Thunder Journal: Lineup Versatility
Mark Daigneault likes to play with lineups until he finds the right combination on any given night. And not only will Daigneault head into next season with a brand new contract extension, he’ll also have some new toys to tinker with in his rotation.
OKC adding Chet Holmgren, Cason Wallace, Keyontae Johnson and Vasilije Micic to last year’s surprising 40 win squad has many observers taking notice of the Thunder’s potential lineup versatility.
Last week, I tackled the biggest Thunder question remaining this offseason: which players will make the squad and which players will be cut?
Piggybacking off of those results, I thought it’d be fun to channel my inner Daigneault and dream up some possible Thunder lineups in 2023-2024.
STARTING LINEUP
SGA-Dort-Giddey-JDub-Holmgren
Starting with the starters just as a jumping off point. I mentioned it last week, but this group looks so much stronger with the single addition of Chet at center. He projects both as a dominant defensive anchor and as floor spacing weapon that could unlock the OKC offense.
ALL DEFENSE LINEUP
Wallace-Dort-JDub-Kenrich-Holmgren
Good luck scoring on these dudes. But the great thing about this fivesome is that there’s still two ball handling playmakers and everyone can kinda shoot. If OKC is up by one point and the other team has the ball with 15 seconds left, this is the move.
ALL SHOOTING LINEUP
Micic-Joe-JDub-Bertans-Holmgren
Jalen and Chet would have to carry the weight on defense, but if they could even survive on that end… whew. The size and rebounding is surprisingly solid for a lineup filled with snipers. Vasilije and JDub can drive and kick with more space than NASA. The Splash Quintuplets.
Brandon Rahbar