Why Thunder Fans Shouldn’t Worry About Lu Dort’s Shooting Slump

Oklahoma City is off to a hot start at a perfect 5-0. The title defense is on, and the Thunder have as good a chance as anyone to repeat. The team has the tools, the personnel, and the coaching staff to once again be one of the NBA’s very best teams.

If you start to look at the stats behind the Thunder’s 5-0 start, though, it might get a little bit confusing. Oklahoma City enters Thursday night’s battle against Washington as an elite defensive team, there’s no questioning that. But the offense has been surprisingly rough this season. Of course, injuries play a part here — this team is missing quite a few rotational players, but the ones available haven’t found the same groove that they were in a season ago.

The biggest sore spot is efficiency, as Oklahoma City ranks 21st in field goal percentage and 29th in 3-point percentage. 28.8% from downtown simply isn’t going to cut it. The biggest piece to the Thunder’s 3-points puzzle right now is Lu Dort, who showed the team a season ago that they could rely on him for outside shooting. He was a 41.2% 3-point shooter a season ago, and took the second most triples per game on average.

With the Thunder’s other two best outside shooters sidelined — Jalen Williams and Isaiah Joe — it shouldn’t be too shocking to see Oklahoma City’s numbers dip so low considering Dort’s slump. He’s shooting just 17.9% from 3-point range and taking 5.6 attempts each night. Those numbers simply need to improve for the Thunder to reach the same heights as they did a season ago.

It feels like this is a conversation that basketball fans — especially Thunder fans — have each season. Who is Lu Dort as a shooter in the NBA? The truth is, he has always been a streaky one — but has found a way to err on the side of consistency throughout the highs and the lows.

We’ve seen Dort go on streaks where it seems like he simply can’t miss. He gives opponents headaches with his big scoring outputs and floor spacing. Dort has had weeks, and months, where he seems like the best shooters on the team. There are almost equally as many opposite stretches, though. Dort can go ice cold from long range, and really struggle to find his offensive rhythm.

The best part, though, is he doesn’t change who he is as a player. He takes the big shot regardless, and his fearlessness usually puts the Thunder in a great spot. His huge 3-point make against the Kings this week, when he was in the midst of an ice cold stretch, sealed the game for the Thunder.

The truth is, there’s no need to worry about Dort’s cold shooting stretch to start the season because this is the same thing we’ve seen over and over again. The ebbs and flows of the season are real, and Dort can ride the roller coaster with outside shooting. He’ll even it back out as the season goes on, and as the Thunder gets players back from injury less attention will be on him offensively. This is a situation that’ll work itself out over time.