{"id":120288,"date":"2025-01-27T14:17:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T19:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=120288"},"modified":"2025-01-27T14:17:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T19:17:19","slug":"thunders-play-style-needs-center-to-be-successful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/27\/thunders-play-style-needs-center-to-be-successful\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Thunder’s Play Style Needs a Center to be Successful"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Thunder have dominated almost every team in the NBA this season with a 37-8 record. They look like the best team in the NBA, and the young core is ready to take that next step. However, out of those eight losses, four of them have come when the Thunder didn’t have either of their top two centers playing. In addition, if you count the game where Chet Holmgren<\/a> got hurt<\/a> and only played five minutes, then it is five games out of eight. Even though the Thunder have been successful at times with the small ball lineup, they can’t sustain it for long-term success. For the Thunder to run the play style they want to run, they need a center in the lineup.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, the Thunder played almost a small ball lineup for the whole season. They had Jaylin Williams<\/a> start who is a smaller center at 6-foot-8, and Kenrich Williams<\/a> was the backup. That year, they went 40-42 and lost in the Play-In Tournament. The following year, they had essentially the same roster. However, the difference was Holmgren. That season, they went 57-25 and became the youngest one-seed<\/a> in NBA history. This was a 17-win increase from the previous year.<\/p>\n

The question becomes, why do the Thunder need a center for their play style to work?<\/p>\n

Why The Thunder’s Play Style Needs a Center to be Successful<\/h2>\n

Having a Center Allows Them to be More Aggressive on Defense<\/h3>\n

The Thunder have the top-ranked defense<\/a> this season and were in the top five last season<\/a>. Their ability to create turnovers and force the opposition to make mistakes is one of the main reasons they are so dangerous on that end of the court. Lu Dort<\/a>, Cason Wallace<\/a>, and Alex Caruso<\/a> can all be more aggressive and take more risks knowing there is a center there for backup. The Thunder’s defense looks way more fluent when there is a center out there playing. They can play fast and speed the opposing team up on offense. In addition, they can close out faster on shooters, making shots more difficult as well.<\/p>\n

However, when there is no center available, the Thunder can’t be as aggressive as they want to be. Their wing defenders have to be more conservative knowing there isn’t a shot-blocking big there to help. When this happens, they aren’t able to create the same amount of turnovers, and they need that for their high-energy aggressive defense to work. In addition, when they do try to take risks and it doesn’t work, the opposing team has an easy layup because there isn’t a big to block the shot, or make the shot difficult.<\/p>\n

Helps Their Biggest Weakness in Rebounding<\/h3>\n

In the last couple years, the Thunder’s biggest weakness is rebounding as they have ranked in the bottom half. Ultimately, one way the Thunder try to combat that weakness is by creating turnovers. As long as they can earn more points off turnovers than the opposing team gets second-chance points, they will take it. Furthermore, having a center has helped limit their rebounding woes, especially this year with Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a>. If this team is causing double-digit turnovers, and they aren’t getting bombarded on the glass, they are almost unbeatable.<\/p>\n

However, when they don’t have a center, their rebounding woes show up more. Their wings and guards have to help out with rebounding more which doesn’t allow them to get as many fast break opportunities. Now, they have to rely on forcing more turnovers to combat the rebounding weakness even more. If they aren’t able to create turnovers with the small ball lineup, they won’t be very successful on defense. The Thunder can play small ball, but they can’t do it with the hope of having long-term success. This team isn’t built for that.<\/p>\n

Changes Their Dynamic on Offense<\/h3>\n

Having a center on offense also changes the Thunder\u2019s dynamic on that end of the court as well. With Holmgren, the Thunder have a lob threat and also a pick-and-pop threat. The defense has to honor Holmgren\u2019s shooting ability which opens up other things for the Thunder on the court. With Hartenstein, the Thunder have a lob and pick-and-roll threat. In addition, Hartenstein’s passing annd screening ability<\/a> opens up more avenues for the Thunder’s offense as well. Whenever Hartenstein or Holmgren is out, their offense can attack the opposing team in many different ways.<\/p>\n

However, when they both aren’t playing, and the Thunder are playing more small ball with Jaylin Williams at center, their offense can struggle. They don’t have the same options for attacking teams without a true center. They rely more on driving and shooting threes to get points on offense. It just seems like their offense doesn’t flow as smoothly as it does with a center in the mix.<\/p>\n

Last Word on The Thunder Play Style Needing a Center<\/h3>\n

The Thunder have been successful running small ball this season. However, they need a center to fully maximize the potential of this team. In addition, the Thunder are very dominant with one center, and they haven’t even seen how good they can be when Holmgren and Hartenstein are playing together. The Thunder won’t be able to win the Larry O’Brien trophy without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander,<\/a> their MVP candidate<\/a>. However, not having a healthy center is just as important as Gilgeous-Alexander is for their hopes of winning it all this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Thunder have dominated almost every team in the NBA this season with a 37-8 record. They look like the best team in the NBA, and the young core is ready to take that next step. However, out of those eight losses, four of them have come when the Thunder didn’t have either of their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5171,"featured_media":120323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,22],"tags":[4292,993,4049,1489],"class_list":["post-120288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-thunder","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-isaiah-hartenstein","tag-jaylin-williams","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120288"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120324,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120288\/revisions\/120324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}