OKC Thunder fall at the hands of Minnesota 116-106: Player Grades

Player Grades

Tre Mann had an even game with flashes of some nice passing mixed with missing open shooters. He has a ton of gravity and the respect from opponents is real. Mann must work on scanning the floor and identifying the open man quicker. He couldn’t get himself going from three but this was one of his better games finishing in the midrange and at the cup.

He finished with 10 points (5-12 shooting, 0-6 from three, and 0-1 from the line), three rebounds, three assists, and one steal in 28 minutes.

Josh Giddey was super aggressive to begin, getting downhill and driving to the cup. He had a couple of nice drives on Jaden McDaniels, using a burst of speed and his body to keep him at bay. There were a few he would like to have back as he missed a couple of bunnies. One thing I noticed is he is very right-hand heavy so keep an eye on his driving to his left. He sprained his right ankle in the third quarter and didn’t return.

I thought he was just OK in his minutes on the floor. Giddey finished with 10 points (5-12 from the field, 0-2 from three), two rebounds, and five assists in 22 minutes.

Luguentz Dort was steady overall and came out shooting with confidence from deep. He landed his first two 3PT shots before regressing to the mean. He was much better driving to the cup, using his big body to bowl his way to the rim. Dort’s shooting touch from deep is something to monitor going forward as he’s opened the year 4-20 but I like the aggressive driving he displayed tonight.

Defensively, Anthony Edwards caused him some issues because he’s super athletic and an aggressive scorer. Edwards made some tough jumpers so hard to penalize Dort for that. Just a steady outing for me.

He finished the game with 20 points (6-15 from the field, 2-7 from three, 6-6 free throw shooting), three rebounds, two assists, and two steals in 30 minutes.

Kenrich Williams provided physicality and intelligent defense. It’s a tall task guard Karl Anthony-Towns on his own and I thought he did a relatively good job. The problem is his size versus a legitimate seven-footer and Daigneault’s desire to double hurt the team more. On offense, Williams was just average but to his credit, he did draw two offensive fouls in the second quarter.

He’s much more effective in second units in my opinion and Williams was the usual – nothing flash or fancy. Kenny finished the game with six points, two rebounds, one assist, and one steal in 18 minutes.

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was one of the Thunder’s bright spots, pouring in 15 points (5-6 from the field, 3-4 from three, and 2-2 from the line), two rebounds, three assists, and one steal in 26 minutes. He was the perfect release valve when Giddey was getting pressured early and his three-point shots were falling. At 6’9, it is very difficult to compete with Rudy Gobert and Towns but he did an admirable job.

JRE played with plenty of heart but one area he will need to improve on is his rebounding. Aside from that, he played a very good game against two of the NBA’s elite big men.