The Oklahoma City Thunder ended the 2022-2023 season with a loss in the play-in tournament. Despite not making the top 8 of the playoffs they had a lot to be excited about; a young core of impact players with room to grow, the return of a healthy Chet Holmgren, and an emerging star in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Even with the optimism I felt going into this season I don’t think anyone would have expected them to be as good as they have been so far. With a record of 46 – 20, putting them at second place in the western conference, with a conference best +7.7 box score plus/minus, they have proven themselves to be a formidable force in the league. While there are many reasons behind their success, I want to go into more detail about one player specifically, Lu Dort.

Efficient and Effective Offense

Lu Dort has played most of his minutes at small forward during his career, a position where being able to knock down open threes is vital for a healthy modern NBA offense. Per Dort’s Basketball Reference page his first season in the league, 2019- 20, he shot 4.4 threes per 36 minutes and shot 30% on those attempts. Coming into the league as a defensive specialist he was a negative from beyond the 3-pt line, instead opting to drive into traffic, resulting in bad shots against tough contests. Looking over the intervening years before this season we see an increase in 3-pt attempts per 36 up to 8.5 attempts in the 2021 – 22 season, but his percentage stagnated in the low 30% range. The poor shooting accompanied by a rise in usage but low true shooting percentages led to him being a liability to the Thunder offense. A great defender but someone who would have a hard time getting important minutes on the floor in a playoff series due to the offensive struggles.

However, in the 2023 – 24 season Dort has turned his offensive impact around 180 degrees. Dropping his 3-pt attempts per 36 down to 6.3 but increasing the percentage all the way up to 41%, at the same time dropping his usage down to 14.4% while increasing his true shooting to 60%. Dort is being more selective with his 3s while hitting a higher percentage of the ones he does take, but unlike previous years he’s not trying to force a tough shot in the mid-range or high paint. Instead moving the ball around to find a more efficient shot, eliminating those bad shots from his diet. Looking at how his offensive stats compared to previous years illustrates how large of a jump there was from then to now, not only has he improved to being passable on offense, but above average compared to other small forwards who’ve played more than 1,000 minutes this season. With how the Thunder like to use small pick and pop plays to open up a lane for Shai and Jaylen Williams to drive, Dort being a good enough shooter to demand respect from beyond the arc opens up so much of what this offense does to give their ball handlers advantages on drives.

With how the Thunder like to use small pick and pop plays to open up a lane for Shai and Jalen Williams to drive, Dort being a good enough shooter to demand respect from beyond the arc opens up so much of what makes this offense great. With his elite defense, often being the one to take on the opponent’s number one perimeter ball handler, combined with his efficient offense he is able to fit in as an important part of a well-rounded team headed for a high seed in the playoffs. While I can’t say if this growth is 100% real or if it will drop to 75% of where it is now, I am very optimistic about his role on the next great Thunder team.