How Raymond Felton will fit into the OKC Thunder’s backup point guard role

The OKC Thunder needed a backup point guard and decided to re-sign their former backup point guard from last season, Raymond Felton.

The Oklahoma City Thunder had an agenda going into this offseason. They had to re-sign Paul George and Jerami Grant, but they also had to get a backup point guard and a backup center. The OKC Thunder have accomplished all those things.

The Thunder will sign Nerlens Noel to a two-year deal to solidify their frontcourt depth, and later on Tuesday, Raymond Felton agreed to a one-year, $2.4 million deal to help solidify the backup point guard position.

The Thunder are spending the money to make their roster competitive for the next year. Last year, they decided to build a Big 3 that did not work well enough together, so it has yet to be seen if a second consecutive season will yield different results.

However, there’s something to be said for continuity, and Felton will give the Thunder a veteran backup scoring option off the bench. Early in his career, Felton was a starting point guard and consistently put up double-digit averages in the scoring column.

In his first 10 seasons, he had double-digit scoring averages, with the highest season being 15.5 points per game in 2010-11 when he played for the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets.

Last year, Felton was the second-highest scorer on the Thunder bench with 6.9 points per game. Grant was the highest-scoring player off the bench with 8.4 per game.

Felton has been in the league for 14 seasons and he will be a crafty veteran that will help Oklahoma City score off the bench. He can shoot the 3-ball which helps as well. He shot 35.4 percent from downtown last year.

More from NBA Free Agency

• 3 NBA teams who’ll be kicking themselves for not upgrading in free agency
• 4 Offseason acquisitions that could push their new NBA team over the top
• Instant Grades for the Lakers’ unprecedented Anthony Davis extension
• 4 NBA stars who demanded a trade that didn’t happen
• NBA Rumors: Chicago pursuing the best remaining free agent

A good backup point guard does not turn over the ball. In the 16.6 minutes per game that Felton played, he only turned the ball over 0.9 times per game.

In that regard, one player that you can compare him to is Shaun Livingston, who played backup point guard for the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Livingston played 15.9 minutes per game and only turned the ball over 0.8 times a game.

If the Thunder want to contend for championships, Felton will have to keep that same kind of play up next season.

Russell Westbrook is a player that takes risk and will always turn the ball over. Last season, he led the league in turnovers per game with 4.8. Felton and Westbrook are like a quarter. There are two different sides and two different options. Either heads or tails.

In assist-to-turnover ratio, Felton was 56th and Westbrook was 122nd among all NBA players. With Felton you are getting better ball control, as you should in your backup point guard.

The Thunder have a lot of young players that will be called on to make contributions next year coming off the bench. Players like Terrance Ferguson, who is going into his second year and is their first round pick from 2018, will look to earn a bigger role this time around.

Oklahoma City could have gotten a fast guard like Ty Lawson or Devin Harris, who would’ve helped struggling shooters like Patrick Patterson get more corner 3-point opportunities, but with a fast point guard comes with more turnovers. Last year Lawson had 1.9 and Harris had 1.1 turnovers per game.

Next: 2018 NBA free agency tracker: Grades for every deal so far

Overall, Felton is a good, veteran option at the point for the second unit. The newly acquired Nerlens Noel will benefit from having Felton control the point, as all of his dunks were assisted last year. Felton should be able to find him for lobs and dunk opportunities. For the sake of continuity, this is a good move.