The Cheat Code No One Is Talking About

The Cheat Code No One Is Talking About

So, you may have noticed, but the Thunder have a secret weapon, a key resource in the NBA that are precious raw materials that can be added to the existing structure of a good roster. As a team gets good, it also gets expensive and it becomes about finding winning advantages on the margins and within that ones that rank high on the affordability scale. This is an ace in the hole. A strategic asset that they have uncovered. So, ready to know what it is? I’m going to whisper it so the other 29 teams don’t hear me. All right. It’s the twoway player. Oh, yeah. You’re right. I guess all 30 teams have two-way players, but the Thunder, it’s less of a two-way player and more of a talent pipeline to the NBA. First and only Blazer in double digits. AJ Mitchell. Oh, AJ Mitchell slicing and dying. Mitchell walks into a three. Nails it and a foul. When I said secret weapon, you probably thought of the name AJ Mitchell, didn’t you? Because right now he’s got some serious buzz. Early sixth man of the year talk. A candidate for most improved player as well. He’s 23 years old and in his second season coming out of UC Santa Barbara. He was taken 38th overall, which let’s do the whole quick sidebar thing as we so often like to do. Let’s review how the Thunder acquired him. So, the Thunder sent Lindy Waters, we’ll come back to him in a second, to the Warriors for the 52nd overall pick, which then the Thunder sent the 52nd overall pick and Cash to the Portland Trailblazers for the 40th overall pick, clearly targeting a player they wanted. The Knicks had the 38th pick and the Grizzlies had the 39th pick. And the Thunder decided they needed to get in front of Memphis. So, they moved up two spots to 38, sending the 40th pick and more cash to get 38 from New York to select AJ Mitchell. Trust me, it was just as confusing on draft night as it sounds right now. But let me tell you, he was much higher on OKC’s board than 38. The Thunder wanted AJ. I’m a big Tribe Called Quest fan. There’s a line that that basically says, “Scared money, don’t make none.” In the post-draft grades from the Oklahoma, they gave it a B minus, and they wrote, “Mitchell figures to be a two-way player who will spend most of next season with the OKC Blue, the Thunder GLeague affiliate. If his improved three-point shooting is legit, he could eventually carve out a role in the NBA. eventually was actually immediate. [Applause] As you’ve watched AJ shred defenses and looked like such an incredible discovery off the Thunder bench, you might have forgotten he played instantly as a rookie last season, contributing and looking much like he has right now. composed, controlled, poised, dynamic, creative, great on defense, and a great fit with the players around him before a turftoe sprain sidelined him for three months. He’s done a great job. I’ve been super impressed with him to all season with just their ability to uh approach a a long-term rehab. And in AJ’s case, he was playing great at playing, you know, rotation minutes for us. It really hasn’t skipped a beat in terms of his overall approach. Uh, and that could be hard. You know, I think it’s easy to to wish he was under a different set of circumstances. He doesn’t do that at all. He’s been as consistent as as anything. So, he’s done a great job. During his rookie season, he had 11 games in double figures, including a then career-high 17-point game against Memphis. He was so impactful that as soon as he got back, Mark Dnalt immediately put him back in the rotation in the NBA finals. AJ Mitchell getting some interesting early minutes. The rookie from UC Santa Barbara Wiggins falling away. Banks it home this season with injuries providing some extra opportunities for AJ. He has excelled showcasing what a good offseason of adding strength and sharpening tools can do. He scored in double figures almost every game so far this season, including a new career-high 26 against the Pacers, and then 21 against the Blazers, 20 against the Wizards, and another 21 against the Grizzlies. He’s averaging well above 15 points a game and playing both as a secondary creator alongside SGA and also as a main engine off the Thunder’s bench in second unit lineups. He’s good in the pick and roll as a downhill attacker. He’s great with floaters and runners and counter moves. He’s a knockdown spot-up shooter. He’s a very good passer. He can play on the ball and off the ball. He knows how to cut and he is again a very good defender, which is what got him on the floor to start with last season. I feel like it’s more like in instinct uh and feel like if if they’re going to show me the ball, like sometimes I just got to go get it. And let me say, I am not comparing them because this player I’m about to say is a Hall of Famer, but a lot of people have been trying to place AJ’s game. It’s like seeing a person in Target and you’re like, I know I’ve seen you from somewhere before. Wait a minute. Who are you? That lefty part of him is a big reason why. And of course, there are some saying James Harden, probably largely because of previous Thunder Connections, or maybe Jaylen Brunson. But when I watch AJ play, my lefty stereotype goes to Manu Genobbi. Even the way AJ ball fakes and drops his foot back, that just looks like Manu to me. To the basket and finish. And by the way, Manu, he was a second rounder as well, the 57th overall pick. When the Thunder get whole again, AJ’s role will likely adjust, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be less impactful. His numbers may come down, but that’s part of what makes the Thunder so successful. Players have an adaptability element to them. Aaron Wiggins is a great example of this. Their minutes and their role goes up, so do the raw numbers, but the impact remains the same. Their minutes come down, their role tightens to a more specific element, but they are still impacting the game significantly. AJ is another player in the continually growing but already long line of player development success stories in OKC. There is an approach. When you hit a baseline of playability and can do the things necessary to get you on the floor, your player development process graduates from practices and highintensity training to actually being in games. You’re still in the player development program. You’re just now doing it in actual games. You got AJ as a developmental guy. There was a point in the first quarter where you guys had four former second round picks on the floor at the same time. I mean, just how much does that speak to the development across the board? And how important is that to the success that you guys have had? I mean, we develop everybody on the team 1 through 18, you know, we don’t really care where they get drafted. Once they’re here, they’re a Thunder player. And um we start the process of letting them declare themselves and and put them on a plan where they can grow. And when they declare themselves as as playable, we play them, you know, and so um the draft status doesn’t really matter to us, but you know, we take it seriously 1 through 18. We wanted everybody to be growing and developing its 82 game season. We’re going to need everybody at some point. But there are two things about AJ some may have forgotten. He must be new. Well, not new new or just you didn’t know because they’re a little late to the Thunder game. One, he’s Belgian and actually started his career with Lindberg United before going to UC Santa Barbara, the Gauchos. Awesome team name, spending three seasons there and winning Big West player of the year in 2023. And then number two, that he started his career on a two-way contract. Tears of joy from AJ Mitchell as the UCSB star basketball player is selected in the second round of the NBA draft. Select AJ Mitchell. So, back to that. You’ve probably heard two-way contract a lot the past few years and likely understand the general idea of what it is, but let’s dive into the history of it briefly and why and how the two-way has become one of the Thunder’s greatest roster building weapons, shining as a team that has taken advantage of it more than just about anyone else in the league. The league and the NBA players association have reached a tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement pending ratification. two-way contract became a thing in the 201718 season added in the new collective bargaining agreement that was negotiated that year. Originally, it added two additional players to the standard 15-man roster. But these players were not full-time NBA contract players, but hybrid players splitting between the G-League and the NBA. It was expanded to three players starting with the 2023 24 season. Each player is afforded a set number of NBA days which is allocated at 50. Now what counts as a day you ask? Right now it’s simple. Basically if they are active and playing in an NBA game that counts as a day. So 50 games let’s say math math math. But originally it was actually 45 days and it was any day that you were with the NBA team. That counted as a day. So a practice that was a day. A travel day to Portland with the team that was a day. It was a pretty broken system that was almost impossible to track and also one ripe for loopholes. So they rightfully simplified it to 50 days of active NBA games. The first two-way player the Thunder ever signed was Daniel Hamilton, which if you’ve been following our videos around here for a minute, he has another great connection to the Thunder as a player integral to one of Mark DNA’s best plays. Then there was PJ Doure signed shortly after that. The first two-way the Thunder signed that was converted into a full-time contract though was Deontay Burton who for a brief moment showed some serious flashes of being something before fizzling out. Here’s Deontay on a drive in the one. But the next season, the Thunder signed an undrafted guard out of Arizona State to one of their two-way contracts. And quickly it became apparent that Lugans Dort was a strong candidate for another converted NBA contract. ball handle to Dort goes up and hammers it down. As the Thunder surprised people to make a playoff run, Dort played more than 30 games on a two-way and then had his two-way converted to full-time in June 2020, right before the NBA resumed in the Disney bubble. In 2021, the Thunder’s 55th overall pick was signed to a two-way contract. His name was Aaron Wiggins. He had his contract converted to full-time in February of that season. The next season, the Thunder signed Lindy Waters III to a two-way deal. Waters originally was part of a G-League tryyout, actually. Then, after showcasing sharp shooting skills with the OKC blue, was added to the roster on a two-way, then converted again later that season. And now, of course, AJ Mitchell, originally on a two-way, now on a full-time deal. The current two ways for the Thunder are Brandon Carlson, Brooks Barnheiser, a second round pick from last year, and Chris Young Bloodood. Who knows where their career goes, but obviously there’s a lot of investment in the two-way program for the Thunder, and those guys are just the next in that line of opportunities. But that’s four current full-time NBA players that started on two-way deals in OKC. So, what you’re seeing here is a mix of the Thunder’s elite scouting along with their elite player development infrastructure, taking what some see as kind of a throwaway end of the bench roster spot and turning it into a talent pipeline to not just the 15-man roster, but the nightly rotation and making a significant impact on the floor because it’s a core principle of the Thunder to not see things for what they are, but to see things for what they can be. And nothing demonstrates that more than their two-way approach. What some see as a footnote transaction that nobody is paying attention to can later become Lou Dort or Aaron Wiggins or AJ Mitchell, players that are major household name contributors. Oh, and by the way, another former two-way contract, Alex Caruso. He started his professional career with the OKC Blue, of course, coached by Mark Dnull, but he signed a two-way contract with the Lakers, their first in franchise history in 2017, and converted to a full-time NBA deal after two seasons in 2019. For an organization like the Thunder, already elite at talent evaluation and a robust player development program, three two-way spots, is a nucleargrade weapon to have at their disposal. Because if you go through the roster that has dominated the NBA the past few seasons, it isn’t composed of top level lottery talent and can’t miss prospects. It’s largely late lottery picks, second rounders, undrafted free agents, and two-way players. More than 500 players have been signed to two-way deals since its inception. There’s some great research by someone on Substack about two-way deals. It was from last season, though, mind you, but they are looking at things like if age impacts two-way success, what teams do it best, or if there’s a specific archetype of player that breaks through most. But what gets lost by some on two-way impact is how effective it can be for an environment that puts a priority on player development. Some look at two ways as an additional stab at talent acquisition. Grabbing three players and seeing if any of them just stick to the wall because they were a hidden gem. But the Thunder again don’t see things for what they are. They see them for what they can be. And players like Dort or Wiggins or AJ are system success stories. Coach Mark has used Wigs as an example of someone that has mastered system skills. And what are those you ask? as individual defense help defense coverage execution, spacing, playing, you know, quick off the catch, uh, being sharp inside of actions, changing ends, um, having the discipline to do that consistently. And, you know, the system skills are what gives a player confidence because if you do those well, you impact the game and you see success and it gives their teammates confidence in them, us confidence in them. Um, so, you know, I think fundamentals and confidence really go hand in hand and he’s a guy that his confidence has grown. uh not only because his games expanded, but because he’s become more and more fundamental. Again, the Thunder take a unique approach to development. They utilize their G-League system as an extension of the NBA club, not as a demotion tool or an offshoot experience opportunity. It’s somewhere to tap into the same systematic structure that exists with the Thunder. Same terminology, same plays, same approach, same environment. It’s where those system skills can be sharpened and get a player to the point of playability in the NBA, progressing their player development path to the floor with the Thunder. This is a vital lifeblood to the Thunder. It’s how they neutralize the disadvantages of their market size or financial constraints. They keep the talent pipeline flowing, investing in every single roster spot available, no matter where you were drafted or what kind of contract you came into the NBA on. All right, and I promise not to tell anybody about this. [Music]

Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets. Luka Dončić and the Los Angeles Lakers. Stephen Curry and the Warriors. Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. LeBron James and the Lakers.

While the average NBA fan may and team may gravitate towards names as large as these, the Oklahoma City Thunder have found a hidden advantage in their two-way pipeline.

Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Alex Caruso, nd now Ajay Mitchell, are proving how OKC turns overlooked talent into real rotation pieces.

In this video, Royce Young breaks down how the Thunder turned the two-way contract into one of the league’s most powerful roster-building weapons.

0:00 The Oklahoma City Thunder Have A Secret Weapon
0:57 The Rise of Ajay Mitchell
3:00 Ajay Mitchell Last Season
4:15 Ajay Mitchell in This NBA Season
5:15 James Harden vs Jalen Brunson vs Hall of Famer
6:15 The Adaptability of Thunder Players
7:13 Mark Daigneault on OKC’s Player Development
7:50 Ajay Mitchell’s Journey
8:37 The History of the Thunder and the Two Way Contract
13:10 Alex Caruso With the Los Angeles Lakers
13:45 The Composition of The OKC Thunder
14:09 Two Ways Around the NBA
14:55 Mark Daigneault on the Keys For Growth
15:40 The Thunder’s Lifeblood