What Could Brooks Barnhizer's Role be For OKC Thunder?

The Oklahoma City Thunder are in the midst of their six game preseason slate. The Bricktown ballers have to be impressed with the level of defense rookie Brooks Barnhizer has played during the team's exhibition schedule.

The No. 44 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft has posted 11.8 points, 1.8 assists, 6.0 rebounds, 1.8 steals which tallies to 2.1 stocks (steals plus blocks) per game while shooting 44.8% from the floor, 57% from beyond the arc and 73% from the charity stripe in his four preseason games.

This Oklahoma City Thunder rotation is littered with talent. So much so that the Bricktown Ballers own the deepest and most talented roster in the league and will struggle to balance out the minutes to this loaded squad even with head coach Mark Daigneault going 11-12 players deep each night. It is a good problem to have. An embarrassment of riches.

Barnhizer is fresh off a four year career at Northwestern where he posted 11 points, six rebounds, two assists and two stocks per game over his 96 game stint as a Wildcat. In his final season, those numbers bumped up to 17.1 points, 8.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and a jaw-dropping 3.4 stocks per game. In that final season he shot 41% from the floor, 26% from deep and 76% from the charity stripe.

Now, the rookie is placed on a two-way contract with Oklahoma City primed to split his time between the Thunder and Blue.

Sure, the swingman has to fix his jump shot throughout his career, the hitch in his giddy up isn't sustainable but he makes himself useful on the offensive end of the floor with his connective playmaking, pushing in transition and cutting ability.

Defensively he more than fits the bill of not only a high-end NBA player on that side of the floor but the Thunder's identity of being historically great on that end.

He plays suffocating defense on the ball, he has an ability to jump the passing lanes, receive cutters to disrupt their path to the basket and has an excellent ability to recover to shooters after showing in the lane or off screens. His disruption on that end of the floor with steals and deflections not only takes away possessions but bogs them down to not allow an offense to get into rhythm. Flanked by the Thunder's elite supporting cast it will be like pulling teeth to get matchups buckets against OKC.

It is clear Barnhizer will quickly earn the trust of Daigneault and his staff and fits the mold of a typical Thunder player. But how does he crack this rotation?

His motor and energy can really spark this team off the bench when battling the grueling nature of an 82 game slate. A spark plug off the pine that plays about 5-12 minutes a night on average and of the 50 NBA games he can play on his current deal this scribe predicts he will max out that mark. Consider Barnhizer a favorite to get his two-way deal converted to a standard contract following the trade deadline.