THUNDER REPORT CARD:
TY JEROME
Ty Jerome completed his second Thunder season but took a step back, with his offense this season not nearly as efficient as last season.
Our series on Thunder report cards continues with the third-year guard from Virginia:
3-point shooting: D
Jerome’s time in the NBA depends on his ability to make long-range shots. A year ago, he made 42.3% of his deep balls. But this year, Jerome fell to 29%. Not good. Jerome took 16.1% of his 3-pointers from the corners, about the same as last year, and shot almost as good from there, 43.3%. But that meant Jerome’s 3-point shots from above the break took a major dip; he made just 26.3%. That will get him out of the league fast.
Playmaking: B
Jerome was used less at point guard this season — an estimated 31% of the time, compared to 47% a year ago. But he continued to facilitate. Jerome’s assists per 36 minutes went down from 5.5 to 4.9, but so did his turnovers per 36 minutes, from 2.1 to 1.7. His assist rate (percentage of teammates’ baskets on which a player assisted) fell only slightly, from 23.7 to 21.3.
On-court value: A
Jerome did not have a good season offensively, and he’s not a defensive upgrade. But somehow, the Thunder played significantly better with Jerome on the court than without him. The Thunder was outscored by 1.5 points per 100 possessions when Jerome was on the court. Among players who played at least 25 games, that was third-best on the squad, trailing only Kenrich Williams and Mike Muscala. And in games Jerome played, the Thunder was outscored by 9.5 points per 100 possessions, when he was on the bench. It helped that Jerome missed the latter part of the season, when the Thunder collapsed as a competitive team.
Shot selection: A
Jerome knows how the game is played. He took 328 shots this season; only five were long 2-point attempts. One hundred of his shots were from the paint. That means 87.2% of his shots were from the paint or beyond the arc. He’s a dream for the analytics crowd.
Playing with SGA: A
The Thunder is rebuilding around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, so cohesion with SGA is important. And Jerome had it. Lineups that included both GilgeousAlexander and Jerome outscored opponents by 22.4 points per 100 possessions. By far the best tandem on the squad. Of course, it was limited minutes, but still, that’s promising for Jerome.