Oklahoma City Thunder: Who is the team’s third-best player?

The Oklahoma City Thunder might be the NBA’s most balanced team when it comes to their top five players, but who is their third-best player?

When you look at the top-five players on the Oklahoma City Thunder, it is actually rather difficult to decipher which one player is more productive than another. Unlike Thunder teams of the past, the 2019-20 roster does not contain superstar talent or have an isolation style of play. In fact, this is the first Oklahoma City roster in the team’s short history that does not have a 20+ point per game scorer.

What they do have is five players who score in double figures on average in Steven Adams, Dennis Schroder, Chris Paul, Danilo Gallinari, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, three of which average at least 19.0 points per contest. To understand who is the Thunder’s third-best player, we must first identify who the is without a doubt the best player on the roster.

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To me, this is without question Chris Paul. A seasoned veteran in the later stages of his career, he has been nothing but exceptional in Oklahoma City thus far. To this point in the season, Paul has missed zero games due to injury and has been the NBA’s most clutch player all season. He’s averaged 17.7 points, 6.8 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game.

Right behind him is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is likely the second-best player on the team, but is set to be the absolute best in no time with how quickly he is developing. In his second NBA season, he leads this top-10 Thunder team in points at 19.3 per game. Even as a guard he is also the team’s second-best rebounder. Just 21 years old, Gilgeous-Alexander is a rising star.

The candidates for the third-best player on the roster then come down to Dennis Schroder, Danilo Gallinari, and Steven Adams. While Adams is a solid center and Schroder has been perhaps the NBA’s best sixth man this season, Danilo Gallinari seems to be the number three guy on the team.

At 31 years old with an injury-riddled history, Gallinari has been relatively healthy this season, playing in 55 games and starting in all of those. His production has been excellent with 19.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in 30.7 minutes per contest. He’s also shot 88.6 percent from the free throw line and 40.9 percent from deep on 7.3 attempts per game.

This 3-point shooting efficiency makes is the best on the entire team and is sixth in the NBA among power forwards in 3-point percentage. With his ability to stretch the floor and play anywhere from small forward to center, Galinari’s versatility and ability to create open shots in the lane for his teammates is of extreme importance.

Gallinari will be a free agent this summer and might be one of the most attractive players in a weak class. Oklahoma City also has his Bird Rights and he will be an extremely intriguing sign-and-trade candidate as well. On an extremely talented, yet balanced Oklahoma City Thunder roster, Danilo Gallinari has been the team’s third-best player in the 2019-20 season.