How Brooks Barnhizer Embodies Thunder Culture

The Oklahoma City Thunder have created an identity and culture under Head Coach Mark Daigneault as a physical team that plays elite team defense. General Manager Sam Presti has attacked the draft searching for players who fit this mold the past few seasons.

OKC won a championship by building a team of lockdown defenders to surround its superstar guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is a great defender in his own right, consistently making the right reads off the ball. The roster construction ensured that there were at least four positive defenders on the floor at all times, and sometimes, all five were elite.

This mentality created one of the strongest defenses in NBA history and the team with the second-best net rating of all time, only behind the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls led by the legendary Michael Jordan. Physical defense is an identity that works for the Thunder, and they are not shying away from it anytime soon.

2025 No. 44 draft pick Brooks Barnhizer is the next player on the Thunder roster who truly lives and breathes the archetype that the Thunder's culture dreams to build. The rookie out of Northwestern University has shown constant flashes of a potential elite role player throughout his four preseason games so far.

So far in preseason action, Barnhizer has tallied 11.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game. He is shooting 44.8% from the field on 7.3 shots a night and a torrid 57.1% from behind the three-point arc on 1.8 attempts per game.

Shooting was one of Barnhizer's drawbacks as a prospect, but so far, the clunky jumpshot has started to show signs of improvement. The Thunder have had a track record of turning below-average three-point shooters into good ones, such as guard Luguentz Dort, who went from below 30% from three as a rookie to a consistent 40% shooter the past two years.

The offense has not been what's stuck out for the rookie, though. He has demonstrated versatility on defense, guarding one through four on the court throughout preseason play.

This defensive versatility is nothing new for the Thunder, but to see it from a second-round rookie just adds more to the immense depth of this team. It shows that Barnhizer has the grit it takes to be a Thunder player.

The Thunder have built an identity of physical and versatile defenders through this era of Thunder basketball, and Barnhizer is the next name along the list of elite Thunder defenders.