Thunder report card: Lindy Waters III
Lindy Waters III became a cult hero with his Cinderella story late in the Thunder season. Our series of Thunder report cards continues with the 6-foot-5 wing from Oklahoma State.Three-point shooting: B. Waters’ chances to stick in the NBA hinge on his ability to make the deep shot. And he mostly was impressive in his 25-game audition, making 36.3% of his 3-point attempts. Even better, Waters shot 38.2% from outside the corners. Waters was just 11-of-36 from the corners, where you’d think he’d eventually be fine. The above-the-break shot is the test, and Waters mostly impressed.
Handling pressure: A. Waters’ willingness to seize the day was underrated. Here’s a local guy, a minor-league journeyman, already 24 years old, who gets an unexpected NBA shot, who knows he has to make shots, and in his first 15 games makes just 29.4% of his 3-pointers and not much of an impact. Waters had to be wondering if his chance was lost. But in his last 10 games, Waters’ playing time went up – from 16.2 minutes per game to 22.1 -- and his production soared. Waters shot 42.3% from deep over that span, averaging 11.7 points. He looked like an NBA player. Waters made the most of his chance.
Playmaking: C. Waters committed few turnovers – 11 in 465 minutes played. His turnover percentage (turnovers divided by possessions used) of 5.8 was the lowest of any Thunder except centers Derrick Favors and Muscala. But Waters’ assist rate wasn’t high, 8.1 (percentage of opponents’ baskets on which he assisted while on the court), which was the lowest of any non-interior Thunder. Waters wasn’t much of a driver; only 24 of his 175 shots came from 10 feet or in. He shot only four non-paint 2-pointers.
Effect on games: A. Waters played during a stretch of the season when the Thunder was in full shutdown mode. Waters played just 10 games with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Just four with Josh Giddey. Two each with Luguentz Dort and Kenrich Williams. None with Mike Muscala. The Thunder was set up to fail when Waters played, yet he had one of the better net ratings on the squad, minus-5.0 -- the Thunder was outscored by five points per 100 possessions, with Waters on the court. That was fifth-best among players with at least 25 games, and of those four players with better ratings, only Aleksej Pokusevski played down the stretch of the season. Waters’ net rating was a plus 3.8 over how the Thunder fared with Waters off the court in games he played. And perhaps the best sign of Waters’ emergence; when OKC completely tanked the final two games of the season and brought up G League players with virtually no NBA future, Waters was benched. The Thunder didn’t want to risk it. He was too good.
Defense: C. Still a work in progress. Waters wasn’t overmatched most games, but his defensive rating of 113.2 (Thunder points allowed per 100 possessions with the Waters on the court) was among the worst on the squad. Waters was billed as a 3-point specialist when he arrived on the Thunder roster and proved to be much more than that, but defensive improvement would go a long way to keeping him in the league.
