3 areas where the Thunder should be drastically improved in 2023-24

Areas where the Thunder will improve: 1. Defensive rebounding

Even without a traditional rim protector and a pair of recent second-picks (rookie Jaylin Williams and second-year forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl) playing a lot of minutes at center, the Thunder did a decent job of protecting the rim last season. They were in the middle of the pack in the number of shots they allowed per game within five feet of the basket and above average in the field goal percentage they allowed on those shots.

However, a lot of their effectiveness came from a swarming perimeter defense that often turned into rim-protection-by-committee with wings and their undersized bigs crashing the paint and over-helping. It forced some misses and prevented some easy buckets but it also left them extremely vulnerable to offensive rebounds.

In the clip below you can see essentially all five Thunder players with a foot in the paint as Austin Reaves drives. But everyone's focus is on Reaves and Anthony Davis easily carves out position for the putback.

This kind of play was a common occurrence and a huge problem — the Thunder ranked 28th in defensive rebounding percentage and gave up the most second-chance points of any team in the league.

Holmgren almost certainly isn't going to be an elite defensive rebounder in the NBA but his length and strong rim protection instincts should allow his teammates to keep their aggressiveness and overhelping out on the perimeter, hunting turnovers and steals, instead of blocks and challenges. Better positioning by those wings should help on the defensive glass a ton and help remediate one of the Thunder's biggest weaknesses last season.