This is Better Than EVER Expected…

This is Better Than EVER Expected…

This is better than we ever expected. The Oklahoma City Thunder have found themselves another elite defender amongst the ranks of the very best in the NBA this season to join what’s already considered the best defense the NBA has seen in several decades. Welcome into Thunder Digest. I’m Ryan Breeden and today on the channel we’re going to talk about how the Thunder may have just found themselves a fourth alldefensive team selection on this team joining the likes of Alex Caruso, Jaylen Williams, and Lou Dort on this team. And that is with Kase Wallace and what he’s been able to do to disrupt the overall talent around the NBA when he has been a primary on ball defender. So, we’ll get into that here in the channel today. Before we do though, 67% of you guys are not subscribed to the channel. Over the last month, me and Gabriel have been really cranking out content for you guys each and every single day. Trying to grow our channel to 8,000 subscribers. That is our subscriber goal to hit before the yall break. I know that we can do it with your guys’ support. Show us why we’re the best fan base here in the NBA. I know that we are already. Make sure you become a part of Thunder Digest Nation here today. Go ahead and hit that subscribe button down below. It is completely free. But I want to talk about the X factor for this Thunder defense here in the absence of Lou Dort when he missed his two weeks because of a shoulder injury. He did return two games ago. But that is Kase Wallace, the third-year guard out of Kentucky, primary on ball defender of John Morant, of Steph Curry, of Luca Donuch, and shut all three of them down in subsequent order. John Morant still doesn’t have the Thunder figured out despite what he may say. Steph Curry, who scored 40 plus points in the two games after facing Kase Wallace, finished four of 13 with 11 points against Oklahoma City. And then Luca Donuch had four turnovers. He got a technical foul as well on this whole sequence right here. Kase Wallace just doing what he does best, right? Anticipating what someone’s trying to do, keeping his body in front. Sees that Donic wants to draw the contact there. Keeps his hands out of it. He doesn’t want any part of that. Luca gets upset, goes gets a technical foul on the other end. kind of similar or maybe reminds me a little bit of what we saw a couple years ago with that series against Dallas, but that’s neither here nor there. The point is Kase Wallace, he has been incredible and it’s shown first by the most prominent stat that you can for disruption and that is steals. 33 steals so far this year. Kase Wallace has the most in the NBA despite playing pretty much 50 minutes less than everybody on this list. Kase Wallace, he’s not a primary starter for this team. 406 minutes played. He gets a lot of time, but not as much time as somebody like Dyson Daniels, who’s really considered to be the gold standard for steals guys in the NBA. Tyson Daniels is the one that you model your game after. He set the Atlanta Hawks franchise record last year in steals with almost 230. It was 100 more than SGA, who finished second in the NBA last year. Dyson Daniels is just incredible at what he does and at disruption. And Kasein Wallace is staying stride for stride with him by doing things like this, right? Having a natural instinct. This is just outrageous. By the way, I want you to just admire this for a second. I want to play this again. Kase Wallace could not see the basketball there. Now, maybe he saw it out of his peripheral vision at the very beginning of that whole sequence. This is last night against the Pelicans, but he essentially stole this ball while not looking. His arms were in the air and his head head was turned away from the basketball and he somehow stole that ball away. Kase Wallace has incredible instincts that he’s trusting this year more than ever. And he’s also being an incredible disruptor and I show you this list on the AllNBA defensive team. Lou Dor got his last year obviously, but Dyson Daniels was right there for what he did with the Hawks. And those two guys really aren’t that far apart from each other. Dyson Daniels 6.3 deflections per game. Kase Wallace at 4.7 this year. You got a guy like Assar Thompson, Herbert Jones right in there as well. But the big difference being Kase Wallace has less minutes played. And pretty much all these guys on this list, Daniels obviously has the most of anybody here and he’s the most important player for his team. But when you compare these two guys to each other, the biggest thing that I want to show you difference-wise is the minutes. 34 minutes a game for Dyson Daniels, 26 minutes per game from Kase Wallace, nearly 8 minutes per game difference. So if we were to average that out over a 36 minute span, you would see that they are essentially the same defender. Kase Wallace and Dyson Daniels are right on top of each other. That is their two player profiles right there on the right side of the screen. All within being the top five best in the NBA. Hey, Alprin Shenon is up there as well, which may be a surprise to some, but he gets active on the defensive end down low. Uh, but I mean, Kase Wallace and Dyson Daniels, they have been very, very similar players this year. And with one of them winning an allNBA defensive team selection last year, that should be fairly encouraging for how Thunder fans would feel about Kase Wallace’s chances to be an AllNBA defensive team selection. So, maybe you’re asking yourself at home, right, Kase Wallace, he’s always been a great defender. He was top 10 in steals last year. But what has changed? How has Kase Walls become such an elite defender? The answer starts with Alex Caruso first and foremost, and it’s the overall mentorship between these two guys talking about being able to manipulate your opposing talent and use that for your benefit. Caruso said on a podcast with Kase Wallace a couple days ago, he said, “Yeah, you know, that’s something I’ve really harped on. You pick up on guys tendencies. You can start to manipulate the game. It’s not just about being physically gifted, which he’s obviously able to do at a very high level. A lot of it is mental. That’s what helped Alex Caruso get his allNBA defensive team selection. That is what makes him such a good defender is because he is smart. He is tenacious. He’s able to do things like this. fight over the top of a ball screen, anticipate a crossover move, have his hand there before it even gets to the other side, poke the ball away, and finish it on the other end. That’s what Alex Caruso does. That’s what he’s teaching Kase Wallace, right? It’s not as much that you’re going to do film study. You’ll do enough so that way you can know what you’re going up against, but a lot of it is just anticipation, trusting your instincts, knowing what to expect offensively and defensively, knowing the actions that’s going on. You’ve got to be smart about the game. You’ve obviously got to put yourself in a situation to succeed, but from there on, it’s all about instincts. It’s all about natural talent, natural ability, and just that gut reaction. And that’s something that Kase Wallace has done so well to become this disruptor that we’ve seen so far this year. And the Thunder now kind of have an interesting situation when you try to figure out who you want to be a primary on ball defender. You’ve got Jaylen Williams who had the best defensive rating in the NBA last year. You’ve obviously got Sheay who you wouldn’t match up with somebody like Luca most likely. You wouldn’t really want him on somebody like Steph Curry. You’d kind of keep Shay on a secondary guard that may be more of a spot-up shooter. But Shay can get his steals, right? He did it last year. He was second in the NBA. You’ve obviously got Lou Dort who has put people in the Dor chamber for more than five years now and he’s done that with some all-stars. Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Jaylen Brown, Damen Lillard. So Lou Dort obviously has got his flowers. He he he’s earned his stripes as an elite defender in this league. Jaylen Williams right there as well. The question I posed to you guys, let me know down below. In a hypothetical situation, you got one possession where you got to get a stop and you’re facing a guy like Anthony Edwards or a guy like a Luca Donuch or a James Harden. Who are you wanting on the ball for that possession? Do you want it to be Lud Dort still? Would you want it to be Kase Wallace? Do you want Alex Caruso? Would you want JDub? I mean, there there’s so many options that you could have, but let me know down below what you guys think because I’m really curious. Who would you want to be the primary own ball defender? Because I think there’s a case made for Kase Wallace with what he has done so far this season. Again, is the Steels leader in the NBA with a lot less time played, the deflections as well, the disruptions on the defensive end. such such an evolution of of what people I guess would have expected from him coming into the league and what he’s done from last year to this year. He’s always been a great defender, but he’s taken a leap this year from good to great. Just the anticipation factor of of being smart, playing the game with your mind, being tenacious, that’s what makes him such a good defender along with everybody else on this Thunder team. Hope you guys enjoyed the video. We’ve got again new videos coming out each and every single day on the road to 8,000 subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed yet, make sure you hit the subscribe button.

In today’s Oklahoma City Thunder news update, Ryan Breeden talks about G Cason Wallace and his defensive emergence. OKC is well regarded defensively, especially because of Chet Holmgren, Lu Dort, Alex Caruso, Jalen Williams (JDub), Ajay Mitchell and others, but Cason (CASO) Wallace is a legitimate contender for All-NBA Defensive Team status in the 2025-26 NBA season. The OKC Thunder have the most steals in the NBA thanks to Cason Wallace, who is playing similarly to defensive talents like Atlanta Hawks G Dyson Daniels. As a result, Oklahoma City has beaten the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers and others. Stay tuned for more Thunder news, Thunder rumors, Thunder trade rumors and Thunder updates from Ryan all season long!

Thunder Digest covers the latest reports, news and rumors regarding the Oklahoma City Thunder. If you want to stay updated with every trade, move and tidbit on players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Mark Daigneault and Sam Presti.

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