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Oklahoma City Thunder -
Graham Dudley
Good morning, happy Monday, and welcome back to The Graham Jam newsletter!
Thanks as always for joining us each week for the latest news and notes on your Oklahoma City Thunder.
Oklahoma City is still searching for its first win of 2022 after Sunday night's 99-95 home loss to the Denver Nuggets. The defeat brings OKC to 13-26 overall as we near the midpoint of the 2021-22 campaign.
The good news is that, after COVID-19 ripped through the team and the league yet again, most of the Thunder are now out of protocols and back in action. That includes head coach Mark Daigneault, who missed five games with an asymptomatic case of the coronavirus.
It's great to see the team back healthy and on the floor. As omicron and the seasonal flu make their winter surge, we wish continued good health to all our readers out there.
This week in The Graham Jam we'll review the Thunder's first trade of the season and the end of a brief, strange Thunder career. We'll also examine Oklahoma City's first-quarter woes, look at another NBA Draft prospect, and of course review the team's schedule.
Let's go!
Last week
Minnesota 98, Thunder 90 (1/5 AWAY)
Minnesota 135, Thunder 105 (1/7 HOME)
Denver 99, Thunder 95 (1/9 HOME)
The strange saga of Gabriel Deck
In April 2021, the Oklahoma City Thunder signed an unexpected addition to their young and struggling roster: Gabriel Deck, a 26-year-old Argentinian who had spent the past few seasons with Spanish power Real Madrid. Deck, a 6-foot-8 forward with decent shooting stats, was a low-stakes acquisition for a team that needed some talent to fill out its roster.
But the Deck-Thunder marriage ended on Jan. 4 when Deck was waived following a trade with the Utah Jazz. (Oklahoma City got back guard Miye Oni in the deal but later waved Oni, too; the deal was about freeing up cash for the Jazz and securing a second-round pick for the Thunder.) Deck had been glued to the bench for most of the 2021-22 season, seeing the floor very little even after COVID-19 forced OKC to sign G-League players to round out its roster.
So what went wrong for OKC and Gabriel Deck? And why did the Thunder grab him in the first place?
Deck played in seven games for Oklahoma City this season, averaging 2.6 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists. In November, Daigneault essentially admitted that Deck does not fit with OKC's development timeline or its style of play. "He's a really good post player," Daigneault said, "and that's not how we play, typically."
Compounding the confusion was a Twitter account that purported to be Deck's official communications team, which grew increasingly displeased with Deck's purgatory in Oklahoma City. The @TeamTortuOK account — a reference to Deck's nickname "La Tortuga," or the Turtle — tweeted "#FreeDeck" recently in response to another game without a Deck appearance. Once released, that account said "Se terminó la tortura" — "The torture is over."
It seems that Deck was more of a front office project than a favorite of the OKC coaching staff. Acquired to meet the NBA's salary floor requirements this spring, Oklahoma City provided Deck the opportunity to fulfill his dream of playing in the NBA, but didn't give him enough playing time to really interest other teams in a trade. Maybe Deck was capable of playing that well, and maybe not — but we'll never know, as he rarely got the chance to prove it one way or the other.
There were rumors this summer that Deck would depart, but he ended up coming back to Oklahoma. Now, finally, Deck's Thunder days are behind him and OKC can use that roster spot for someone else while Deck gets more playing time elsewhere.
Slow starts
Oklahoma City was blitzed by the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday in Minneapolis, as the Wolves outscored OKC 30-10 in the first quarter. OKC easily outscored Minnesota through the rest of the game, but it didn't matter — that slow start doomed Oklahoma City to a 98-90 defeat.
That got me thinking — just how bad have the Thunder's first-quarter woes been this season? After all, we've been hearing this refrain from the early-going. Whether it's comeback wins or, more often, narrow losses, slow starts have often been implicated in Oklahoma City's poor record this season.
According to hoopstats.com, this suspicion is well-founded. On average, Oklahoma City is scoring 23.3 points in first quarters this year and giving up 27.7 points — a 4.4-point differential. Granted, the Thunder are being outscored in every quarter this season, on average, but the difference in the second quarter is only 1.4 points. In the third it's 0.5 points, and OKC is outscored by 1.7 points, on average, in the fourth.
So clearly, Oklahoma City needs to rethink its starting lineups and mentality if it wants better starts for the rest of the season. The team's most common starting lineup — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Lu Dort, Darius Bazley and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl — is being outscored by nearly 15 points per 100 possessions this year. Fortunately, the team has recently switched up its starting five.
Tank Time
Over the past few weeks, we have examined some of the top prospects who might be taken in the 2022 NBA Draft. I'll be shocked if Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren and Jabari Smith Jr. don't go one-two-three in some order at the top of the draft.
However, much as it pains me to say so, there's a good chance that Oklahoma City won't get a top-three pick this year. They might, they might not. (OKC currently has a 48.1% chance at a top-four pick, if the season ended today.) So let's look at a few other names that might be considered in the top-five or top-10 range this summer:
Jaden Ivey: Guard, Sophomore, Purdue. Ivey's shooting nearly 45% from deep this year for a top-five Purdue squad.
Johnny Davis: Guard, Sophomore, Wisconsin. Davis is averaging more than 20 points per game for the Badgers this year.
Jalen Duren: Center, Freshman, Memphis. A traditional rim protector with a 7-5 wingspan, Duren isn't a shooter but could capably fill the center's role in OKC.
Bennedict Mathurin: Guard, Sophomore, Arizona. Mathurin is a 6-6 wing with a mature game that should translate well to the NBA. The question is whether there is much room to improve, but Mathurin should contribute immediately.
Other than maybe Ivey, no one here is a lock to go in the top five — and in any case, there's a lot of season to play between now and the draft. Since the draft's top prospects are mostly college guys this year, let's hope their squads can make deep runs into the NCAA Tournament to give scouts and fans a better look.
As you can see, Oklahoma City's needs align nicely with big men at the top of the board — Banchero, Holmgren and Smith. After that, it's a lot of guards, and OKC already has plenty of those.
So getting a top-three pick will be important for the Thunder this year. If the lottery doesn't fall in their favor, Sam Presti may consider trading up if possible.
That's all from me this week. Stay warm, stay safe and Thunder Up, Oklahoma!
This week
1/11: Thunder @ Wizards, 6 p.m., Bally Sports Oklahoma
1/13: Thunder @ Nets, 7:30 p.m., BSOK
1/15: Thunder vs. Cleveland, 7 p.m., BSOK