Happy Thanksgiving, and welcome back to The Graham Jam newsletter! May you be surrounded by family, great food, and sports this week, and I wish you all continued good health and happiness. Thank you for supporting this newsletter.
After a hot stretch, the Oklahoma City Thunder (6-10) have now dropped four of their last five games after back-to-back road losses to Milwaukee and Boston. They'll take the court again Monday night in Atlanta, where the 8-9 Hawks will try right the ship and win their way back to .500.
Anyone looking for some Thanksgiving Eve family entertainment might consider watching or attending Wednesday's game against the Jazz, as OKC will return to the Paycom Center looking to avenge its opening-night loss to Utah.
A big shoutout to Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, whose wife Ashley is expecting their first child! Assistant Dave Bliss has filled in capably for Daigneault throughout this weekend's three-game road trip, which I'll cover more thoroughly in this week's Graham Slam print edition.
In today's newsletter, we'll meet a Thunder two-way player and examine how officiating has changed for the better this season. Let's go!
Last week
Miami 103, Thunder 90 (11/15 HOME)
Thunder 101, Houston 89 (11/17 HOME)
Milwaukee 69, Thunder 89 (11/19 AWAY)
Boston 111, Thunder 105 (11/20 AWAY)
Get to know: Aaron Wiggins
Last week when we discussed first-year Thunder guard Tre Mann, I figured that would be the end of our "get to know" series for the time being. But two-way player Aaron Wiggins has played his way into the Thunder rotation and into this newsletter as another new name that Thunder fans should learn.
Wiggins, a 6-4 guard, is originally from Greensboro, North Carolina, and attended the University of Maryland. He was named the 2020 Big Ten Conference Sixth Man of the Year before cracking the Terps' starting lineup for the 2020-2021 season. That campaign, in which the junior Wiggins averaged 14.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists, was enough to get him drafted 55th overall by the Thunder this offseason.
As mentioned, Wiggins is on a "two-way" contract for Oklahoma City. That means he will move freely between the Thunder and their G League club, the OKC Blue, and be paid half the rookie minimum salary. He can be active for up to 50 Thunder games this year.
Wiggins debuted last Sunday against Brooklyn and played 21 minutes, netting three points to go with four rebounds and four assists. The following night he scored six points against Miami, nailing two of his four attempts from deep.
Wiggins is now averaging 9.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists per 36 minutes in his tiny sample size of a rookie season. But it's his defense that is really turning heads within the organization. After the Miami loss Monday, Daigneault said Wiggins is consistently "competitive" and "ready to play."
"For a young player, he's never in the middle of the defensive mistakes," Daigneault told the media. "He can guard really any perimeter player, and he's a low-mistake defender.
"And then on the offensive end of the floor, I think that's going to take time for him to develop, kind of, his style of play and the balance between aggressiveness and also playing inside the team. But I've been impressed with him — we've been impressed with him — since summer league. Like I said, he's shown nice progress, and we wanted to reward him for that with an opportunity and see what it looked like against two pretty high-quality opponents. He had encouraging performances last night and tonight."
It's impossible to know yet what Wiggins' NBA future will be, or if he even has one. But there's no doubt he has put in the effort so far. With tenacious defense and rapid growth, keep an eye out for Wiggins this season as he looks to become an ever-larger part of OKC's rotation.
No harm, no foul
Careful observers of the NBA might have noticed something interesting this year: a leaguewide decrease in fouls. Indeed, a quick look at Basketball Reference confirms that NBA games are currently averaging 18.9 personal fouls per game for the 2021-22 season — which, if it holds up, would be the lowest number of personal fouls per game on record.
The number of free-throw attempts per game, currently at 19.7, is also the lowest in league history — by a huge margin. Indeed, the second-lowest season was 2017-18, when teams averaged 21.7 attempts, or two attempts more than the league is seeing right now.
So what happened?
Basketball fans will recall that some important officiating changes were announced before the season. Most notably, the league announced it would crack down on "overt, abrupt or abnormal non-basketball moves by offensive players" who were looking to draw fouls. Examples of such moves included things like kicking out the feet after a 3-point attempt, initiating contact with a defender in the air, or changing direction abruptly to create contact before a shot.
It's the kind of play that has had basketball fans pulling their hair out for years; frequent offenders included NBA greats like James Harden, Trae Young and Steph Curry. The league said that flagrant offenders would be hit with an offensive foul of their own, and minor examples would simply be a no-call.
And just like that, problem solved. Players have adjusted their behavior quickly, making for less gimmicky offense and giving defenders a chance.
The leaguewide return to 1990s-style physical basketball has been a welcome surprise for fans and observers. It's true, the change has slashed scoring by more than five points per game off last year's average. But games with fewer whistles are more watchable, fast and fun.
Now if only the Thunder could convert more of the free throws they do earn; their 72% team mark is 28th in the league.
Again, happy Thanksgiving to all, and thank you for reading. Let's look ahead to this week's slate of games before we go. Have a great week, and Thunder Up!
This week
11/22: Thunder @ Atlanta, 6:30 p.m., Bally Sports Oklahoma
11/24: Thunder vs. Utah, 7 p.m., BSOK
11/26: Thunder vs. Washington, 7 p.m., BSOK