Theo Maledon is Playing his Way Into the Thunder’s Plans

Theo Maledon's recent stretch should have OKC penciling him into future plans.

If someone told you at the end of January that Theo Maledon would be a part of the Thunder’s plan for next season you’d laugh them out of the room.

At that point the second-year guard had featured in just 21-of-47 games for OKC, averaging 3.7 points in 13.6 minutes per game. This poor start to the year, along with the emergence of rookies Josh Giddey and Tre Mann, saw the player who had started 49 games the year prior on the outside looking in.

Fast forward a little over two months and we find ourselves with a completely different Maledon — one who has overcome those early-season struggles to play his way into the

As he has shown recently, Maledon’s play isn’t what is holding him back from getting rotational minutes for OKC next season. In fact, it’s that exact play that is even making it a discussion.

Maledon has averaged 22.8 points, 5.6 assists and 5.6 rebounds, shooting 42.9% on 5.6 attempts from behind the arc over his last five games at the Thunder have searched for someone to fill the void left by a multitude of injuries.

Looking toward next season, the Thunder have somewhat of a logjam at guard with Giddey, Mann and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander all under contract and a team option for Ty Jerome. Thunder coach Mark Daigneault has said that he wants as many people capable of handling the ball and initiating offense as he can get his hands on, so there’s a world in which two or even three of these guards share the court at some point.

Maledon is under contract for next season with a $1.9 Million team option the year after, so OKC will likely give him at least the next season to find a permanent spot in the rotation before the conversation of moving on from the 20-year-old is brought up.

With Gilgeous-Alexander and Giddey shut down for the remainder of the season, Maledon will have the thunder’s final five games to build on his recent stretch.

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