The week in review: Takeaways from the Oklahoma City Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder are currently on a five game road trip and this stint has been mixed for the Thunder. Oklahoma City won in Atlanta against the Hawks with a huge come from behind victory.

Since then, Oklahoma City have dropped two games to contending teams, Memphis and Cleveland, and will play Dallas tonight. There have been some great matchups for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander over the last two weeks and this run of duels concludes with Luka Doncic.

Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander are two of the most prodigious shot creators in the half-court and both of them will be focused on using tonight to make a serious case for a starting spot in the All-Star game.

Major Takeaways

Over the past week, the Thunder have had contributors from up and down the roster. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl has been effective in his starting role over the last six games. JRE is playing consistently good basketball and is proving to be a valuable solution at center. His rebounding and smart positioning on defense have shored up the Thunder’s interior.

The other contributors have come off the bench to influence the game. The likes of Tre Mann, Kenrich Williams and Ousmane Dieng have all scored the ball effectively over the last few weeks. That scoring punch has provided a boost to the Thunder’s offense.

It is important that Oklahoma City get consistent scoring out of the reserves. The bench unit play the most minutes of any other second unit in the NBA; Coach Daigneault relies on them to impact the game.

However, the Thunder’s bench only rank 20th in scoring per game. If any player of the Thunder’s bench could produce double digits on a nightly basis, it would make the league sixth ranked offense more potent.