Lessons learned as a starter might make Ferguson better off bench
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ask Terrance Ferguson for one lesson he’s learned this month, and you figure the answer may take some time.
January has signaled an acceleration in his NBA education, and the Thunder rookie has picked up a lot in a little time. But ask him what sticks with him the most, and the kid barely pauses to consider.
“I know Dre has a tough job, defending,” Ferguson said. “I know that for sure.”
Dre is Andre Roberson, the Thunder guard
who will miss his eighth straight game on Monday when Oklahoma City hosts the Sacramento Kings. In the past six, Ferguson has filled in as a starter, drawing some of the same defensive assignments Roberson takes on nightly.
Roberson is one of the NBA’s best perimeter defenders.
Ferguson is a 19-yearold in his first tour of the league, a player who skipped college for a pro season in Australia and who played 155 minutes in his first 22 games this season and has logged 154 in six starts since.
Just last week, Ferguson took defensive stabs at Portland’s CJ McCollum, Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins and Charlotte’s Nicolas Batum.
“He’s guarding against high-level players, which is what he needs to be able to do to really understand the league, the personnel,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “I think that’s the first part of being a great defender is knowing personnel.”
Defensively, Ferguson has terrific energy. Sometimes too much. The enthusiasm that helps him chase a shooter through screens is the same that makes him
fidgety on the perimeter, that leads him to jump when he should stay grounded.
In short, he’a a rookie with a lot to learn.
And this month, he’s been forced to learn a lot.
Before each game, Ferguson gets a series of clips of players he’ll likely spend time defending. He reviews those on his own and with assistant coach Darko Rajakovic. Ferguson is learning to study tendencies, to get a sense of where his defensive assignments want the ball and their preferences once they have it.
Roberson is “always in my ear,” Ferguson said, with defensive pointers.
Ferguson has learned some lessons about offense, too — primarily about the fickle nature of scoring chances.
He scored 24 points in his first start, against the Lakers in Los Angeles. He made 9 of 12 shots and 6 of 9 3-pointers.
In five games since, Ferguson has a total of 19 points. He’s made 7 of 29 shots and 5 of 23 3-pointers.
“I think when you have a game like that, what I was worried about was (him thinking), ‘Geez, you know, this is not that hard,’” Donovan said. “He never was that way.”
Instead, Donovan said, Ferguson has focused on the considerable work ahead of him.
Since that Lakers game, Ferguson said, his approach has been “pretty much the same.”
“Just staying levelheaded,” he said. “Doing whatever my team needs me to do.”
At some point, he’ll do a little less.
Ultimately, Ferguson will be back on the bench, whether because Roberson returns or because Donovan changes up his starters. In Saturday’s win against the Hornets, Donovan closed the game with Josh Huestis to get a better defender on the floor down the stretch.
But for a Thunder team hurting for depth, the hope is that Ferguson’s on-the-job training ultimately will make him a more viable reserve. And there’s evidence it might.
Even as Ferguson’s production has leveled off, Donovan said, his faith in himself as a player hasn’t wavered.
“Like, if his confidence is sky-high after the Laker game and now it’s rock bottom, well, really where is his confidence level at?” Donovan said. “It’s based on what he does. To me, you’ve got to have an internal belief that you’re putting the work in, that you’re prepared and then you can live with the results. That’s where I think your confidence comes from, and he’s that kind of guy.”