Where Isaiah Joe’s Season Is Stacking Up With Past Thunder Sharpshooters

It’s no surprise that Isaiah Joe is finding success from downtown, but he could be on his way to a spot in Thunder history.

In Oklahoma City’s big momentum win against the Grizzlies Saturday night, it was Isaiah Joe once again playing hero for the Thunder. The season is still young, and in the NBA, a lot can change in a hurry, but right now Joe looks like one of the more promising free agents signings in recent memory.

Isaiah Joe is shooting 45.8% (38/83) from deep this season. What a great pickup by the Thunder towards the end of the offseason.

— Nick Crain (@CrainNBA) December 18, 2022

After drilling five triples on Saturday night, Joe is now up to 45.8% from 3-point range this season. The list is obviously ever-fluctuating, but the sharpshooter is currently sixth all-time in franchise history for 3-point field goal percentage in a single season. The list includes both Thunder and Seattle SuperSonics players.

If you were to trim the list down to strictly Oklahoma City Thunder players, though, Joe is on pace to have the best 3-point shooting season in team history. Behind Joe on the Thunder’s all-time list is Anthony Morrow, who filled a much needed perimeter shooting role on the Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant-led team’s. Morrow finished the season at a 43.3% clip from downtown, giving Joe some cushion heading into the post-Christmas stretch.

The impressive part about Joe’s game is his ability to adapt to whatever the team needs. When Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is on the floor, Joe finds his spots in the corner and spaces the floor perfectly, taking advantage of open shots. In games where the Thunder lack a primary ball handler, like Saturday night, he showed he can step up and do more than stationary shooting though. His shot fakes, dribble pull-ups and cuts to the basket add so much to the 23-year-old’s game.

Oklahoma City has plenty of guards to distribute minutes to across the roster. Just last year, both Tre Mann and Aaron Wiggins had success early behind the Thunder’s trio of guards in the starting lineup. But Joe has been able to do what nobody else on the roster can do consistently: knockdown open 3-pointers. His consistency, and reliability in every situation, is making it difficult to ignore.

It’s certainly a tall task, but if Joe is able to stretch this shooting efficiency throughout the season, he has a good shot of breaking into the franchise’s top-five list in 3-point shooting percentage for a season. More impressively, he could be the franchise’s best shooter since the move from Seattle in 2008.

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