The most surprising team in the playoffs so far is the Thunder, although they are the first team in the West, but everyone also knows that they are a very young team, the oldest of the team's starters is only 25 years old, in the case of inexperience, they reached the second round of the West, and now they are playing against the Mavericks, who have been able to achieve this result not because of luck like the Pacers, but because they are good enough.
In the playoffs, many of the Thunder's young players played top performances, the team's boss Alexander's offense is too stable, although the three-point projection is not particularly good, but he has a stable mid-range projection, and can rely on singles to lead the team to win at critical moments, Alexander has averaged 29.5 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.8 blocks per game in the playoffs so far, with a shooting rate of 48%.
So far in the playoffs, Alexander has outperformed Doncic, and it's not for nothing that he was able to finish second on the MVP list this season. In addition, as a rookie in the playoffs, Jayway's performance is also good, he can stand up and lead the team forward when Alexander is off the court, and so far in the playoffs, Jayway has averaged 19.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game, shooting 46.6% from the field, and integrating offense and defense.
And Holmgren theoretically said that this was his rookie season, but he didn't expect him to play far beyond expectations, thanks to the selection of the best rookie not to look at the whole season but only to look at the regular season, otherwise Wemban's best rookie is really hard to say. Although Chet is thin, he is not afraid of confrontation, and Chet's defensive prediction is too good, so he is also very good at protecting the basket, and he has been the first in the league in blocks so far in the playoffs.
Holmgren has averaged 15.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 3 blocks per game in the playoffs so far, shooting 48% from the field and 29% from three-point range.
In addition, Dort lost the draft, and as a result, he became the team's big gate and became the most reliable defender around the three young people, although he is very dirty, but I have to admit that the Thunder can win, Dort's defense is indispensable, according to statistics, in his defensive type, so far in the playoffs, Doncic and Ingram have faced Dort's total 77 31 shots, with a shooting rate of only 40.2%, for these two are no strangers to everyone, they were very efficient scorers before.
As a result, in the playoffs against Dort, Ingram averaged 14.3 points per game and shot only 34.5%, and Doncic averaged 26.7 points per game and shot only 40% from the field, which was too spicy. Although Dort's style of play makes many fans disdainful, but without him, the Thunder would not be able to reach the current height, now he is a qualified 3D, and the Thunder also plan to keep him for a long time and let him assist Sanshao.
Seeing that this may be possible, many fans will say, isn't the Thunder four less? It's really a four-year-old, and there's a 21-year-old first-round pick No. 6 Giddey, who was ignored because Giddey didn't play well in the playoffs. Giddey has averaged just 20 minutes per game in the playoffs so far, scoring 9.3 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists, shooting 44% from the field and 38% from three-point range, and averaging 1.4 three-pointers per game.
He's good efficiency and stats, so why is there so little playing time? Because his defense is not good, he is often targeted by opponents, so he reduced his playing time, and in the four games against the Mavericks, he averaged only 12 minutes per game to score 6 points, and was directly abandoned. Truth be told, it's no wonder Giddey was dropped, he just hasn't gotten the ball he deserves, and he, a player from the No.1 position, is now being forced to play the No.3 position.
Although he is 2.03 meters tall and has enough size, after all, he is a point guard and suffers from his confrontation ability, and it is understandable that he can't prevent the No. 3 position, but the coach often abandons him because he can't prevent it, and then goes to the Twin Towers. The Thunder coach doesn't know that Giddey is more suitable for playing in the backcourt, but the key problem is that there is no place for him in the backcourt, the No. 1 position is the team's boss Alexander, and the No. 2 position is Jayway, both of them are better offensively and defensively than Giddey.
According to the current situation, the Thunder will most likely not renew Giddey in the offseason, because they need to set aside the maximum salary to renew Jay and Chet, in addition, the team also needs to take Giddey's potential chips in exchange for the right puzzle pieces, the biggest problem of the current Thunder is the lack of a qualified forward player, Giddey is only 21 years old, if it weren't for sacrificing the ball, he would have played close to the star's data, he can attract the attention of many teams.
Speaking of which, what do you have to say about the current Thunder and Giddey? Welcome to leave a message to discuss.