The next game, it was rookie (and No. 12 overall) Jalen Williams who shined with 16 points, three rebounds and two steals in 22 minutes. In the final game before going to Vegas, sophomore point guard Josh Giddey had one of the best dunks of the summer so far when he went over his opponent on a pick-and-roll and put Malik Ellison on a poster. That’s all very promising for a young team that has won a total of just 46 games over the last two seasons. Holmgren was the prize pick in the 2022 NBA draft, but don’t overlook the other players they took — No. 11 pick Ousman Dieng (6-foot-10, 7-foot wingspan), No. 12 pick Williams (6 – 6, 7-2 wingspan) and No. 34 pick Jaylin Williams (6-10, 7-1 wingspan). All four are long, athletic playmakers who can slide between multiple positions. “It might not be this year, because this team has to figure out how to play together, but the Thunder will be one of the best defensive teams in the league,” an NBA scout told Yahoo Sports. “While everybody was distracted with where the other guys fell, Sam Presti put together a group of players who are 6-foot-plus, can pass and have a ton of athleticism. Every single one of them. And you’re going to put them next to Giddey, [Shai] Gilgeous-Alexander and [Lu] Cake? Ridiculous.” Giddey, a 6-8 point guard out of Australia, was the first piece of the puzzle in the 2021 draft when the Thunder took him with the sixth overall pick (they also added guards Tre Mann, Aaron Wiggins and forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl). . Last season, Giddey was named Western Conference Rookie of the Month for three straight months before being sidelined in February with a hip injury. The story continues Giddey returned to the court for Summer League in Utah for the first time in four months and looked comfortable alongside his new teammates. Holmgren consistently found the right spot out of the pick-and-pop, and Giddey found his rhythm creating for others when he got into the lane or advanced the ball in transition. Last season, Giddey averaged 6.4 assists per game in just over 50 games. Over the course of three games in Utah, Giddey dished out 28 dimes that left fans in awe of his crafty work in the lane. Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren and Josh Giddey during a Salt Lake City Summer League game against the Utah Jazz at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on July 5, 2022. (Alex Goodlett/Getty Images) “It felt good to get back on the floor and play with these new guys on the team,” Giddey said after his first game. “This is our first game together and we’ve found little things and the more we play it’s going to grow and grow and anything we figure out now in this short amount of time is just a bonus.” NBA personnel tuned into the early games were more than impressed with the way Giddey, just 19 years old, took command of this young team as the Thunder’s floor general. “The way Giddey has so much space with the ball in his hands, it frees up everyone else on the court,” another NBA scout told Yahoo Sports. “It’s going to be tough for those Summer League teams to stop ball movement with those guys who can see over the defense and the way Giddey gets into the paint.” Through the first three games in Salt Lake City, it wasn’t the incredible passes or flashy finishes at the rim that were most impressive, it was the impact on defense. The Thunder wreaked havoc shooting the gaps, lighting everything up and blocking shots everywhere with Holmgren and 7-footer Aleksej Pokusevski in the paint. “I’m very excited and this is a special group of guys and I’m looking forward to what we can build,” Giddey said. “I’m looking forward to training camp when we step things up to start the season.” Adding veteran players to this group during training camp will only enhance the first glimpses of defensive versatility with Dort as one of the best young defenders in the league and a healthy Gilgeous-Alexander in the backcourt with Giddey. The Thunder still have a remarkable 38 draft picks (19 in the first round and 19 in the second) over the next seven years, which has never been done by any other team. There’s a lot of freedom and choice as general manager Sam Presti continues to build something special from the ground up. With so many future draft picks, many wonder if Oklahoma City will try to tank again next season with French phenom Victor Wembanyama and G League Ignite point guard Scoot Henderson waiting in the wings for the 2023 draft NBA. “We just want to be better than last year,” Giddey said. “As long as we keep improving and getting better and better, I think whether it’s the playoffs or not, we’re going to be good. We’ve got a really hard-working group of kids, and I’m looking forward to seeing where everybody is ready and going into the season.” Many teams already make moves each year to put the franchise in a favorable position for the following year’s draft. The Jazz traded Rudy Gobert and Royce O’Neale and got five first round picks and a pick swap in the process. The San Antonio Spurs had three first round picks and drafted young, skilled players to stay in the G League and develop. When talking with scouts around the league in Las Vegas, many believe the Spurs are putting themselves in the tank next season for a top-five pick. The Indiana Pacers and Houston Rockets are two other teams still in the rebuilding phase. That leaves the Thunder. With all the draft picks they have (including a first-round pick and two second-round picks next year), the Thunder don’t necessarily need to land another key player to add to this young, talented team. Only one team is going to land Wembanyama, the touted prospect who could be a generational talent. Only one. It might not be worth sitting players and disrupting the growth and chemistry this current team could create. The day after Holmgren signed, he immediately called Guiday and wanted to hit the gym as soon as he landed in Oklahoma City. The two practiced and ended up with a one-on-one game. “He hit it off with me right away and wanted to hit the gym when he came into town, and from that point on, I knew we were going to have a special talent,” Giddey told Yahoo Sports. “We started going one-on-one and I knew he was going to be a handful for guys to guard him. He may look thin, but he’s strong and powerful with the ball in his hands. You think about any mismatch with a guard and big, the guard has the edge, but he can sit back and defend, and yes, he won that first game one-on-one. “I can’t wait to keep playing with him, and we’re both team-first players and we want to win. What we’re building here is going to be special.” With Giddey already widening the floor in Summer League and finding Holmgren, Pokusevski, Williams or anyone in the pick-and-pop, it’s hard to imagine the front office closing things down to disrupt this development of the dangerous, young group. The Thunder have quietly put together the franchise’s future right under everyone’s noses, and it’s only a matter of time before it all starts to come together on the court.
