The Oklahoma City Thunder have done nothing but get better during the 2023-24 NBA season. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, coming off a stellar campaign in which he made the All-NBA First Team, continues to be an incredible driving force at the point of attack, while Chet Holmgren, after missing the entirety of last season with a Lisfranc injury, has been a two-way sensation, filling the Thunder's need for an intimidating presence at the five.
And so far this season, the results have been promising, with OKC going off to a 4-3 start to the season. More importantly, they pass the eye-test with flying colors, especially during their clash against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA In-Season Tournament. Even without Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder still had more than enough talent to hold the fort, and they've managed to gather plenty of two-way players up and down the roster that should put them within contention of 50 wins sooner than later.
But in the early goings of the 2023-24 season, one player who was looked at as a major part of their core has been lost in the shuffle. It's still early days, but the underlying statistics show that the OKC offense might be shifting away from this player's grasp, which takes away from a lot of his strengths on the basketball court.
What's happening with Josh Giddey?
There's not quite a player in the NBA similar to Josh Giddey. Giddey, drafted sixth overall by the Thunder in 2021, is as unorthodox a player as it gets. He doesn't have the prototypical flashy handles of a lead ballhandler, preferring to do his damage in quick changes of speed and overpowering opponents on drives. Giddey isn't a very dangerous scoring threat off the bounce either, although he did shoot a respectable 40.3 percent on pull-ups last season.
And then there's his outside shooting; for a guard, Giddey is below-average in the three-point marksmanship department. He has struggled with catch-and-shoot threes for his entire career to this point, shooting 33.7 percent on those kinds of shots last season on mostly wide-open looks.
Even with those shortcomings to his game, Josh Giddey still projects to be a well above-average player due to a few things. First of all, size is something that can never be taught. At 6'8, Giddey is a walking mismatch problem. There aren't too many players who can hang with Giddey on the block, which the Thunder have utilized on multiple occasions. And Giddey, thanks to his size, can see over defenders easily, manifesting his passing vision with absurd passes that have earned him the nickname SLOB Wizard.
Giddey is also a positive contributor on the boards, crashing the offensive glass relentlessly, all the while being a high-level connective playmaking piece that keeps the Thunder offense humming.
However, during the 2023-24 season, Josh Giddey's numbers have been down across the board. Some of it has been due to his terrible shooting efficiency, which will undoubtedly tick up. There's simply no way that Giddey will continue to shoot 42.7 percent from two (he shot 49.2 percent as a rookie and 52.4 percent last season). Last season, he shot 54.1 percent from closer than 10 feet. This year, he's shooting 43.5 percent. Expect those numbers to bounce back.
But Giddey, by and large, might also be a more uninvolved person in the Thunder offense, which has contributed to his struggles from the field as well as his timing on some of his drives and passes. He's averaging 3.0 turnovers against just 4.3 assists — his worst A:TO ratio should that trend hold.
His frequency of touches has also gone down; last season, Josh Giddey led the Thunder with 76.7 touches per night, which is understandable seeing as he was the team's lead offensive initiator. But the arrival of Chet Holmgren and the emergence of Jalen Williams, not to mention the justified increase in touches for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, has led to a fall for Giddey in the team's offensive totem pole.
Giddey's touches are down by 7.3 this season, and his average touch time has declined as well, which shows a trend that the Thunder are going away, even by just a bit, from him on the offensive end of the floor.
And he has received the ball more nearer to the hoop, getting more post-up touches and paint touches; perhaps taking away his playmaking from the perimeter has sapped quite a bit of his positive impact on the Thunder offense.
The only way to maximize a smaller role is to be more efficient, scoring-wise,, and yet the decrease in touches has led to a worse overall output from Giddey. It's only been seven games, but the Thunder may have to make sure Giddey doesn't get lost too much in the shuffle even as they try to give Holmgren and Williams a bigger role. At the end of the day, it's fair to question just how much room there is for positive regression for Giddey as he adjusts to more of a support role.
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