OKC Thunder: D.J. Augustin Or Cameron Payne As Backup PG?

How many true point guards have the Oklahoma City Thunder had in franchise history? Russell Westbrook isn’t close to one. Reggie Jackson wasn’t. Neither was Derek Fisher.

You might have to go back to Eric Maynor for the only real true point guard in OKC — up until the team traded for D.J. Augustin last season at the trade deadline.

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It’s one of the roster holes that resulted in the Thunder being one of the teams that moved the ball the least. During the 2014 Western Conference Finals, the San Antonio Spurs were routinely averaging 100-plus more passes per game.

That has a chance to change somewhat this season. First of course, you have the transition from Scott Brooks to Billy Donovan. Donovan has already been called an offensive genius by Anthony Morrow and the players are raving about the space that exists while running his offense just a few days into training camp.

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The other benefit is having a point guard out there who isn’t dribbling for himself. Augustin isn’t like that and neither is Cameron Payne. But how will those backup point guard minutes be split? Does Augustin get them all right out of the gates or will Payne also be given a chance?

Augustin is a very accomplished NBA player in terms of knowing what you’re getting from him, which makes him the safer play over the rookie from Murray State.

Augustin averaged 7.3 points and 3.1 assists per game in 28 games with the Thunder last season. He shot 35.4 percent from three but just 37.1 percent from the field. His Per 36 numbers were as down as they have ever been in his career, averaging just 10.8 points and 4.7 assists per 36.

Brooks played Westbrook and Augustin together a lot — 320 minutes to be exact. The team really struggled defensively with the two out there at the same time, getting outscored by 2.7 points per 100 possessions with a defensive rating of 108.3.

Augustin didn’t grade out too well when it comes to real plus-minus either. He was very poor defensively at -3.24 and was even a minus on offense at -0.76. That’s for the entire season and it should also be pointed out that he didn’t play at all with Kevin Durant, who he is close friends with and played with for one season at Texas.

Augustin can be a liability defensively, but there is value in trotting out a pair of point guards when Westbrook is the other. Donovan should utilize two-point guard lineups some. The question is if Augustin or Payne is the right wing man for Russ.

While Augustin struggled on defense, we also know that most rookies struggle on that end as well. Payne has good size for a point guard at 6’2″, 183 pounds, but still needs to fill out. He averaged 1.8 steals per game last year at Murray State.

The potential that Thunder general manager Sam Presti saw in Payne starts on the offensive end though. Payne, a lefty, averaged 20.2 points per game as a sophomore and dished out 6.0 assists as well. He shot 51.3 percent from two and 37.7 percent from three.

DraftExpress described Payne like this:

"“Payne’s biggest appeal as a NBA prospect is the terrific blend he displays between scoring and passing. He shouldered a huge amount of offense for Murray State (32% Usage, second highest in the DX Top-100), but still managed to remain relatively efficient (57% TS%) and dished out passes at a terrific rate (39.5% assist percentage, #1 in DX Top-100, 7.1 assists per-40, #4 DX-100).“He’s an extremely unselfish player who passes with great creativity and loves to move the ball ahead in transition, either utilizing his excellent ball-handling skills or by finding the open man running the floor.“In the half-court, he changes speeds nicely and has a few different gears he can get to, which helps him in particular on the pick and roll, an area that made up nearly half of his overall offense. Payne sees the floor very well and utilizes all kinds of different types of passes, using both hands and sides of the court with outstanding timing and confidence.“He stays very low on his drives, which, along with his ball-handling ability and variety of hesitation moves, helps compensate for the fact that he’s not blessed with incredible blow-by speed or great strength.”via DraftExpress"

You can see all of that when you watch film of Payne. Something else that really stands out is how confident he looks out there. Granted, he wasn’t playing in the most competitive conference the last two years but he owned that conference.

All of that is great but it doesn’t necessarily mean Payne is ready to contribute at a high enough level in the NBA yet to garner playing time.

The best thing going for Payne is he isn’t an Augustin clone. He has more size and probably more defensive potential down the road. He is a good playmaker and being surrounded by the talent in OKC should help him blossom as a playmaker at the next level. Shooting is always a question but he showed a lot of range in college and hit at a high rate.

Payne has flown under the radar as far as hype surrounding 2015 lottery picks. It makes sense since he’s joining a team as stacked as OKC, but Payne may surprise a lot this season. He’s been proving people wrong his entire career and if that trend doesn’t stop, he may become a key part of the Thunder rotation this season.

Next: NBA: Complete Offseason Grades For All 30 Teams

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