The narratives around the Oklahoma City Thunder this season has predominantly fallen back on the play of MVP candidate, and the league’s leading scorer, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Needless to say, that’s fair in many respects.
However, the Thunder are more than their best player, and one area that seems to largely fly under the national radar is how deep they truly are.
Optimized Role Players
While Oklahoma City have a clear Top 3 of Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren, the pieces around them are quite notable, in particularly due to now well they fit the aforementioned trio.
In this piece, we’ll forego the core of players right below, meaning Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Lu Dort, as some of those players are bordering on star level.
Thus, we go a bit deeper.
Aaron Wiggins has been a steady 3&D wing over the past two seasons, who plays off the team’s stars in such strong capacity, the team awarded him with a five-year contract last summer, worth $45 million. His 6’7 frame allows him to switch onto multiple players, and his size gives him the flexibility to play in both big and small lineups, as he can utilized as both a big off-guard, and a small four.
A similar type of deal was handed out to Isaiah Joe, who received $48 million over four seasons, as he functions as a high-level scorer off the bench, primarily feeding off the attention given to others. Joe is a 6’3 dynamo, who takes a lot of three-pointers, is a surprisingly good rebounder for his size, and plays a scrappy blend of defense, often having an impact much larger than his size would suggest.
Wiggins (9.5 points in 21.0 minutes), and Joe (9.4 points in 20.7 minutes) are both in their mid-20’s and have embraced their roles as being complementary pieces, seemingly understanding that both are close to their peak as players.
