The Oklahoma City Thunder earned 40 wins during the course of the NBA Regular Season. While they still finished below .500, the OKC Thunder were able to clinch a bid to the NBA postseason. The Thunder played in two NBA play-In tournament games, and many lessons were learned throughout this process.
The Thunder downed the New Orleans Pelicans in the nine-verse-ten game, becoming the first Western Conference tenth seed to ever win a game in the NBA Play-In Tournament. In that game, nearly three Bricktown boys posted 30 points, earning a thrilling win on the road.
Three lessons learned from the OKC Thunder NBA Postseason run this season and what they mean for the future.
After that contest in New Orleans, the Oklahoma City Thunder hopped on a bird and jetted to Minnesota. A game away from an NBA Playoff series against the daunting Denver Nuggets.
The Minnesota Timberwolves welcomed Rudy Gobert back into the fold after suspending him for their first NBA Play-In game. Unfortunately, the Wolves overwhelmed the youngest team in the NBA and second youngest squad in league history.
It happens. There were still valuable lessons learned in both of these matchups that can be extrapolated into the future for this OKC Thunder franchise.
During their postseason run, the Oklahoma City Thunder learned that Josh Giddey could be a capable scorer in this league.
The OKC Thunder used the sixth selection in the 2021 NBA Draft on Josh Giddey; after some bad lottery luck, Sam Presti made a surprise selection with the first pick of this rebuild. Since then, Giddey has been under a microscope.
Surprisingly, No amount of hair fluffing, fancy passes, and historic numbers could sell the entire fanbase. Even as recently as a month ago, there was an outcry within the fanbase of people wondering if Giddey could be in Oklahoma City for the long haul.
Most of those concerns center around his scoring ability, highlighted by his outside shooting. With some defensive concerns sprinkled in.
It felt throughout this season, anytime anything went somewhat wrong, Giddey was the scapegoat despite him showing flashes of playing like a star this season.
Even a week into the offseason, as a collective fanbase, there still has not been proper reflection for how good Josh Giddey has been in year two and how much he improved.
Giddey went from 12 points per game to 16 points per game while staying at seven and six assists per game. In addition, the second-year player shot 48 percent from the floor (a seven percent improvement) and 32 percent from beyond the arc (a 6 percent increase). All with just half an offseason of work with Chip Engelland.
Josh Giddey also improved his shot at the rim, from the corner three-point line, above the break, and stayed steady in the mid-range at 43 percent (ranking him in the 66th percentile for his position according to cleaning the glass).
Against the New Orleans Pelicans in game one of the Thunder’s postseason run, the 20-year-old posted 31 points, ten assists, and nine rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the floor and 43 percent from beyond the arc (3-for-7).
Giddey attacked the paint hard, getting rewarded with seven free throw attempts, only missing one.
His ability to play his simple yet effective game, turn the corner off screens and attack downhill, and facilitate the offense in a road postseason game while only committing two turnovers are all encouraging signs for the future.
Jaylin Williams will not be played off the floor in the NBA postseason.
The Oklahoma City Thunder fought through a ton of adversity. Even before the season, losing their top pick, Chet Holmgren, for the entire year thanks to a Lisfranc Fracture suffered in August.
The hits kept coming during the season, seeing Aleksej Pokusevski, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, and Kenrich Williams go down with long-term injuries. This thrusted Jaylin Williams into a starting role for the varsity club after primarily playing with the NBA G-League squad.
The Arkansas produced played well after adjusting to the pace of play and understanding the force it takes to play at this level and quickly became a fan-favorite. From his league-leading charge-taking ability to yelling “Boom!” every time he knocked down a triple, it was easy to root for the smiling rookie.
In the NBA postseason, Jaylin Williams was tasked with facing off against all kinds of NBA big men. From Jonas Valanciunas and Jaxson Hayes to Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert. In postseason games, the style of play changes. It is often hard for bigs, especially rookie bigs, to stay on the court.
Jaylin Williams logged 32 and 22 minutes, respectively, in the NBA Play-In tournament games and thrived in his role. The encouraging part for the OKC Thunder is when healthy, Williams will be coming off the bench.
When you only rely on the 20-year-old for off-the-bench spurts to change the pace and provide that “ground rim protection,” as Mark Daigneault calls it, he gets even more valuable.
He proved over these two games and the back half of the season he deserves a spot in the rotation—a pretty good result for a season that started with G-League triple-doubles.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander proved all season and in the postseason that he is a star for the OKC Thunder.
After question marks surrounded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander coming into the year on if he could be a franchise guy, would he be an All-Star, and so on, SGA answered every question and then some.
Averaging over 30 points a game to go along with nearly five rebounds, five assists, nearly two steals, and a block per game. All while shooting 51 percent from the floor, 34 percent from deep, and getting to the line 11 times a game while stroking it at a 90 percent clip from the charity stripe.
Perhaps the most significant moment for this Oklahoma City Thunder team was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans, after being frustrated in the first half, only scoring seven points on ten shots. It looked as though, for the fifth game this season, Herb Jones once again flustered Gilgeous-Alexander.
While no one has been able to stop Shai Gilgeous-Alexander this season, Herb Jones has done the best job of making life hard on SGA as far as one-on-one defenders go.
In that moment, down six points at the break, the max contract point guard could have pressed the issue. Tried to prove to the world he could get the best of Jones and continue to lead this team. That is often what stars do, which usually worsens the issue.
Instead, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stayed within himself and played his role inside Mark Daigneault’s offense. It resulted in him trusting his teammates and going on a second-half serge himself.
SGA posted 25 second-half points, two rebounds, an assist, and a block while taking and making all eight of his free throws in that half and shooting 66 percent from the floor in 21 minutes.
This allowed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to total 32 points, five rebounds, three assists, three steals, and a block while shooting 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from beyond the arc, and 100 percent at the line.
He was once again the catalyst for a Thunder win, surviving on the road in the postseason, 123-118.
Of course, as an honorable mention, a hat-tip to Lu Dort’s incredible postseason run after a rocky regular season on the offensive end. What lessons did you learn this postseason? Drop your answers below!