Grading the 2021-22 Oklahoma City Thunder bench unit

The Oklahoma City Thunder have a tough decision to make on Ty Jerome, a 6’5 “sharpshooter to posted 31-percent from three last year

Sam Presti has a very interesting offseason ahead, not only is he trying to guide this team back to contention eventually, but he owns four picks within the top 34 of the 2022 NBA Draft. If you believe Presti’s three-hour diatribe at the end of the season, which I do, he is comfortable making four selections on June 23rd and creating a fierce training camp period. Mark Daigneault also hinted at this by saying that come September the team will have a competitive roster internally at camp.

If you bring in four rookies, you need to create four roster spots, and some player who you have watched, grown attached to, or maybe even believe in, will have to go. Ty Jerome is a prime candidate for this, owed just 4.2-million dollars in 2022-23. This will be a big offseason for Jerome and could be the tipping point in his career.

The Virginia product was a first-round pick back in 2019 and was eventually shipped to Oklahoma City during the 2020 offseason in a move that landed the Suns their leader Chris Paul who took the franchise to the NBA Finals.

In 2021-22, Jerome played in 48 games starting just four of them on his way to averaging seven points, a rebound, and two assists while shooting just 37-percent from the floor, 29-percent from deep, but a career-high 80-percent from the line.

As he enters year four and a contract year, Jerome has still yet to define what his NBA skill will be. His calling card so to say. After shooting 39-percent from deep in college, many thought it would be his shooting that carries his NBA career. Though as a rookie with the Suns, he struggled, stroking the deep ball at just a 28-percent clip.

Last season, his first in OKC, the numbers popped in just three more games played but 13 more minutes per game, Jerome leaped his three-point shooting to 42-percent which included 46-percent on corner triples.

In a career-high 48-games played, Jerome’s shooting splits came crashing back down to earth going for just 31-percent from deep, shaving two percentage points off his corner three clip, and a plummet from down 43-percent to 28-percent on non-corner threes.

It certainly seems like the 2020-21 season was an outlier for Jerome, as his 2019-20 season matches almost exactly with the 2021-22 season, with the Suns he shot 28-percent from three (last year 31-percent), 29-percent on non-corner three-pointers (28-percent last year) but did improve from the corner leaping from a 25-percent clip to 44-percent.

Jerome’s mid-range shot has stayed consistent including a career-high 49-percent during the 2021-22 season. His rim percentage was back down from 63-percent to 48-percent ranking in the 20th percentile.

The nearly 25-year-old guard has most impressed me with his off-ball playmaking, though the issue is finding something to compliment that skillset depending on how you view his streaky shooting.

Grade: C, I would set the odds at 50/50 that Jerome is back in Bricktown next season.