OKC Thunder to 'Ramp Up' as Regular Season Nears

The Oklahoma City Thunder rested six rotation players during its most recent preseason matchup.

The Oklahoma City Thunder rested Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Lu Dort and Isaiah Joe against the Charlotte Hornets in a preseason matchup.

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said this decision was made to clear the way for some end-of-the-bench guys to get a chance to show their capabilities and get more minutes.

Now, with a quick turnaround, the Thunder play the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday. 

"Everybody is pretty much playing tomorrow, the guys that rested at least," Daigneault said to local media. 

So with the roster and rotation returning to a fairly normal state, it's officially time for the preseason to wind down and it's getting even closer to being the real thing. The Thunder has two more preseason games, one against the Bucks and another on Thursday against the Detroit Pistons. 

In one of the next two matchups, the Thunder plans to ramp up the starters' minutes to emulate more of a regular season game rotation, according to Daigneult. 

The Thunder has seen plenty of promising play from its starting group. The immersion of Holmgren has seemed to be pretty smooth in limited action, and it'll be interesting to see the starters get more and more burn, allowing them to react to how the defense is playing and put together more of a complete game.

The Thunder opens its regular season schedule on Oct. 25 on the road against the Chicago Bulls. With Holmgren set to make his real NBA debut and Gilgeous-Alexander, Giddy and Williams to build off an incredible season last year, there will be plenty of hype going into it.

Having the Thunder's core play plenty of games this offseason, whether it be pickup games or the FIBA World Cup, this last bit of preseason action will only get them more game-ready for the season opener. 

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