During their recent route of the New Orleans Pelicans, the OKC Thunder tried something brand new -- Jaylin Williams started at power forward, while Isaiah Hartenstein played the pivot.
As a result, Williams responded with 12 points (44.0 percent shooting from deep), three rebounds and four assists in just 23 minutes of play. I-Hart, meanwhile, stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, 14 rebounds, eight assists, one steal, and one blocks.
In the end, the Thunder outscored the Pels by 15 while Jay Will was on the floor, as OKC cruised to a 31-point victory.
Surprisingly enough, in an interview during shootaround in Los Angeles earlier this week, head coach Mark Daigneault spoke on the experimental lineup, explaining how he had never even thought of such an orientation, let alone starting a game with it.
Thunder may have accidently unearthed elite lineup
Williams has had difficulty cracking the rotation when Oklahoma City is at full strength, but when they have needed him in a bigger role, he has delivered. In the nine games last year in which he played over 23 minutes, he averaged 12.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 5.3 assists.
The fact that Daigneault is trying new things in a regular-season game highlights something that the rest of the league is terrified of -- The Thunder expect to win the title.
Games against other teams are no longer about securing wins. They're about learning new skillsets that could help them down the road.
During his media session, Daigneault went on to talk about the benefits of having a true ball-handler like Ajay Mitchell on the court and how it frees up other playmakers to play off the ball more.
The Thunder have obviously grown a liking to this lineup combination, as Mitchell has started off this season with breakout numbers and is running the point more and more each game.
All of the early-season injuries are allowing the Thunder to potentially become even better than they were last year. They're already putting up all-time-type numbers in defensive rating and net rating.
All of this early-season experimentation has the potential to pay huge dividends in the postseason when the difference in winning and going home could be a clutch basket or two from an unexpected source off the bench.
One of the best examples of this is when Alex Caruso took over in certain games of last year's Western Conference Semifinals series against the Nuggets. He played a crucial role in defending Nikola Jokic and made key shots when other shooters inexplicably went cold.
He especially helped the Thunder close out the series when he posted a plus-minus of +40 in their Game 7 win, the highest plus-minus by a player coming off the bench in such a contest in the 21st Century.
With more opportunities available early in the season, Williams might be able to carve out a bigger role come April, when Oklahoma City will need more than just their starting five to take them back to the promised land.