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Who the heck is this guy? Dude is averaging 17 ppg in only 28 minutes per game.

As if the Thunder needed another young wing scorer. Team is unreal.

If you watch him play, he's more of a playmaker than a scorer, though he's done a great job attacking aggressively as a weakside driver. He's basically filling in the hole left by J.Dub's injury. He's been OKC's most dynamic guy with the ball in his hands (outside of Shai, obviously).

He showed plenty of flashes in his rookie season. I think OKC fans aren't overly surprised. It will be interesting to see what his role is when J.Dub is back, and if the two of those guys fit together leading non-Shai lineups.

he's been surprisingly stout defensively. his shot distribution and abundance of floaters / middies probably doesn't lend itself to efficient scoring but as a reserve ball handler maybe he can be decent. hard to say with only a dozen games.

Sam Presti (and Thunders organization) human victory lap.
Not only they are the reigning NBA champions, not only do they have a gazillion picks, but they also have the scouting and development system to let a 3th pick blossom like this.
Hopefully he keeps this level and joins Belgium during international competition. His duo with Camara looks very promising.

Obviously still a very small sample size and the schedule hasn't exactly been a world beater for OKC, but out of curiousity I took a small peak at the advanced stats, courtesy of PBPstats.

Ajay is basically playing the JDub role on offense currently, though the defensive assignments are obviously different.

Either way, last season when Jalen was on the court and Shai was off it, Thunder posted a 114.32 offensive rating, and a 109.72 defensive rating. (Sample Size: 700 minutes removing the garbage time minutes)

This season when Ajay is on the court and Shai is off it, the numbers are at 109.73 offensive rating and 92.72(?!) defensive rating.
(Sample Size: 123 minutes removing the garbage time minutes)

It's simple analysis, but thus far the lineups with Ajay on them have been absolutely stellar defensively. The offense is still bleeding points whenever Shai sits, but the defense more than makes up for it.

Will be interesting to see how this trend develops later on in the season, and how he will be used alongside Jalen during the non-Shai minutes.

Given OKCs lack of ball handlers last season, I was disappointed to see him go down. I thought he was going to fill a tremendous need in the playoffs.

I'm glad he's come back without missing a beat. Having Shai, Dub and Mitchell as legitimate ball handlers gives them more flexibility. For example, when Shai is out, Mitchell can initiate offense while Dub moves into a primary scorer type role.

OKC selected Mitchell with the 38th pick in a weak draft, Aaron Wiggins with the 55th pick, picked up Lu Dort undrafted, Jaylin Williams with the 34th pick, an All-NBA player in Jalen Williams outside of the top 10, and picked up 49th pick Isaiah Joe after he was waived.

They not only have the best executive in the league and arguably in the history of the league when it's all said and done, but they also seem to have the best player development staff and scouts in the league (or tied with Miami).

He is probably going to be the runaway winner of MIP

-Luke- wrote:OKC selected Mitchell with the 38th pick in a weak draft, Aaron Wiggins with the 55th pick, picked up Lu Dort undrafted, Jaylin Williams with the 34th pick, an All-NBA player in Jalen Williams outside of the top 10, and picked up 49th pick Isaiah Joe after he was waived.

They not only have the best executive in the league and arguably in the history of the league when it's all said and done, but they also seem to have the best player development staff and scouts in the league (or tied with Miami).

-Luke- wrote:OKC selected Mitchell with the 38th pick in a weak draft, Aaron Wiggins with the 55th pick, picked up Lu Dort undrafted, Jaylin Williams with the 34th pick, an All-NBA player in Jalen Williams outside of the top 10, and picked up 49th pick Isaiah Joe after he was waived.

They not only have the best executive in the league and arguably in the history of the league when it's all said and done, but they also seem to have the best player development staff and scouts in the league (or tied with Miami).

Yeah. For some reason they missed most of their low lottery and 1st round picks(including Giddey here) but got rewarded with the 2nd rounders and auxiliary moves.

Mann, Dillon Jones, Poku, Dieng, Topic(for different reasons) and Sorber(no minutes even if he was available, that's the easiest way to bust in this league).

As far as Mitchell is concerned, he's easily the next Harden. They're lucky he got locked for peanuts for the next 3 years, this kid needs his own team.

And that's why I chuckle about the dumbledores who pout about expansion dilluting the talent pool.

League has never had so much talent. This kid will struggle to crack 20 mpg with an healthy OKC roster and he's probably a 10 mpg guy in the playoffs.

He's a 23-25 ppg 8 apg guy right now with starting minutes and touches.

I need this dude in Minnesota as PG.


Its unfair he is in a roster that dont need him at all lol

Dthrill55 wrote:He is probably going to be the runaway winner of MIP

He's not gonna get enough mins when J dub comes back

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It's easier for guys to develop when the work environment is possibly the best in the league. OKC has done it the right way and the players are an example.