Ty Jerome: 2019 National Semi-Final vs. Auburn

So…Ty Jerome from the 2019 national champion Virginia Cavaliers made his debut for the NBA Thunder on Friday night inside of Chesapeake Energy Arena.

How is it he didn’t win the Thunder player of the game is beyond me, but then again rookie guard Theo Maledon scored 11 points and set a Thunder rookie record with 12 assists.

Jerome in his first start for the Thunder after moving up from the G League because of Diallo’s hamstring injury finally got his chance to show if his game at Virginia translates to the NBA.

In twenty-two minutes of play Jerome’s numbers were 9 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. The assist number should have actually been higher if some of his teammates, most notably Justin Jackson, hadn’t bricked some wide open shots following prescient passes from the heady Jerome.

For the second game in a row it appeared the Thunder players aren’t really on board with tanking this season…especially after the dramatic March Madness game winner by Lu Dort and subsequent celebration pile in the win over the Spurs.

Ask yourself this…when was the last time you’ve seen a tanking team pile on each other like that?

At this point the 14-19 Thunder players don’t seem all that on board with a tank for the ages via the Sam Hinkie era in Philly.

If with Big Al Horford back in the linueup tonight at home versus the struggling Denver Nuggets the Thunder win their third straight…I’m not sure what we say about these guys.

Maybe what we say is we should start admiring their competitive heart to basically…you know…compete.

In the Friday night win over what should be a contending in the East Atlanta Hawk team—the Thunder played some of the best ball movement basketball ever played in the Oklahoma City NBA era. The Thunder had 31 assists and it easily could have been 38 assists if some more wide open shots had fallen. It was a ball movement clinic and a great deal of it had to do with Maledon and Jerome.

Danilo Gallanari must be the most perplexed of all as he left the Thunder to join a more competitive Atlanta team and the Thunder won 108-99 with Big Al Horton, George Hill, and Diallo all not playing in the Friday night game in Oklahoma City.

Just think if Sam Presti had used the 17th pick in this past summer’s draft to draft a ready made basketball player….instead of a NATO alliance project.

So…what if the Thunder win tonight over Denver and crawl to 15-19 with two games left till the All-Star Game break?

I would say at that point it’s in the player’s hands and not those of Sam Presti.

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