With the departure of Lu Dort this summer, everyone's looking to Cason Wallace as the new face of the starting two guard position for the OKC Thunder.
Considering his defensive chops, top-notch levels of hustle, and all-out energy on the hardwood, him serving as the successor to the beloved veteran should prove to be rather seamless.
Of course, the hope shouldn't just be for Wallace to match Dort's contributions in this new role, but to surpass them, and there appears to be one straightforward way for him to do exactly that.
Excitingly enough, he's already proven to have the tools necessary to do so.
A major drawback of Dort's game for most of his time spent with the Thunder was his highly inconsistent shooting. Throughout his tenure, he shot below 35.0 percent from deep in five of his seven seasons and was regularly a pedestrian off-the-catch weapon.
Being the Thunder regularly place in the top half of the league in long-range shots hoisted, and rely heavily on their catch-and-shoot game, ranking eighth in such attempts last season, one could make a case that Dort's struggles in this department held OKC back a bit from reaching their full potential.
Wallace now being plugged in as the starting two-guard has the opportunity to now fully unleash it.
Cason Wallace fell off in catch-and-shoot game for Thunder last season
Along with establishing himself as a true defensive enforcer throughout his three seasons played with the Thunder, Wallace has shown flashes of being a lights-out perimeter scoring threat, particularly off the catch.
Through his first two years with the club, the 2023 lottery pick averaged a 38.9 percent long-range shooting clip and cashed in on 40.8 percent of his off-the-catch three-pointers.
2025-26 saw a bit of a drop-off on both of these fronts, unfortunately, as he posted shooting clips of just 35.1 percent and 35.8 percent in these aforementioned categories, the latter of which was just .6 better than Dort's own success rate.
Needless to say, Wallace reverting to his old habits on these fronts would be a major boon for Oklahoma City's on-court offensive attack and, frankly, for his pursuit of a lucrative new extension with the organization.
Fortunately, he, along with fellow Thunder backcourt talents Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jared McCain, has been spotted putting in the behind-the-scenes work to help up his efficiency out on the perimeter and in catch-and-shoot sets this summer.
Hopefully, the hours he's been putting in this summer lead him toward a regression to the mean.
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