Entering the 2021-22 season, one of the biggest questions for the Oklahoma City Thunder was around their center rotation. Unlike in years past, Oklahoma City doesn’t have a 7-footer that plays traditional center.
While the roster is comprised of many talented guard and forward prospects, the Thunder simply don’t have a center of the future to start molding.
During the recent offseason, the team let Tony Bradley walk in restricted free agency and traded away Moses Brown. Both of these young centers fit the timeline of their rebuild, but would not be on the team entering the current season.
Additionally, OKC traded away Al Horford, who was a great big for the team during the 2021-22 season.
To fill these major voids in the center rotation, the Thunder drafted Jeremiah Robinson-Earl early in the second round of the 2021 NBA Draft and also acquired Derrick Favors in an offseason trade.
While both of these players are capable of playing center, they’re really just 6-foot-9 forwards that are playing the position in OKC undersized.
The way the roster is currently built, Aleksej Pokusevski is actually the only 7-footer on the roster, but plays more of a guard than a center.
While this seemed to be a major concern heading into the season, the Thunder have actually been just fine at the center position through 19 games.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault has implemented a fluid big rotation, with Robinson-Earl and Favors sharing the starting job. Depending on the matchup and opposing personnel, Oklahoma City has the flexibility to throw either into the starting lineup as they see fit each night.
Despite being without a true center, the Thunder currently lead the NBA in rebounding, pulling down 47.8 per game.
With that in mind, teams also tend to rebound well against Oklahoma City, allowing the fourth most per contest in the league.
Defensively, there have been times this season in which the undersized Thunder allow bigger frontcourts to dominate, but on average through 19 games they’ve protected the paint well. OKC has allowed the fourth fewest points in the paint (42.0 per game) of any team this season.
This speaks to the versatility of guys like Robinson-Earl, Favors and even Mike Muscala. Despite going up against guys much bigger than them each and every night, they find ways to produce on both ends of the floor.
As a team, the Thunder’s defensive rating (107.0) is in the top half of the league.
As great as Robinson-Earl has been as a rookie on both ends of the floor, he’s not a viable long-term option at center for the Thunder. He’s undersized and likely better suited as a backup forward or situational center.
Additionally, Favors is 30 years old and doesn’t fit the timeline of the Thunder rebuild.
With that in mind, the center of the future for Oklahoma City is not currently on the roster. They’ll likely end up trading for that guy over the next year or two, or even select an elite center prospect in an upcoming draft.
They’ll have a ton of options in the near future to fill that need. There will be opportunities to trade for a younger center like Mo Bamba, Myles Turner or Mitchell Robinson at some point, especially considering the amount of draft capital Thunder GM Sam Presti has.
In the upcoming draft, there’s also plenty of elite center talent with guys like Chet Holmgren, Jalen Duren and Jabri Smith.
Regardless of the direction the franchise goes to acquire their next star center, it’s nice to know that they’re able to get solid production from their committee approach this season.
Furthermore, it’s been fairly easy for teams to acquire solid veteran centers over the past few seasons. Perhaps Presti feels the team can wait until they’re ready to contend and simply trade for an experienced big.
It’ll be interesting to see how the center position unfolds for the Thunder over the next several years, but for now it appears they’re fine playing extremely small and without their center of the future.
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November 27, 2021 at 08:30PM
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OKC Thunder: Understanding The Center Situation - Forbes
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