OKC Thunder: How OKC can avoid the rookie wall

The OKC Thunder season is right around the corner, and no that is not just an expression. The annual media day season kick-off is just two weeks away, marking the start of training camps, the Preseason is in under a month and on October 19th the league will be back in action playing regular-season games.

While the Oklahoma City Thunder will not be tabbed as a title contender this season, one of the most interesting storylines to follow is the young players on this roster including five (5) rookies!

How the OKC Thunder could avoid the rookie wall

Every year a week or two after the all-star break rookie production tends to tail off. Even Theo Maledon, who by all accounts had a good rookie campaign and led the Thunder in minutes played during the 2020-21 campaign hit a rookie wall.

Maledon’s efficiency took a dive during the team’s grueling April and May stretch to wrap up the awkward pandemic season. Maledon shot just 30 percent from deep in April while seeing that mark dip to 26-percent in May. He had his most turnovers in April (48), and even saw a season-worst 33-percent from the floor in May.

The NBA is so different from other leagues no matter if you have already been a professional in the case of Maledon, Pokusevski, and now Giddey, or from the college ranks each first-year player hits a wall at some point in the NBA schedule.

Some players are able to hit the wall, sputter for a few days, and burst through. Others, need an offseason to adjust their routine, conditioning, and professional habits.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will attempt to get five rookies acclimated to the NBA lifestyle during this NBA season. Vit Krejci, Aaron Wiggins, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Tre Mann, and Josh Giddey will all enter the season with different expectations and workloads, but will certainly dawn the Thunder blue this year.

So how can Mark Daigneault manage this freshmen group to avoid a dry spell? The league itself builds in better avenues for rookies this season compared to last year’s slate.

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These first-year players get a full offseason, training camp, and preseason. In season, the group also sees practice days, a rare event during last season, and a full G-League season that does not require a bubble.

When you sit down with a legal pad, a G2 black ink pen, and a cup of coffee trying to build out the Oklahoma City rotation it gets complicated.

For a roster projected to finish last in the Western Conference, there are a ton of players vying for minutes.

While working in a returning group of players, plus random projects such as Gabriel Deck, the rookie workload is tough to figure out.

Is Jeremiah Robinson-Earl behind Derrick Favors, Isaiah Roby, and Mike Muscala on the depth chart? How can Tre Mann battle Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Theo Maledon, and Ty Jerome for minutes?

It is also difficult to plot out the minute plan for a two-way contract like Aaron Wiggins, and Vit Krejci is recovering from an ACL injury and over a year away from basketball which will likely relegate him to the Blue for a chunk of the season.

Josh Giddey is the only rookie with a somewhat clear plan. There is little to no reason not to start the 18-year-old right out of the gate.

With the more spaced-out schedule, the NBA G-League’s return, and the returning young players that still need minutes to grow, the Thunder can avoid the rookie wall for the majority of these youngsters.

The OKC Thunder spacing out the workload for Tre Mann, Aaron Wiggins, Vit Krejci, and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl even in the tail end of the season as the team projects to fade to the back of the standings, will go a long way in avoiding the dip in production Maledon saw.

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