Is Cameron Payne ready to take over the Oklahoma City Thunder’s second unit?
Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan needs to make a change to the lineup, especially with the bench unit.
Rookie point guard Cameron Payne has shown flashes of being a good backup point guard, but has had his opportunities limited by the amount of minutes Russell Westbrook plays and the fact that D.J. Augustin gets almost all of the backup minutes.
Augustin is the floor general for the second unit, which is full of players that do not excel at creating their own shots, and he has not done much playmaking for these guys. Most of the time, he plays conservatively and smart, but it is not producing much offense.
The Thunder bench ranks 15th in the NBA in points per game, per hoopstats.com. Defense is also a struggle for most of the players on the bench, primarily with Augustin, who shows little interest in playing defense most nights, and is not big enough to make a legitimate impact on the defensive end.
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Fortunately for the Thunder, they used the 14th pick in the 2015 NBA draft to snag Payne from Murray State. Payne’s playing time has been extremely limited, but he has shown enough to be given an opportunity on the bench unit. All that needs to happen next is for the Thunder coaching staff to believe in him enough to give him that chance.
Comparing Payne to Augustin using per 36 minute statistics because of both players’ limited playing time, Payne has outperformed Augustin virtually across the board.
Payne’s per 36 minute stats are 19.4 points, seven assists and 2.7 steals, as well as a surprising 7.4 rebounds (which could be inflated due to a limited sample size). Comparing that to Augustin’s 10.1 points, 4.4 assists and just one steal, Payne appears to be the superior player thus far.
Donovan may be taking notice, as Payne received a season-high 16 minutes in the Thunder’s Dec. 29 win against the Milwaukee Bucks. He came in and made a huge impact, scoring 16 points to go along with three rebounds, three assists and a steal with zero turnovers.
After the game, Donovan told the media, “I would caution everybody, it’s one game. And I know he played good last game, but he’s going to have his ups and downs, too. I’m prepared to see him go through some of those struggles. He’s a rookie and he’s going to have experiences like that, but he did a great job tonight.”
This may be a sign that Donovan may begin to turn over the reins to Payne on the bench unit.
Other members of the Thunder spoke highly of both Payne’s performance and his ability as a young point guard, including Kevin Durant and Steven Adams in the same piece about that night’s contest.
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Adams told reporters that he has “actually seen a lot better” from Payne, which shows the confidence the surrounding members of the team have in him.
Is it time for a changing of the guard in Oklahoma City?