The Oklahoma City Thunder added a ton of size and length onto their roster via the 2022 NBA Draft this offseason. Has it left an odd man out on the roster?
It doesn't get much lengthier than second overall pick Chet Holmgren whose combination of length and dexterity is the most intriguing in years. But aside from their top pick, the Thunder added two more intriguing lottery prospects in French forward Ousmane Dieng and Santa Clara standout Jalen Williams. Then they quadrupled down with their second-round pick, selecting big man Jaylin Williams out of Arkansas.
Yes, Chet Holmgren will all but surely miss the entirety of the 2022-23 season with an unfortunate Lisfranc injury. But even with him out of the picture, the current roster of Thunder players is stacked with similar players fitting the very profile they've loaded up on.
Aleksej Pokusevski has been the poster child for long-limbed potential since his arrival back in 2020. Kenrich Williams and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl have both been featured in the Thunder lineup at one point or another. The former was just signed to a lengthy new deal while the latter started a handful of games at power forward last season.
So where then does that leave former first-round pick Darius Bazley? The prospect most famous for turning down a college scholarship from Syracuse to take a million-dollar internship with New Balance hasn't exactly taken off like the Thunder expected.
On paper, Baze is certainly a tantalizing talent. At 6'8″ with long arms, he offers positional versatility in a league that's trending that direction while joining a team prioritizing player development over short-term results. But the fact that he hasn't done much with the opportunities given to him means the Thunder needed to pull the plug on one of their earliest experiments.
Darius Bazley's non-progression
The Thunder saw some flashes of Darius Bazley's potential towards the tail end of his rookie season. While he averaged just 4.5 points per game before the All-Star break, he upped that to 13.0 points and 6.3 rebounds during the eight contests in the NBA bubble and had his moments in the Thunder's seven-game series loss against the Houston Rockets.
With the team engaging in a full rebuild the following season, Bazley had every opportunity to develop without any pressure as the team's unquestioned starting power forward. While he raised his raw numbers and became a 13-7 player with some perimeter skills, his efficiency was horrendous shooting below 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from the three-point line.
He took an even further step back last season. After failing to do much of anything as a Year 3 power forward with hardly any competition, Bazley was eventually demoted to the bench on a Thunder team that was one of the worst in the NBA last season.
Darius Bazley had the frame and versatility to become the do-it-all forward teams have been seeking endlessly since the emergence of guys like Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo. But Bazley has turned into a player that can do a little bit of everything, but doesn't excel in anything in particular. He's the definition of a tweener without much development in any area.
The Thunder needed to trade Darius Bazley
Even the most ardent of Bazley defenders (are there still a handful left?) would admit that he's squandered chances to solidify his place in the Thunder hierarchy. Now that there are a handful of promising young players on rookie scale salaries joining the roster, the forward rotation just got extremely crowded. With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey now part of a core alongside role player Lu Dort, Baze has turned into the odd man out from the team's earlier selections.
The whole point of the Thunder stockpiling picks, after all, was to find a few diamonds among several pieces of coal. Not everyone could be a hit. Now with the new kids coming in to strut their stuff in order to impress enough to be a part of the Thunder's future, Bazley will likely be reduced to a much smaller role than what he's had in the past. Despite several mental miscues and inefficient scoring, the leash was long as can be for Darius in seasons prior. He won't be afforded the same leniency with several rookies and some current players on the roster hungry to take his place in the rotation.
The Thunder likely would have been wise to free up the space and get whatever value they could for Darius Bazley. They likely wouldn't net much more than a second round pick, but it could very well be addition by subtraction at this point.
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