Sam Presti was one step ahead (again)...

Okay, okay, the Oklahoma City Thunder may be 0-2 to start out this NBA preseason, at least in the wins-loss column, because while the team dropped back-to-back games on back-to-back nights to start out preseason action, it's looking like Sam Presti might have went back-to-back 2-for-2 in the NBA draft that happened just months ago. The Thunder have not one, but two promising young rookies that are absolutely balling out right now throughout the early portions of the nba preseason and here on thunder digest we're going to take a deep dive into it today into their film their stats going into what has made them so successful so early for the thunder and how that's going to carry over into the regular season and their roles there this coming year that is approaching us very quickly the nba regular season tips off on october 20th for the oklahoma city thunder they head out to san antonio to exact revenge on the Spurs the team that you know dominated our season last year ended our season last year well we got a chance to right our wrongs and start off on the right foot this campaign on October 20th we're going to be doing a live stream duo live stream with me and Ryan we want to see you there and we want to have you around for all of our other videos as well getting you all of your thunder news all in one easy and convenient place so make sure you subscribe down below to the thunder digest family the best thunder community on all of social media i love making videos for you guys i got a great one here for you today that we're going to get into right after this message from our sponsor anson if you're anything like me then you'll understand that frustrating struggle of trying to find the perfect belt to go with your great outfit mine they never seem to fit me quite right and even if they did they're all old stretched out and beat up and they throw off my entire look or just make me feel uncomfortable. 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Both Ajayi Mara and Bennett Sturtz look like steals of the draft candidates so far. I mean, it is two preseason games. Can't overreact too heavily, but these guys, man, they are finding their pace, finding their rhythm very quickly among the pros. Let's start out with the big man, the guy who was picked first out of the two, Ajayi Mara. Went number 12 overall, slid down to Sam Presti, and he scooped his guy. Look at that giant beside Sam Presti right there seven foot three Ajayi Mara joining the Oklahoma City Thunder and he has been dominant nothing short of dominant so far through these first two preseason contests let's take a look at the first contest that the team played against the Pelicans and we see both of these men's numbers the rookies on the board and as for Ajayi Mara 12 points nine boards three assists while shooting a perfect five of five from the field he would also add three blocks in this game make his pair of free throws which is a great sight for us to see and you know just doing a lot of the things that we need him to do which we're going to get into very heavily when we look into the film the specifics of what he is doing out there so well but as for the stats he's hitting the glass hard he's defending the rim he's shooting efficiently you know in the paint doing everything at surface value that you want an interior dominant center to do but then Ajayi Mara he builds off of that first game that we saw that 12 9 and 3 and absolutely dominates again last night to the tune of 22 points six boards and two assists also had a block in this game as well and the craziest part about it was that he shot a perfect 10 out of 10 from the field last night he just did not miss a shot flat out perfect and when we take a look at what he was doing out there how he's getting to his spots it is nothing short of amazing but what we see at bringing his grand total to for this preseason action 34 points 15 boards four blocks on a perfect 15 of 15 from the field for Adama Mora you could not ask for a better start to the preseason for a guy who's played 43 minutes so far across these two contests so when we take a look at Adama Mora and what he's doing so well well a lot of what we saw was the excitement the absolute big man energy that he was hammering down some alley-oops yesterday going for some lobs and the thing that was so encouraging about it is he was connecting with so many different teammates with different you know chemistry and let's just take a look at these four alley-oops that Mora was able to throw down first off we see him get one from the MVP great to see two back in action and look at this as soon as this guy's head turns Adama Mora recognizes it dives down to the basket and he calls for the ball and for good reason catching it up high and finishing it up top and then AJ Mitchell you see he's going to get the same result this time with a little bit more obstruction two bucks players can't stop Mora from throwing that down now we got J-Dub right Miles Turner's committed to J-Dub right here Mora already diving to the basket for a guy that they were questioning if he was going to be agile enough to play the big man in the NBA I mean he's looking pretty solid right there in that dunker spot floating down to that rim and just hammering one home that time from Cason Wallace so you're seeing Mora catch lobs from four different guys last night and just emphatic dunks huge punctuation plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder bringing the energy and also obviously we see the results 10 of 10 from the field this guy was perfect on the offensive end providing the team with an interior threat that they are going to need pretty consistently if they want to you know continue their success that they've had over the past few years get to the 60 win mark again they're going to need more interior presence like in a DiMara and offensively he looked very very developed last night as we see not just in the lob game was he able to consistently get downhill to the rim but in the pick and roll as well just in general he was very effective right here gets J-Dub a step with a great screen and then gets his momentum right downhill where he's able to gather this ball and keep it high very important it's something that I'm noticing Mara is very good at is keeping the ball high keeping you know the smaller players which is everybody to him very very you know small effect on his shots whenever he's able to keep the ball high they're not able to you know affect him right there you see it again keeping the ball up top and he attacks the rim on this dime from AJ Mitchell rolling on the screen and that ball never gets down below his shoulders area where he catches it keeps it high and is able to finish through the contact and another encouraging sign to see is him knocking down that free throw as we take a look at one more screen a quick release Miles Turner is turning around above the three-point line as Mara's full speed breaking into the paint where he catches that lob from J-Dub that we took a look at earlier we're taking a look at Mara as a screener. One, very good at making good contact to get the ball handler a step. That's what we're seeing consistently. AJ Mitchell getting a step. You're seeing J-Dub getting a step. You're seeing the guys that he's screening for. It is working to get them open. And then you're seeing good, hard dives to the basket out of Mara. He's able to seal his guy off so when he's rolling that the guy has no leverage underneath him to keep him from getting to the basket. So Mara consistently is proving to be a very, very great screener in this offense. And I think that this will be something that can yield him court time in the future, the ability to free up others in the offense while providing a scoring threat on his good hard rolls that he is consistently giving that Thunder offense and the last thing that I'm seeing from Mara that was the most impressive to me was the agility this man is showing because the biggest thing you heard about this guy in the draft was he's going to be too slow to stop a guy like Wembenyama out on the perimeter or any of these other guys that are smaller even if he's switched on the guards whatever we heard all of it about how he wasn't going to be fast enough, agile enough, well the tape is showing such a different story, let's see how he you know is able to negate this shooter right here the pass is in the air on the way to a guy who is wide open Mara has both feet in the paint at this point in time, yet by the time that the shooter is able to catch the ball locate the rim and get the shot up we see a great contest from Mara, not only that but him running out in transition and getting the dunk as well, super high IQ heads up play from Mara to continue to run through that contest and get the two but you see him running the floor as well, she a with a nice dime to the man, another dunk, one of his seven on the night, a dime Mara and he's able to push the pace the transition game not just as a floor runner but as a passer you see that dime right there to Caruso ends up getting Jared McCain a three, well what if he just feeds McCain himself another pinpoint pass over three quarters length of the court yields a J-Dub bucket, we've talked about extensively on this channel in the past about how the Thunder are at their best when they're turning their defense into offense, they are a defensive first team and one not only is a DiMara seamlessly fitting into that identity of the Thunder, well he's also helping to put them at their best offensively as well by creating transition opportunities looking down the floor he gets the rebound being a heads-up playmaker in delivering great passes this guy has great pass accuracy and touch for such a big man so many things that we have seen from Mara in this preseason so many things to be encouraged by and when you're taking a look at what he's able to put together right this man in just 43 minutes across these two games 15 of 15 from the field that's what you've heard so far the big thing the hundred percent but on top of that he's getting two blocks a game certified rim protection zero zero turnovers for such a young player young players are mistake prone he's getting the ball you know in positions where he's not even used to being in this offense where he's getting his touches at yet he is still taking care of the basketball a very big thing for a young player to stay on the floor and then from the charity stripe we had the concerns about his free throw shooting he was in the 50 percent in college he didn't shoot it well in the summer league but across these two games four out of five obviously five free throws you can make two you can make all five doesn't really matter in such a small sample size but so far we have to like every single facet of the game that we have seen from Adai Mara throughout the first two summer league contest uh preseason contest excuse me Mara has been nothing short of dominant in everything that we have wanted to see and then you know accumulates to the 15 of 15 from the field with how great he has been playing picking his spots well being able to impose his will and just converting once he is sure that he has the look that he likes all great you know traits for a big man attempting to find time very early on for this team he's going to be competing with guys like Sorber he's going to be competing with guys like Jay Will when he gets healthy for these backup minutes so we're hoping that Mara continues to just hit his stride as he has to contribute to this team as early as possible to help them you know get over the hump and return to championship form Mara so far proving that he has you know the tools to put it all together if he's able to stay this consistent at the next level you know the NBA regular season well we're gonna be having some very very good talks about Adai Mara because this is rookie of the year type performance out of the young guy so far so we're you know so far so good with him but then the other man for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the draft because not only did this team make the Western Conference Finals and have a pick in the top 20 they had a pair of picks in the top 20 Bennett Sartorius selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder actually selected by the Grizzlies traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder if we want to get technical but either way you want to talk about Sam Presti navigates his guy traded up to get a guy in Bennett Stewart that wasn't that high on a lot of people's draft boards kind of flew under the radar and he has again just like Adai Mara been amazing so far throughout the first two contests of the NBA preseason we took we took a look at his uh first game numbers against the Pelicans uh alongside Mara's where he had 15 points six boards five assists shooting six of nine from the field shooting uh three of six from behind the arc 50 from back there and this guy looks very very comfortable with the ball in his hands a very pleasant surprise is how well he has performed as you know the initiator in the offense because not only has he been able to get himself a bunch of baskets a lot of them coming from behind the arc this man has been a shot hunter look at that no dip three off the catch right there he's scoring however you like it with the ball in his hands he's able to attack this guy off the isolation and get to just a sweet signature sidestep three-pointer that we heard him call bank right we heard him call that that one hit last night one of his four well let's go to the third one we're getting a little bit of screen action coming off of that getting a few dribbles in before he hits that behind the back step back into that sweet three-pointer this guy has such rhythm with his jumpers and then he's able to do it off the catch as well so any which way look at him breaking that tie with 90 seconds left in the game ice in the veins you see Bennett Scurry he also hit a buzzer beater jumper to end the third quarter as well so this guy is a crafty scorer we're seeing him get into his bag and this isn't something that was high on a lot of people's needs for the Oklahoma City Thunder entering the NBA draft because yeah they didn't have a lot of shot creation against the Spurs that's because AJ Mitchell J-Dub guys like that were missing they get themselves a piece in Bennett Sturtz who is very certified at handling this basketball I am very convinced after watching it because not only is he you know shooting the rock over 50% in these last two games from behind the arc he's also able to initiate this offense as a playmaker he had five assists in the first game and he had three assists last night I believe this guy can pass the ball he can dribble the ball very clearly can shoot the ball and he's also doing the things that you're not picking up on in the box score right because Presti drafted this guy because he plays the thunder way we take a look at him fitting the thunder system one they needed a guy who could take the ball off the floor this guy's getting the ball in the corner going 94 feet able to take this defender off the dribble and draw a foul getting himself to the free throw line for some three points near the end of the quarter defensively look at this all the space he's on an island right now and he is grinding hands up no fouls and then able to grab this rebound and push that ball in transition we talked about Ajayi DiMara we want to be in transition Bennett Sturtz in transition gets that steal right there pushing the pace and finding Brooks for the jam Bennett Sturtz has looked very comfortable in the half court in the you know running the floor he's very much what we're looking for in terms of a Thunder pace player because he's able to sit in that half court he's able to get running in the blink of an eye turning defense into offense like talked about and we see him right there high IQ cut off of the inbound pass and he gets that sweet dime from Adai Mara everything coming together with a sweet little bow both of the rookies on that sweet play Mara showing that passing knowledge Sturtz showing the high IQ on that cut right there and all in all these two together have combined for some great performances some great optimism for Oklahoma City fans throughout these first two games Sturtz would finished with 20 points two assists and five rebounds um last night in the loss to the Bucks but this man he i mean he was no part of the reason they lost even though he had a minus 20 rating which is absolutely insane the team blew a 20 point lead in the second half Bennett Sturtz was not the reason why time and time again when that game got close they found the ball in his hands and he was hitting clutch shots we saw that three he hit uh to break that 118 point tie with just 90 seconds remaining and he was really able to convert on that efficiently good shots getting his own shots all night long so a lot of good things we see out of Bennett Sturtz that make him a viable option to play early in the season similar to a guy like Jared McCain who came in and really provided us some good depth out the guard and another dimension of putting the ball on the floor from guys who aren't really our primary scorers right like he was more expansive than Isaiah Joe we could see Bennett Sturtz kind of being more expansive than Jared McCain so I'm very interested to see how he's able to fit on the floor in a shot making role early in this season but if there's one thing that I am very certain of it is that Sam Presti likes this fit he is very happy with the selection of Bennett Sturtz at least throughout these first two games of the NBA preseason not just with Bennett Sturtz but also with the likes of Adai Mara who has been unheard of amounts of dominant shooting that 15 of 15 through those first two games 10 of 10 in last night's performance while also not turning the ball over anchoring that paint pushing the ball in transition these guys they fit the thunder mold is the biggest thing that i want to take away and two they have been performing phenomenally on an individual level these last few nights and if this is any indication of what the thunder are going to be adding to their their toolkit to their team to their rotation this upcoming season that they did not have last year well the NBA better watch out because the Thunder they are on the fast track back to that first seed in the Western Conference back to the best record in the NBA and if you remember just a few years ago to that Larry O'Brien championship that's going to be a sweet feeling if we're able to get back there but there is a long long road ahead of us right we have the first game of the season coming up on October 20th And we want you to be there for that live stream. Make sure you're subscribed to catch me and Ryan on that duo live stream on October 20th to catch all of our videos, keeping you up to date with all of your Thunder news in the meantime. This has been Gabriel Ebersole with Thunder Digest going over some amazing performances from the Thunder rookies throughout the first couple of games in the NBA preseason. Thunder weren't able to capture the victory in either of those very closely contested games. but boy the signs of a great season to come are right in front of our faces ladies and gentlemen make sure that you're ready for when that season comes make sure you're subscribed to Thunder Digest to make sure that you catch me in the next video and until I see you guys in your beautiful faces in that next video peace and love my friends