Tag: Jaylen Hoard

2021-22 Thunder player grades: Jaylen Hoard

Handing out a final grade for Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jaylen Hoard’s 2021-22 regular season.

(Editor’s note: We are starting individual grades for all players from the 2021-22 Oklahoma City Thunder. To access other reviews as part of this ongoing series, click here.)

With the 2021-22 regular season now officially in the books, the Oklahoma City Thunder (24-58) finished their season with the fourth-best lottery odds. This means it is now time for individual player grades for all 26 players who suited up for the team this season during the 82 games. The grades will be determined by what the season expectations were for each player and how they lived up to them.

The eighteenth player in the installment is Jaylen Hoard, who made the most of his 10-day contract by recording four 15-rebound games.

OKC Thunder player grades: Franchise secures fourth-best lottery odds with 50-point loss to Clippers

That’s it, it’s over.

The Oklahoma City Thunder wrapped up its 2021-22 season by securing the fourth-best lottery odds with a 138-88 blowout loss to the LA Clippers on Sunday.

The Thunder entered the game with its best-case scenario being attaining sole possession of the fourth-best odds due to a Detroit Pistons loss with the worst-case scenario being it ties for the fourth-best odds with the Indiana Pacers.

The Clippers — who were without Paul George, Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris Sr. and Norman Powell — thoroughly dominated this game. There was no funny business this time around as the Clippers led by double digits for almost the entirety of the game.

Meanwhile, the Thunder stuck by its extremely shorthanded rotation by only playing six players with five of them playing over 40 minutes. In all likelihood, most — if not all — of the players who touched the floor this game will not return for the Thunder next season. But give them credit for going out there and playing heavy doses of minutes recently as the team tried to lose as many games as possible to maximize its lottery odds. Let’s take one final look at player grades for the regular-season finale.

Thunder player grades: OKC secures crucial 120-101 loss to Lakers as Jaylen Hoard, Georgios Kalaitzakis show off

Jaylen Hoard and Georgios Kalaitzakis combined for 52 of the team’s 101 points.

Due to winning too many games for the first two-thirds of the regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder have put itself in a corner in terms of lottery odds and essentially need to lose these final two games in Los Angeles in order to keep its fourth-best odds spot. The team was able to complete half of that goal with a 120-101 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers who were missing LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook.

It looked pretty uncertain if the Thunder were going to be able to lose this game as both teams fought back and forth for the first three quarters of the game. Ultimately, the backup Lakers were able to pull away in the fourth quarter and win by 19 points.

Much like the last few games, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault ran a short rotation of essentially just six players with just five of them playing over 15 minutes. Jaylen Hoard continues to impress and really squeezing every drop of juice out of his current 10-day deal that expires after the regular season ends. Hoard isn’t the only getting his money’s worth though as the Thunder played five of the six players who touched the floor this game at least 43 minutes with four of those five players being 10-day deal guys. Let’s take a look at player grades.

NBA Power Rankings: Thunder come in at 27th overall for March 28 to April 3 week

The Oklahoma City Thunder are ranked 27th in @RookieWire ‘s latest NBA power rankings.

In the Rookie Wire’s latest NBA power rankings this past Monday and the Oklahoma City Thunder jumped up a spot and come in 27th overall. During the week of March 28 to April 3, the Thunder went 2-2 with losses to the Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons and wins over the Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns.

“The tanking efforts of the Thunder hit a bit of a bump in the road after they pulled off a surprising win over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. Aleksej Pokusevski led the Thunder with 17 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in the 117-96 victory. He became the seventh different Thunder player to record a triple-double and the 12th-youngest in NBA history to do so at 20 years, 98 days. The win moved OKC up to the fourth-worst record in the league.”

During the week, Theo Maledon led the team in scoring with 19.5 points, Aleksej Pokusevski led the team in playmaking with 10.3 assists and Jaylen Hoard led the team on the boards with 12 rebounds.

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OKC Thunder player grades: Thunder’s two-game winning streak comes to an end in Utah with 137-101 loss

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s two-game winning streak comes to an end with a 137-101 blowout loss via the Utah Jazz.

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s two-game winning streak has ended with a 137-101 loss to the Utah Jazz. The Thunder goes back to its losing ways as the franchise tries to keep its fourth-best lottery odds as the Indiana Pacers are just one game back in the reverse standings. With Tuesday’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers, priorities have shifted from trying to sneak into the top three lottery odds to fighting off the Pacers and keeping its fourth-best lottery odds.

The Jazz — who were without Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Royce O’Neale — were led by Rudy Gobert’s 20 points and Bojan Bogdanovic’s 37 points in a comfortable win where the result really wasn’t in question for the most part.

Meanwhile, the Thunder — where half of the players who touched the floor were signed just recently on 10-day deals — were able to produce quality offense and score with ease despite having more G League than NBA talent suited up. Let’s take a look at player grades.

OKC Thunder player grades: Thunder shifts focus to keeping fourth-best lottery odds with 94-98 win over Trail Blazers

The Thunder essentially won a game playing six guys with three of them on 10-day deals.

The race for the third-best lottery odds is essentially over as the Oklahoma City Thunder mount a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat the Portland Trail Blazers once again, 98-94.

Things were looking great entering the fourth quarter for the Thunder’s lottery odds. After 36 minutes, the Trail Blazers had an 82-67 lead and were well on their way to a win that would’ve really benefited the Thunder. If the lead held, then that means the Thunder would be just half a game back from the Detroit Pistons currently for the third-best lottery odds. Now, a 26-4 finish to the game that saw the Trail Blazers score just four points in the final 5:41 of the game has Thunder fans focused on keeping its fourth-best lottery odds as the Indiana Pacers are just half a game back.

This win has deflated the fanbase to say the least, with a real shot at getting top-three lottery odds just a couple of weeks ago, the Thunder going 4-3 in its last seven games as ruined any dreams of that happening. The Thunder threw everything at this game to maximize its odds to lose as it only played six guys essentially with three of them currently on 10-day deals. I mean, Lindy Waters III, a two-way player, was pulled after four minutes as he scored eight quick points for Pete’s sake. There was nothing else that the team could’ve done to lose this game and the Thunder have great synergy throughout the organization has really bit them in the butt hard these last couple of seasons in terms of draft lottery odds.

It’s a failure that the Thunder will not be able to get top-three lottery odds for the second straight season during this rebuild and creating a program that brings the best out of its players has proven to be a hinderance when it comes to losing games. Let’s take look at player grades.

OKC Thunder player grades: 110-101 loss to Pistons opens door for potential top-3 lottery odds

Top-3 lottery odds are back on the menu, boys.

In a must-lose game, the Oklahoma City Thunder fall to the Detroit Pistons, 110-101. And just like that, the Thunder are now just half a game back from top-three lottery odds with five games remaining in the regular season.

Losing this game basically gave the Thunder life once again after its top-three lottery odds chances were put on life support following the team’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday. But due to the Pistons’ upset win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday, new life was breathed into the Thunder.

The importance of this game was clearly understood by both sides as the Thunder ruled out Aleksej Pokusevski and Tre Mann while the Pistons played Cade Cunningham, Isaiah Stewart and Saddiq Bey for just six to eight minutes each.

Ultimately, the Thunder were finally able to out-tank a team in the caliber of the Pistons and it paid dividends. Any hope on staying in the race for top-three lottery odds required this game to be a loss and the franchise was able to do that by only having seven players active by the end of the game.

OKC Thunder news: Jaylen Hoard signed to 10-day deal, Aleksej Pokusevski out with flu-like symptoms

Poku is out and Hoard is in.

The Oklahoma City Thunder announced a couple of corresponding moves on Friday before its important tank game against the Detroit Pistons, which it trails by 1.5 games in the reverse standings.

The Thunder will be without Aleksej Pokusevski as he deals with flu-like symptoms and has signed Jaylen Hoard to a 10-day hardship exception deal in order to roster the minimum eight active players.

Since February 1, Pokusevski has played phenomenally and has looked like a legit NBA rotation player. In 24 games, Pokusevski has averaged 11.8 points on 44.2 percent shooting, 6.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists.

Hoard played in 20 games with the Thunder last season and averaged 5.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists. In 39 games with the G League’s Oklahoma City Blue this season, Hoard has averaged 10.1 points and 6.1 rebounds.

The 10-day deal will allow Hoard to stay on the Thunder roster for the remainder of the regular season.

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OKC Thunder news: Thunder assign Jaylen Hoard to G League’s Blue

The Thunder announced that Jaylen Hoard has been assigned back to the Blue after signing on a 10-day hardship deal.

The Oklahoma City Thunder announced that they have assigned Jaylen Hoard back to the G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue.

Hoard signed on a 10-day hardship deal on Dec. 29 as the team dealt with health and safety protocols outbreak. Hoard only played in two total minutes in his stay with the Thunder.

Hoard appeared in 19 games last season with the Thunder, where he averaged 6.1 points and 3.4 rebounds.

In 14 games with the Blue this season, Hoard has averaged 8.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists.

For their next game, the 13-24 Thunder have a rematch against the 18-20 Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday in Oklahoma City.

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OKC Thunder news: Thunder signs Jaylen Hoard to 10-day deal

The Oklahoma City Thunder add a familiar name as it deals with a health and safety protocol outbreak.

The Oklahoma City Thunder announced that they have signed Jaylen Hoard to a 10-day hardship deal, the team announced on Wednesday.

The Thunder currently have five players under health and safety protocols: Darius Bazley, Tre Mann, Aleksej Pokusevski, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Josh Giddey. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault is also in the protocols. Derrick Favors was recently removed from health and safety protocols.

Hoard joins Rob Edwards, Scotty Hopson and Olivier Sarr as the team’s replacement players. All four were on the Oklahoma City Blue roster.

Hoard appeared in 19 games last season with the Thunder, where he averaged 6.1 points and 3.4 rebounds in 17 minutes a game.

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