Editor’s note: Inside The Thunder on Athlon Sports will be publishing a series of “biggest expectation” articles on each of the Thunder’s main roster players (incl. two-way contract players). This will be relative to roles and expectations for the 2024–25 NBA season. Next up in the series, Isaiah Joe.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are fixing to see the rise of several key players at the start of next season, among them is 25-year-old sharpshooter Isaiah Joe. Coming off a big step in the right direction a season ago, the franchise rewarded the guard with a new four-year, $48 million deal, entrenching him as a part of a budding perennial contender.
Like everyone entering a season fresh off a new deal, the pressure will be on Joe to separate himself from the rest of the young guys on the roster. Can he do it?
The expectation
Despite Oklahoma City exiting the 2023 season short of a Western Conference Finals appearance, Joe was the team's most lethal outside shooter, converting 41.0% from 3 in a series defeat against the eventual champions of the Western Conference, the Dallas Mavericks.
No, that wasn’t some one-off performance by the ascending guard; he has been extraordinary as a shooter throughout his time in Bricktown. In his first two seasons with the franchise, Joe shot 41.2% from the 3-point line on 9.5 attempts per 36 minutes, putting him in a class with the best marksmen in the world, Steph Curry and Buddy Hield, as the only three players with such a feat over that time.
Absent that, the 6-foot-3 guard is a capable playmaker on the other side of the ball. Last season, he tied teammate Jaylin Williams with 19 charges drawn, a mark good for sixth-best in the entire association. When you combine what he brings to the table, you find a player who has the makeup of a burgeoning All-Star.
While asking for an All-Star campaign from the 25-year-old is a bit audacious, Joe does carry substantial expectations entering next season, starting with increasing his scoring average into the double digits and firmly establishing himself as the team’s most reliable shooter. Although it is hard to quantify what makes a player the best shooter on his team, especially when purely using a percentage as a measuring stick, we’ll know that Joe is meeting and exceeding expectations if his playing time rises from 18.5 to over 20 minutes per game.
Can Joe challenge Caruso for minutes?
If the freshly-inked guard wants to push his limits next season, he has the opportunity to vie for OKC’s sixth-man spot, which is supposedly going to be anchored by either Isaiah Hartenstein or Alex Caruso — two players the Thunder added this summer.
For the sake of discussion, let’s say Caruso is the team’s sixth man. Now, Joe has some serious competition, with another guard on the team taking some of his shine. He is already the better shooter and is heading into year 3 in head coach Mark Daigneult’s system, two advantages he has over the former NBA champion. Joe is young and likely has more upside than Caruso, who has always made his impact as a defensive-scapper and someone who makes the right play at the right time.
But as the Thunder’s draft pick from four years ago, the Arkansas product can earn the spotlight and the attention of the coaching staff by starting the 2024 season with a bang. He’ll need to shoot the lights out and prove that his superior offensive game coupled with his worthy defense is a substantial enough package to keep Caruso on the bench for longer periods.
Related: Alex Caruso’s No. 1 expectation next season
Local Oklahoma City, OK
Most Popular
Comments / 0