As a rookie, Josh Gedi has proven to be one of the best passers in the entire NBA. How good could he be as the roster of thunder around him improved?
Few teams in recent NBA history have focused so transparently on losing basketball games as the Oklahoma City Thunder. After four seasons of spinning their wheels in the middle of the Western Conference, the Thunder stripped the playoffs down to the studs by selling veterans and absorbing bad contracts for future draws, then using those picks to take high flips in the opposite direction. Draft.
As a result, Oklahoma City’s 108 losses over the past two seasons follow only the Rockets, Pistons, and Magic (who weren’t entirely intentional to grab it). This complicated the task of evaluating anyone on the OKC roster or coaching staff; It is difficult to judge how someone can contribute to winning matches when the team has actively prevented them from doing so.
It’s the context that makes Oklahoma City’s 19-year-old Josh Gedi an almost equally strong selling point and red flag, such an impressive number. A peek into Giddey’s first-year efforts paints a somewhat uninspiring picture: He averaged just over 12 points per game on miserable efficiency while playing poor defense before a thigh injury interrupted his season.
Even for someone who is widely expected to wrestle with the pace of the NBA and athletics, Jedi looked kind of shocking at times. However, in other moments, he cast a shadow of true offensive brilliance, especially as a dealer, and a closer look at the junior season reveals more promising future than some of his numbers suggest.
Even as one of the NBA’s youngest players last season, Jedi quickly established himself as one of the best passersby – a rare combination that shows advanced instincts and a feel for the game. Players of this age are not supposed to see the game as a Jedi does, to create an opportunity the way he can, to manipulate opposing defenses as easily as he did.
It is no exaggeration to say that over time, Jedi could become one of the best passers in the NBA. With a supernatural court vision and an advanced sense of how the pieces move on the field, he has the size and creativity to pass through defenses with varied shooting angles and adaptive mechanics:
Even when the ball wizard was a budding, Jedi Create more points by helping last season of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, among others, ranked in 100th percentile Among the NBA wingers in the assist ratio (although that came with a fairly high turnover). These numbers will stand out in any context, but they are all the more impressive given the environment in which the Jedi worked.
The Thunder ranked dead last by 3 points last season, costing Giddey not only flashy helping tags, but even more valuable space to work in. However, it’s hard not to see how his offensive creativity could transform a more capable support team. If the NBA’s defenders are already making the wrong move by threatening the Jedi with a pass to some of the league’s worst shooters, what fear might he instill when he’s surrounded by several dead shooters? How easy are the Jedi’s scoring chances when driving lanes aren’t constantly clogged up by slack defenders?
Josh Giddey must be able to shoot to maximize his potential in Thunder
Of course, the Jedi himself was a major reason Oklahoma City was such a poor shooting team. His mark of 26 percent from depth was the worst among Thunder rotation players and he shot 24.5 percent in pick up and pick up 3s. This not only lowered Giddey’s overall efficiency, but forced him and the Thunder to work within very narrow limits.
Since the threat of his bird does not intimidate defenders, they can go under ball screens and dare to shoot – the same tactic that challenging shooters like LeBron James and Luka Doncic have faced at various points in their careers. However, Giddey isn’t currently even in those players’ levels as a shooter, let alone an athlete, end-player, or passerby. Doncic and (notably) compensated James for subpar shooting by pressing the edge, which Giddey can’t do now.
It would be unreasonable to expect Giddey to come close to the level of a rising Luka- or LeBron, but these extreme examples still show how a key player’s goal-scoring ability can affect playmaking. If a Jedi develops a reliable 3-pointer pull or a dribbling trick game that allows him to constantly slide, it will become more difficult to protect him because defenses have to take into account his passes and scoring. Giddey’s a decent size for a basic ball handler, and he turned out a neat float last season when he got into the paint:
If a shooter doesn’t become an acceptable shooter, Giddey will likely need a Doncic-esque driving game that uses strength and cunning to get defenders in. Last season offered some promising indications: Jedi took nearly a third of his shots Four feet from the basket and average 12 drives per game (Teammate Shay Giljus Alexander led the league with nearly 24), despite firing an uninspiring 57 percent. On the edge while posting Small free throw rate.
It was also better if he curbed some of his monstrous tendencies to abuse. The same confidence that makes him a precocious playmaker also resulted in some noteworthy shot selection, although some of that was the result of giving Giddey such a massive leeway in a mostly rudderless team.
What role the Jedi will play in the next Thunder team – wherever they form – will depend on his ability as head coach of the ball and his development as a shooter. If he wasn’t able to command an effective team attack as a primary builder, it would be necessary for him to improve his instant shot in order to become a secondary destroyer playmaker. The Jedi will always offer some amount of offensive value as a passer and decision maker, but in order to realize his full potential, he and the Thunder must discover what kind of player he really is and how he can become the best version of himself.
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