Thunder Draft Report: Duke's Kyle Filipowski

Evaluating Kyle Filipowski's fit with the OKC Thunder in the 2024 NBA Draft.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the best teams in the NBA, boasting a 43-19 record, and also hold two lottery picks if the season ended today. There are many routes Sam Presti can go in the June Draft.

Today, Let’s take a look at Duke big man Kyle Filipowski and how he would fit in the Thunder system. 

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Draft Profile 

• Height: 7'0"
• Weight: 230 lbs
• Wingspan N/A
• Age: 20
• School Duke

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Quick Scouting Report 

The Duke Blue Devil presents a nice blend of a typical big man with his 7-foot 230-pound frame, but modernized with his shooting touch and feel for the game. Shooting 35 percent from beyond the arc but 70 percent from the charity stripe in his career, projecting to be a better shooter with improved NBA spacing.  

Defensively, Filipowski can erase shots at the rim and shows off high-level body positioning to not be exploited when offenses call him into the action.

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Strengths and Weakness 

Strengths

Filipowski not only has the raw shooting numbers but turns in 38 percent on catch-and-shoot attempts working as a play-finisher at all three levels. As a roller, the Duke big man is turning in 1.13 points per possession, and as a cutter that improves to 1.50 points per possession. 

However, the big man does not just finish plays on top of being a quick decision-maker to keep the ball moving, not letting it stick, Filipowski can create at times for his teammates. It is easy to envision the Duke big man turning into an offensive hub in the post spraying the ball around. 

Defensively, you have to love the rim protection he proves, as well as his quick hips to play both sides of the lane and erase dump-off passes. Filipowski is not going to be totally exposed on an island due to his length in recovery if he gets beat. The New York native only allows matchups to score at a 40 percent clip at the rim. 

Weaknesses

The biggest red flag for Filipowski is his lack of explosion at the rim. Despite being 7-feet he only has 21 dunks on the season rarely finishing through contact or using physicality to score. 

He also does not run the floor hard in transition, limiting his ability to be successful in that setting. At best, you get to pitch it back to Filipowski as a trailer, but he only shoots 35 percent from beyond the arc so it is not the high-quality look it is for others. 

With him already showing a weakness of bringing physicality to the rim as a scorer, there could be a concern that when the game takes a step up in physicality at the NBA level, you could see that translate to all aspects of his game most notably rebounding. 

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Availability 

• Draft Digest: 13
• Ringer: 12
• ESPN: 9
• The Athletic: 9
• Bleacher Report: 9
• CBS: 15
• Draft Net: 19
• Tankathon: 12

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Thunder Fit 

Future Role 

I am not sure Filipowski ever cracks the starting five for Oklahoma City just due to their scheme and roster construction. Even if they select the Duke big man for added size, it is impossible to think they will abandon their current advantages of playing small. Instead, Filipowski serves as a two-fold insurance policy. 

Not only would Filipowski help against bigger matchups but in a pinch is talented another to lean on as your primary big for stretches of the season should you need to. With many other organizations, the Blue Devil would fit squarely into their first five, but it is tough to imagine that in OKC.

Rotation Fit 

Filipowski would serve as a bench big man for the OKC Thunder giving them added size next season without totally sacrificing how the teams' current style of play. Of course, Mark Daigneault will experiment, watching Filipowski spend some time with Holmgren would be intriguing but ultimately the Duke big man serves as a bench upgrade for next season.  

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