Through three preseason games, we’ve learned a lot about the Thunder reserves but haven’t gotten the chance to focus much on the core players. On Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks inside the Paycom Center, we were provided the clarity we needed entering the 2023-24 regular season.
OKC’s presumed rotational players got three quarters of action against the Bucks’ core and outscored them 96-77 by shooting 60.6% from the field and holding Milwaukee to 39.8% shooting. It was a thorough dominance on both ends of the floor for OKC.
OKC’s reserves maintained and actually increased the Thunder lead to close the game out with a 124-101 victory over Milwaukee in OKC’s last Paycom Center appearance before the home opener on Oct. 29.
But what did we learn? Well, Chet is better than expected (is that possible?). Also, the Thunder are multi-faceted, which will be a nightmare for opposing teams.
Chet finished with 18 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block in 26 minutes. For the second game in a row, I saw firsthand his versatility. He can catch and shoot, post up, take opposing guards off the dribble, and finish at the rim, and don’t get me started with how impactful he is on the defensive end of the floor.
I didn’t foresee him doing these things at the level he’s doing them this early in his career. I assumed we’d see improvement to this point about halfway through the season, but no –– it’s clear he maximized his time sidelined last year, and it’s coming to fruition now.
That leads me to my next point. The Thunder won this game on the backs, at least offensively, of Holmgren, Jalen Williams, and Josh Giddey, who all had big games. Did you notice I didn’t mention Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s name?
Not to say that SGA didn’t have a good game, because I was impressed with him on the defensive end of the floor. Milwaukee focused a lot on him, which explains him shooting 4-for-12 from the floor, but my early assessment shows OKC isn’t just SGA this year.
Williams seems to have picked up where he left off at the latter end of last season. Josh Giddey has made smart decisions with the ball in his hands, and we’ve discussed Holmgren already. The Thunder are becoming dangerous. If teams choose to focus on SGA, three other players are more than capable of generating offense. It puts teams in a bind, which is something we saw the Denver Nuggets capitalize off of during last season’s title run.
I forgot to mention Lu Dort’s defensive effort on Damian Lillard. We should applaud him because Lillard rarely looks discombobulated with the ball in his hands; he did on Tuesday night.
While we should all consciously work not to overreact to one single game, especially a preseason game, we have to acknowledge how dangerous the Thunder core is looking and unlike previous years, they’re going to have a solid bench unit.
