 6.7 attempts) had a better percentage than Dort. That’s heady company.

When Sam Presti locked in Dort the hope was he could develop into a 3 and D specialist. Sure it’s only three games but it wasn’t via a lopsided one-game burst. He was consistent in all three outings and he wasn’t just jacking up shots. In each contest, he took between four and six 3-point shots with his lowest efficiency being 50 percent versus Charlotte.

Intentions will be invested in keeping track of how effective Dort is over a longer stretch of games. But, if he flirts with averaging 40 percent from deep on five attempts he’ll have a legitimate argument to be considered among the premier 3 and D specialists in the association.

To put how ridiculously economical Dort’s contract is in perspective, I’ve offered up five 3 and D specialists. The list includes two established guys in this role and three youngsters. For comparison sake I’ve noted their age, contract (term/dollars) as well as last season’s points per game and 3-point shooting efficiency/ attempts in brackets:

Danny Green – 34-years old,  two years $20M deal, (9.5 points, 3PFG – 40.5% on 6.3 attempts)

Matisse Thybulle – I have to put him in because I’m still annoyed he beat out Dort gaining an All-Defensive team nod in spite of being a reserve and only playing 20 minutes per game.  He’s 24 (two years older than Dort) on a 3-year deal of $2.84M/$4.38M/$6.27M (3.9 points, 3PFG -30.1% on 2.2 attempts).

Robert Covington –  30 years old has one year left on his deal – $12.97M (8.5 points, 3PFG – 37.9% on 5.1 attempts)

Personally, I’d put OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges in a tier by themselves with Dort potentially joining if he delivers consistently from the perimeter this season. Bridges is still awaiting a rookie extension offer with the deadline to get the deal done today. The 25-year old will make $5.5M this season regardless (13.5 points, 3PFG – 42.5% on 4.4 attempts).

Anunoby is likely to be one of Gilgeous-Alexander’s greatest challengers for Most Improved Player. He just turned 24 and was locked up by Toronto with a four-year $72M deal. (15.9 points, 3PFG – 39.8% on 6.1 attempts).

OG could challenge both SGA and also be Dort’s biggest challenger for best 3 and D specialist. The Raptor has improved every season, looked great in preseason, and will benefit from Pascal Siakam being out to start the season so will split the primary scoring responsibilities with Fred VanVleet.

Lu the Beast is the youngest of all these players at 22 with two years remaining on his deal – it’s almost embarrassing that he’ll make $1.78M this season and $1.93M next year. He scored 14 points per game last season and shot 34.3 percent from deep on 6.3 attempts.

While Presti deserves an award just for this deal, the one concern is he’ll enter the 2023 offseason as an unrestricted free agent. He’s such a loyal guy it’s likely he’ll want to stay in OKC to reward the Thunder for believing in him. That said, there was mutual admiration gushing between Nurse and the wing this summer and he’s from Montreal (Toronto has two Montreal natives on their squad – Chris Boucher and Khem Birch) so the Raptors will likely be the main market OKC would need to fend off.

The good news is the OKC Thunder are still two years away from that contract negotiation and in the interim Presti has arguably one of the best 3 and D specialists locked up for less than $4 million. This begs the question — is there any deal in the NBA that remotely rivals the value for the price of Lu Dort?  I’m hard-pressed to find any.