Oklahoma City Thunder: Lots of talented options at shooting guard

The Oklahoma City Thunder have a lot of options when it comes to their starting lineup. Shooting guard is an intriguing spot to look at going into the season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder may not be the best of the best this year but they have a lot of pieces to work with. The spot with the most pieces for the Thunder is the shooting guard spot.

The Thunder have at least three players that can start for them at the shooting guard spot. They could either go with a more 3-and-D mindset, a more offensive stance or a more win-now mindset.

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OKC needs to put the best lineup out there for them to have some success this season. In the past, they chose to go with a defensive mindset because they had the scoring of Russell Westbrook and either Paul George or Kevin Durant at the one and three spots.

This season it will be a balanced attack. Also, with the defensive-minded Andre Roberson playing the small forward spot they should try and get more scoring from the two spot.

Here are the three options at shooting guard:

Keep it in house: Terrance Ferguson

Terrance Ferguson is the only player in this article that was drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder. He has shown the ability to improve in the two years that he has been here. He is a better fit for what the Thunder want to do.

Chris Paul will have the ball in his hands most of the time. He will need shooters to find open holes in the defense for wide-open looks. With Ferguson and Danilo Gallinari out there they will have a better-suited lineup for what plays to Paul’s strengths.

Ferguson shot 36.6 percent from the field last year which is okay. All his shots were assisted so having him start with Chris Paul would be ideal.

An offensive approach: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

This is what will most likely happen. The Thunder may choose to put out their best players and go with what gives them the best chance to win. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is an upcoming player that had a great year last year.

He is an explosive offensive player and can do a lot on that side of the ball in terms of creating offense. With him and Chris Paul out there at the same time, the Thunder will have offense on top of offense at their two guard spots.

Gilgeous-Alexander is the future of this team and he will almost have to start to continue his development.

Win now: Dennis Schroder

Dennis Schroder was able to win games for the Oklahoma City Thunder last season (you can look at the game against the Golden State Warriors on Nov. 21, 2018). In his sixth man role, he flourished. He averaged 15.5 points per game last year which was good for third on the team.

Although that is true Schroder was a starter during his time with the Atlanta Hawks and he was a good one. In his last season with the Hawks, he averaged 19.4 points per game.

Inserting him into the starting role next to Chris Paul will give the Thunder the best chance to win now. Schroder has proved that when he is given the minutes he can be extremely effective.