DENVER, COLORADO – OCTOBER 25: Trey Alexander #23 of the Denver Nuggets dribbles the ball while … [+]
The month of October has been busy for the Oklahoma City Thunder, putting on training camp and playing a five-game preseason slate. The team has shown growth and increased chemistry as the month has gone on, but the regular season starts next week and will be the true test.
Oklahoma City has the talent to be a contender this season and will look to make a deep playoff push beyond the regular season. But taking care of the 82-game campaign ahead comes first. Over the past two weeks, we’ve gotten a glimpse of what this team could look like in preseason action.
Let’s dive into the biggest storylines and takeaways from the Thunder’s five-game preseason slate.
Key Injuries
While the majority of the preseason was positive for the Thunder, a significant injury occurred which will impact the next several weeks. In a contest against the Nuggets on Tuesday, Isaiah Hartenstein suffered a small, non-displaced fracture in his left hand and will be re-evaluated in five to six weeks.
The biggest free agent signing in Oklahoma City history, Hartenstein was slated to be one of the most important pieces on this roster. He’ll now have to wait until late November or even December to make his official Thunder debut. To further quantity the significance of this, OKC’s only other true big who has played rotational minutes at the NBA level is Jaylin Williams, who is also currently injured and missed the entire preseason.
Rookie Contributors
Nikola Topic, the Thunder’s lottery pick from the 2024 NBA Draft won’t suit up this season due to an ACL tear, but the team will have two other rookies who could contribute. Both Dillon Jones and Ajay Mitchell had very impressive preseasons and made compelling cases to earn minutes early in the regular season.
Jones produced 11.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists per contest through five preseason games while shooting 46.7% from deep. Meanwhile, Mitchell chipped in 11.5 points and a pair of rebounds and assists, shooting better than 50% from the floor. The Thunder is known for giving rookies opportunities in the first few weeks of the season before the G League starts, so expect to see these two on the floor during the early part of the regular season.
Perimeter Volume
Oklahoma City was the most accurate 3-point shooting team in the NBA last season, but didn’t take all that many attempts relative to some teams around the league. That should change this season, as a theme throughout training camp when hearing from both coaches and players is that the Thunder want to take more triples this season.
Luckily for OKC, there’s an opportunity to do so while maintaining the efficiency. Alex Caruso is a new addition to the roster and shot better than 40% from beyond the arc last season. He’ll be replacing Josh Giddey in the rotation, who struggled to shoot from deep last season. Furthermore, Jalen Williams has been incredibly impressive from three in the preseason on high volume and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s perimeter jumper looks more smooth and reliable than it ever has.
Starting Lineups
While there was some level of uncertainty around who would start on opening night, there appears to be more clarity now that Hartenstein is injured. The likely scenario was always that Alex Caruso would fill the fourth spot in the starting lineup alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and Lu Dort. But the idea of going big to start games with Hartenstein was never ruled out until this recent injury.
There’s always a chance that coach Mark Daigneault could make a surprising move and start someone like Cason Wallace or Isaiah Joe and opt to bring Caruso off the bench, but it seems unlikely at this point. Even then, we still don’t know for certain leading up to opening night, especially since the starting lineup varied throughout the preseason.
In less than a week, the regular season will officially begin for the Thunder. With a tough opening matchup on the road against the Denver Nuggets to kick off the 2024-25 campaign, preseason learnings and lessons will need to be applied in order to have a good start.
