7 Players the Oklahoma City Thunder gave up on too soon
By Elaine Blum
4. Darius Bazley
As a late first-round draft pick, it was always clear that Darius Bazley would be a long-term project. When they first drafted him, the Thunder were intrigued by his size, defensive versatility, playmaking, and ballhandling. He showed great potential early on, too, averaging 13.7 points and 7.2 rebounds in his sophomore season. Bazley’s biggest weakness was always his efficiency, but he clearly worked on that during his time in Oklahoma.
Nevertheless, he slowly but surely fell out of the Thunder’s rotation, seemingly getting lost in their sea of young talent. His minutes went from 31.2 in his sophomore season all the way down to 15.4 minutes per game, and with that dwindled his production. The Thunder used Bazley primarily as a 3-and-D wing, but he might have been better suited for a big man role.
In the end, it does not really matter what all went wrong exactly, though, because the Thunder gave up on Bazley and sent him to the Suns at the 2023 trade deadline. With the Suns, Bazley is seeing even less time on the court though, which is a pity. Yes, the Suns are chasing a playoff spot, but Bazley is only 22 years old and needs a chance to develop and reach the potential he flashed early on in his career.