Oklahoma City Thunder starting small forward: Lu Dort
The Lu Dort experience is a complicated one. He’s deeply lovable — an absolute joy to watch due to his fiery demeanor and starkly physical presence. In a league where defense can occasionally feel secondary, Dort is always competing with 110 percent effort at the point of attack. He fights over screens, throws his weight around, and never takes a possession off. That carries undeniable value.
On the other hand, he’s a very shaky offensive player who tends to run extremely hot or extremely cold. He’s liable to explode for 27 points in a play-in game, but he will also shoot 38.8 percent for the entire season. Dort’s a good enough shooter to stick in the playoffs, but he’s a player defenses are comfortable sagging off of and possessions can go awry when he’s asked to create off the bounce.
The dichotomy of Dort can be difficult to balance, but OKC has the personnel to accentuate Dort’s strengths while also masking his weaknesses. The spacing issues could become problematic next to Giddey in the postseason, but OKC will generally have shooters at every other position with Chet Holmgren taking over the five spot. Plus, with SGA, Giddey, and Jalen Williams handling the bulk of ball-handling and creation duties, Dort really only needs to function as a play-finisher. He’s not great at finishing plays right now, but it’s not like OKC is asking much of him on offense. He’s out there to focus his energies completely on the defensive end.
Primary backup small forward: Jalen Williams
OKC has a lot of versatile athletes. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that J-Dub is the starting power forward, but he will also see plenty of run as the nominal three. That’s his natural position and the Thunder are swimming with depth in the frontcourt. Expect Josh Giddey to get plenty of run in this spot too when he shares the floor with Gilgeous-Alexander and Wallace.
Other players who could receive minutes at small forward: Josh Giddey, Aaron Wiggins, Ousmane Dieng, Aleksej Pokusevski
Brief aside: the Thunder currently have more than the legally allowed number of players under contract. At some point, cuts are inevitable. That said, there’s a ton of functional depth on this roster. Aaron Wiggins is a legitimate wing defender who hit 39.3 percent of his 3s last season. If he doesn’t cut it in OKC, another team would be wise to jump in.
Ousmane Dieng was a lottery pick last season — one of three alongside Holmgren and J-Dub. Dieng is certainly the least polished of the bunch, but not many 6-foot-10 athletes flash Dieng’s fluidity of movement and ball skills, so he can’t be discounted entirely.