What the Thunder learned playing without centers, and why they're now even more dangerous

Jalen Williams’ new function emerged with none warning.

Williams, a broad-shouldered, 6-foot-5 freight engine, has defended bigger gamers for years, however nobody ever tagged him with the label to match. Till not too long ago, the 20-point scorer appeared as your typical small ahead. Three weeks in the past, exterior forces determined he would not be one.

Earlier this month, the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder misplaced one 7-footer, Chet Holmgren, to a pelvic fracture. One other, Isaiah Hartenstein, was already sidelined. With none typical huge males, they changed Holmgren within the first unit with the 6-foot-5 Isaiah Joe. That meant an adjustment for Williams, the workforce’s new closing line of protection.

Williams would battle with the opposition’s facilities every night time. He would line up at heart circle to take leap balls on the beginnings of video games. Every leap was a little bit shock, a reminder {that a} lifelong perimeter participant was now down low with the massive boys.

“I’m gonna be shocked tonight after I do it,” Williams joked final week main right into a sport in San Antonio, the place he defended Spurs 7-footer Zach Collins. Solely two nights earlier, he had scrapped with a few mammoths in Dallas, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Full of life II.

In actuality, the Thunder’s do-everything man couldn’t have been so shocked, even when Williams’ dimension deviates out of your normal heart archetype. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault by no means truly informed Williams — or any of his teammates, for that matter — that he can be the one to take leap balls. It was “assumed,” as Daigneault put it.

“Who else is gonna do it?” the coach stated.

And who else can be the workforce’s heart for the six video games that neither Holmgrem nor Hartenstein might begin?

The Thunder have trusted Williams to protect bigs since lengthy earlier than accidents compelled them into it. He’s defended brawny scorers comparable to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Zion Williamson or towers like Victor Wembanyama and Karl-Anthony Cities. Even when Holmgren was wholesome, Oklahoma Metropolis would sometimes throw its shot-blocker on a non-shooter so he might roam as a free security with Williams defending the opposite workforce’s heart. Earlier than Holmgren was within the image, when the Thunder deployed a tinier roster and a trio of not-so-imposing fives, a rookie Williams needed to slide down a place or two.

“I simply tried to make (guarding huge males) a ability, add one thing else to my sport,” Williams stated. “I really feel like I do rattling close to the whole lot effectively on the courtroom. So in my thoughts, it was simply a kind of issues. Like, why wouldn’t I be capable of do it? And I simply kinda maintain getting the chance to do it.”

However this example was new — 48 minutes of guarding facilities up for grabs with no assist from any giants in sight, a Williams fever dream.

Because the clever thinker Aaron Wiggins, who moonlights as a Thunder ahead, put it, “Tonight, he’s a middle. Tomorrow, who is aware of what he’ll be?”

Such is the best way to outlive in Oklahoma. No workforce and no protection can shapeshift just like the Thunder. Identical to Williams, OKC’s identification is that it has many.

Daigneault will flip via beginning items or substitution patterns commonly. He’s tried 188 lineups thus far this season, sixth most within the NBA. The groups forward of the Thunder in that class are injury-ravaged ones, such because the Philadelphia 76ers or New Orleans Pelicans, who’ve tossed out desperation combos solely as a result of their prime guys haven’t been in a position to play. On someday, the Thunder will go small. On the following, they’ll develop outsized. They toggle out and in of a zone protection or they swap with their meeting of multifaceted defenders or they transfer to different varieties of coverages.

With the facilities current, they’ve not less than one deterrent within the paint, somebody to scare away any dribbler who dares method the basket. They line the perimeter with ravenous guards and wings. They gobble up steals just like the basketball is doused in gravy. With out both of the bigs, they’re a cloud of gnats.

Now, Hartenstein’s fractured hand has healed. Oklahoma Metropolis’s greatest free-agent signing from this previous summer time entered the beginning lineup this week and simply performed his third sport of the season on Wednesday, when the Western Convention-best Thunder downed the Golden State Warriors, 105-101. Williams departed the sport early after an inadvertent poke to the attention. Holmgren, a beanstalk rim protector who will likely be out not less than one other 5 to seven weeks, has already missed eight video games. Hartenstein, whose analytics graded him as one of many world’s most daunting paint defenders final season, has missed 15.

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The Thunder nonetheless lead the league in factors allowed per possession. They pressure extra turnovers than anybody. The development has remained true with or with no top-notch shot-blocker: This workforce, which is now 14-4, doesn’t defend fairly like another — particularly when Williams runs at heart, which Daigneault calls “a muscle that if we do it successfully, which we’ve accomplished up to now, will assist us sooner or later.”

When the Thunder go small, all eyes give attention to the paint. Williams mans a middle. Fellow energizer Luguentz Dort will tackle the opposite workforce’s highest-usage perimeter participant. Different stalwarts line the surface. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a grasp in passing lanes and has turn out to be one of many league’s higher shot-blocking guards. Alex Caruso is a hound, as are Wiggins and Cason Wallace. Their purpose is to make any ballhandler or screener uncomfortable. Daigneault talks about “rhythm.” The protection’s job is to interrupt the offense’s.

Caruso will stunt at a dribbler, then get better again onto his man. When drivers attain the free-throw line, he has an uncanny means to step towards them and swipe the basketball away. Williams and Dort do the identical.

“Generally, it’s not even about stealing it,” Williams stated. “It’s nearly making someone assume you may steal it.”

The Thunder are lurking.

As soon as the ball hits the paint, arms swarm down low. They may ship aggressive assist from the weak aspect, typically the robust aspect, wherever they want. They may hand over nook 3s after they’re small, however they received’t make any shot simple.

“All people is in there and preventing,” Dort stated. “That’s all we are able to ask for.”

With out Holmgren or Hartenstein on the courtroom this season, the Thunder pressure turnovers on 21 p.c of their defensive possessions, a charge that may rank No. 1 within the league by far if it belonged to a workforce for the season, in line with Cleansing the Glass. And right here’s one other shock for Williams, one even higher than the six leap balls he’s lined up for this season: Their defensive rim effectivity (the factors they permit per shot on the rim) when neither Holmgren nor Hartenstein is on the courtroom can be the NBA’s eighth-best, in line with Second Spectrum.

To maintain it easy: The Thunder, even with out their rim protectors, shield the rim higher than most.

“The start of the play, if the (ballhandler) is beneath duress, it modifications the rhythm of the play. They’re not entering into their steps in a rhythmic manner,” Daigneault stated. “After which it’s simply competitiveness on the rim.”

On Monday, Hartenstein entered the beginning lineup for the primary time. He’s been a direct hit, reaching a double-double in all three of his video games thus far. The Thunder now have a traditional heart, which slides Williams to a extra run-of-the-mill function, one to be anticipated from a hyper-efficient, scoring and facilitating wing who wouldn’t usually exhaust himself wrestling folks practically a foot taller.

As soon as Holmgren returns (and the Thunder say he will likely be again earlier than the top of the season), Oklahoma Metropolis can pair the 2 facilities collectively. Each wall off the paint. Holmgren shoots 3s and assaults closeouts off the dribble. Hartenstein is an knowledgeable screen-setter, passer and curler. They may function alongside one another, particularly for brief stretches. In these moments, particularly if the bash brothers of Dort and Williams are on the market and if the stringy Gilgeous-Alexander joins too, the Thunder will likely be large.

In fact, that received’t change who they’re — as a result of their identification is that they play nevertheless the state of affairs dictates they need to.