Oklahoma City Thunder: Jeremy Lamb Starting To Blossom
At the risk of jinxing it all, I’m calling it: Things are finally clicking for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Jeremy Lamb.
Coming into the NBA back in 2012, the UConn product was seen as a potential replacement for the departed James Harden, and for good reason.
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Lamb had all the necessary skills to thrive as OKC’s scorer off the bench thanks to his smooth outside jumper which enabled him to shoot nearly 35 percent from 3-point range during his Husky days, in addition to having a pretty good ball handling skills. Plus, his silky smooth style of play made it pretty fun watching him too.
But for all the attributes he possessed, there was always one thing that dogged him: consistency.
All too often, the young shooting guard would put on a decent showing, followed by a slew of stinkers. Heck, sometimes you’d actually forget he was even there because he would be so quiet.
As a result, coach Scott Brooks never developed much trust in him and Lamb played took part in just 23 contests as he found himself bouncing in and out of the D-League squad.
The following year, his game appearances saw a significant jump as he played in 78 NBA games. However, he was still plagued by inconsistency and therefore failed to claim the role now vacated by Kevin Martin.
In 2014-15, though, things are beginning to come together for the 22-year-old. Dare I say, he is actually starting to acclimate himself with the role OKC has been so desperate for the past few years. And a huge reason for that, no doubt, is the fact that he went through baptism by fire this year.
With Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook both missing for extended periods of time to start the new campaign, Brooks had no choice but to trust in his “lesser” players, who wouldn’t otherwise see a heck of lot of significant game time.
All of a sudden, Lamb saw a bump in minutes having gone from 6.4 minutes in his rookie year, all the way up to 26.4 this season — and he is all the better for it.
Now, he seems to be more comfortable while he is going to work and the biggest tell, is how aggressive he is being. Simply look at his free throw attempts which jumped from just 0.7 per game in his first two years in the NBA, up to 2.8.
While that’s not a boat load of attempts per game compared to the like of say, James Harden who makes a living at the charity stripe with 9.6 attempts, the increase is still significant enough for others to notice.
"“I just love Jeremy’s confidence right now,” Durant said recently as he voluntarily singling Lamb out . “I love his aggressive play.”"
Furthermore, thanks to players such as Lamb, the Oklahoma City Thunder have seen major contributions from players off the bench.
Coming into the game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, Oklahoma City’s second unit had the third best scoring output over the past five games, providing 40.8 points per game, according to hoopstats.com. In those contests, Lamb has been putting up 11.8 points, in less than 20 minutes per game.
It might also be worth mentioning that in the last four games, he has put up 16 ppg and OKC have won three of them. Just saying …
In addition to his offensive play, Lamb has been getting it done on the defensive end too. Obviously he hasn’t turned into Tony Allen and become a shutdown defender all of a sudden. Far from it. He is still getting beaten and getting caught slipping at times, but those moments aren’t as frequent.
And against the Utah Jazz a few games ago, he was locked in defensively, zeroed in Gordon Hayward and finished with three steals and a block for his troubles.
Even Scott Brooks was impressed, saying: “Jeremy came in and gave us a good game,” head coach Scott Brooks said, per Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman. “Obviously he scored a bunch of points, but he competed on the defensive end. … He earned his minutes tonight.”
Overall, maybe it is somewhat premature to say Jeremy Lamb has finally coming into his own just yet. Plus, he’s still a fair way away from the kind of production the Thunder envisioned. Although, there is certainly no doubting that he was taken great strides in the right direction.