Oklahoma City

Thunder ROSTER

The Oklahoma City Thunder were one of the biggest surprises in the 2019-20 season. Most folks counted them out early on, only for this team to prove their doubters wrong by clinching a playoff spot in a ruthless Western Conference.

While defense proved to be the Thunder's strong suit in 2019-20, they were a pretty solid offensive team as well. All in all, they amassed an offensive rating of 110.1, which was 17th in the NBA.

Scoring-wise, OKC put up 110.4 points per game. That ranked just 21st in the entire league.

When you look at field goal attempts, OKC totaled just 85.5 per game in 2019-20, which was a lowly 28th in the NBA. This had a lot to do with star point guard Chris Paul, who operates best in the half-court. With CP3 gone, it is possible that the Thunder incorporate a more run-and-gun type of play this season.

Despite their lack of attempts, the Thunder made their shots count. OKC made 46.8 percent of their attempts per game, which was 10th in the league.

OKC didn't hoist too many triples, logging just 30.2 per game (27th) while making 35.5 percent of their shots from rainbow territory (18th).

The Thunder did a great job getting to the line. They attempted a total of 24.8 free-throw attempts last season (fifth) while making 79.6 percent of them (sixth).

One of their biggest weaknesses last season, however, was their offensive rebounds. The Thunder logged just 8.2 boards on the offensive end last term, which was dead last in the NBA.

Interestingly, despite having one of the best playmakers of all time on their squad, the Thunder averaged just 21.7 assists in 2019-20, which ranked 28th in the league. They took care of the rock extremely well, though, averaging just 13.7 turnovers per contest (sixth).

Needless to say, with a revamped roster for the new season, we expect significant changes in their offensive numbers in 2020-21.

Despite their lowly preseason expectations, the Oklahoma City Thunder emerged as one of the best teams in the entire league in 2019-20. This had a lot to do with their defense as a unit.

In terms of their overall defensive rating, the Thunder ranked seventh in the NBA last season at 108.1. Let's break this down here.

OKC allowed their opponents just 108.4 points per game, which also ranked seventh in the league. They held opposing teams to 89.6 attempts per game (19th) on a 45.5-percent shooting clip (10th).

Thunder opponents were able to attempt 33.3 triples per game (10th) while connecting on just 34.0 percent of them (third).

Oklahoma City was extremely cautious with their fouls, averaging just 22.8 per game -- a very impressive second fewest in the entire league. This resulted in opponents taking just 19.6 free-throw attempts per contest (third).

Rebounding, however, was one of this team's biggest weaknesses. They averaged just 42.9 boards per game (23rd), with 34.7 of them coming on the defensive end (15th).

The Thunder swiped the ball 7.6 times last season (16th) -- a number that will likely decrease now that Chris Paul (1.6 steals per game in 2019-20) is out of the picture. Their opponents averaged 14.2 turnovers per game last season (18th).

OKC was also a mediocre team in terms of blocked shots, averaging 4.9 swats per game (15th).

The Thunder are currently under rookie head coach Mark Daigneault, who at 35 is the second-youngest head coach in the league after Ryan Saunders of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Daigneault served as an assistant to Billy Donovanin 2019-20. He clearly did enough to impress the Thunder brass, with the front office deciding to promote Daigneault as the new head coach after parting ways with Donovan in the offseason.

Daigneault cut his teeth as a student manager at UConn under legendary NCAA coach Jim Calhoun. He then started his head coaching career as the shot-caller for the Florida Gators from 2010 to 2014. This was followed by a five-year stint with the Thunder's NBA G-League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue.

Having no prior experience as an NBA head coach, there's no denying that the Thunder took a huge gamble in naming Daigneault as the squad's head honcho for the 2020-21 season.