Early Report Card For OKC Thunder Rookies

How did Oklahoma City’s rookies grade out in an early report card?

Nov 20, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell (25) drives between Portland Trail Blazers forward Jerami Grant (9) and guard Dalano Banton (5) during the second half at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Oklahoma City’s rookies entered the season in a unique spot to say the least. The team’s lottery pick was already announced out for the season with an extensive rehabbing process in line, and the roster crunch already made the numbers questionable. Still, the Thunder opted to use draft picks in the first and second round to acquire talent.

It’s also generally very hard for rookies to find any playing time on a contending team. Oklahoma City is widely known as one of the NBA’s deepest teams, and adding anymore rotational players — especially rookies — seemed unrealistic back in August.

When drafted, Dillon Jones and Ajay Mitchell looked like potential candidates to play heavy minutes for the OKC Blue while developing to the pace and play style of the NBA. Both Jones and Mitchell have already proven that narrative wrong in the first month of the season.

Mitchell has turned into an every night player for Oklahoma City and looks like a legitimate backup point guard in the NBA. He doesn’t make many mistakes, he plays extremely hard on defense, and he’s a treat to watch on the offensive end. His role has limitations, so his full skillset isn’t always on display, but he has don’t a terrific job of fitting into what Oklahoma City is asking of him. He’s averaging an efficient 5.4 points, 1.9 assists and 1.8 rebounds on 50% from the floor and 47.4% from 3-point range.

Jones has been given opportunities, but his bath has been a bit rockier. He has struggled to find his shooting stroke, but he’s still finding ways to contribute. Even he has had games where Oklahoma City desperately relied on his services late in the game. He has been a do-it-all forward, and plenty of his struggles can be chalked up to playing out of position, too.

Bleacher Report recently released an early season grade for each team’s rookies, and Oklahoma City’s graded out unsurprisingly well. It has been a pleasant surprise for the Thunder to see both active rookies contributing to winning basketball.

“Jones and Mitchell have both accumulated over 100 minutes on the year,” Grant Hughes wrote, giving the Thunder rookies a B+ grade. “Mitchell, the 38th pick who averaged 20.0 points and 4.0 assists at UC Santa Barbara, has been the better of OKC's two higher-usage rookies.

“The 6'5 guard is averaging 16.2 minutes per game and posting a 50.0/47.4/77.8 shooting split with a stellar 2.8 percent steal rate. He clearly got the memo that OKC players are required to be elite thieves.”

Accumulating a B+ grade with Nikola Topic sidelined is hard to fathom, but exactly what we’ve come to expect from the Thunder. Sam Presti seems to have found two more steals in Mitchell and Jones.

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