WORK IN PROGRESS
Darius Bazley's strong start to the season helps explain his recent slump
Darius Bazley's early strides and recent struggles this season are intertwined.
“A lot of it is a byproduct of how he's getting guarded,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said this week, “which is different from how he was getting guarded at the beginning of the year.”
Bazley's season can almost be split in half.
The second-year forward averaged 13.1 points on 44% shooting in his first seven games, highlighted by a three-game stretch when he scored 19, 16 and 20 points. Then things changed.
In his last six games, Bazley is averaging 7.5 points on 30% shooting.
Bazley showed signs of busting out of the small slump Tuesday night in Denver, but it was still an inconsistent performance. After a 1-of-5 start with a turnover in the first quarter, Bazley finished with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting.
It was an improvement from his game last week against the Bulls, when he committed four turnovers and shot 3-of-12. Daigneault played Kenrich Williams over Bazley late in that game as the Thunder rallied for a 22-point comeback.
The next day, Daigneault explained that Bazley was overthinking things as a result of how he was being defended.
“The reason he's getting
guarded differently is because of the string of games he had where he showed what he's capable of,” Daigneault said. “And when you do that, when you play like that, the opponent's gonna take notice and you're gonna get game planned for. That's how these players evolve. That's how great players evolve.”
Before the Nuggets game, Bazley was asked if he's noticed a difference in how he's being guarded.
“Yeah, just a slight bit,” he said. “But bottom line for me, my focus is I gotta be better. That's all it comes down to. I don't really care how I'm being played, how teams are trying to guard me that night. I gotta be better. But there definitely has been a slight change.”
For example, Bazley said teams are daring him to shoot.
It's a very small sample, but the numbers back that up.
Bazley was left wide open on 64% of his 3-point attempts in his first seven games. That number has jumped to 74% in his last six games. The NBA stats site defines “wide open” as shots when the nearest defender is more than six feet away.
Bazley is shooting 27% from 3-point range this season, down from the 35% he shot as a rookie.
At just 20 years old, Bazley is still figuring out his role in the Thunder offense and how to expand on the playmaking skills he's flashed as a 6- foot- 8 forward.
And unlike last season when he averaged 19 minutes off the bench, Bazley is now one of the Thunder's primary offensive threats.
Stringing together a few high- scoring games attracted even more attention from opponents.
“So then it forces you to grow and evolve,” Daigneault said. “The adjustment that is required with Darius and the growth through that struggle is just a part of the process of forging yourself into a really good player, which he's going to be.”