OKC Thunder: It’s clear to see which players will handle the scoring load

The OKC Thunder have not been deep scoring-wise in previous years but this team is molded different and has at least five scorers.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have to have composure after falling to 0-2 to start the 2019-20 campaign. This may be a theme for the season.

In the first game, the Thunder were able to compete and eventually lost by five. They had an eight-point lead at around nine minutes left in the fourth and even had a one-point lead late in the game but the Utah Jazz were able to pull away.

The second game was tied with about four minutes left in the contest but the Washington Wizards were ultimately able to emerge victorious. This team is young and they will have to learn how to close out games. A veteran like Chris Paul will be able to help the team develop.

While OKC’s finishing problems are true, there is also another accurate statement about the first two games. The Thunder, if they keep this group intact, will have a handful of players that they can rely on to score.

This team will be good at defense because they have the players that defend like Chris Paul and Steven Adams. They are currently seventh in the league in defensive rating. The question is are there enough scorers to lead the team to victory game in and game out?

OKC is currently 29th in offensive rating, but this team is in a rebuild and trying to develop players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. SGA has been their leading scorer in the first two games, averaging 27.0 points per game.

Five players will be able to score effectively for the OKC Thunder. They are Chris Paul, Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, Hamidou Diallo and Dennis Schroder.

In the first game Paul, Gilgeous-Alexander and Gallinari combined for 69 of the 95 points for OKC. Diallo added 12 and Dennis Schroder just had three. In the second game, the trio combined for 52 of the 85 points that the Thunder scored. Diallo had seven and Schroder had nine.

While this team is not better than previous Thunder teams, this is the most widespread distribution of scoring that OKC has ever had in years. In the days of Russell Westbrook and even in the Kevin Durant era, they relied on two scorers mainly with the help of a sixth man. Then when Durant left Westbrook was relied on to score heavily.

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When Carmelo Anthony and Paul George got on the team they were the only options when it came to scoring. Then when it was George and Westbrook, they could rely on those two, Steven Adams and Dennis Schroder to provide the scoring.

This team has four starters that can give you 20 points — don’t forget about Steven Adams on occasion — and two players coming off the bench that can provide scoring. They will just need to be able to put it together for a complete 48 minutes.

This team seems to have good chemistry on the court as they are unselfish, move the ball around and can get points scored in a hurry. While they are not expected to be good in a crowded Western Conference, they should be able to make every game interesting with the way they play.