3 things OKC Thunder must do to beat Hornets in 2025 Summer League playoffs
The Summer League playoffs are a four-team knockout tournament. This year, all four teams went a perfect 4-0 with strong point differentials. The Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings are in the other semifinal game.
Even with Nikola Topic and Ajay Mitchell likely done for the Summer League, the Thunder have seen their two-way players and the rest of the roster step up. Here are three things they must do to beat the Hornets and move on to/ the championship round:
Rely on defense and turnovers
While Mitchell and Topic being out hurts the offense, the defense continues to shut down the opposition. They've played a similar style to the NBA champions with turnovers. It also helps playing against opponents that have sat out their best prospects in recent days.
All eyes will be on Kon Knueppel. He's remained on the floor despite other top rookies sitting out. The 2025 No. 4 pick has averaged 13.3 points on 41.9% shooting, 5.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists in three Vegas Summer League games. Let's see if the Thunder can slow him down.
Creating turnovers will be key. If the Thunder can disrupt passing lanes and win the possession battle, that gives them more margin for error with their halfcourt offense. That formula is a proven success, considering how OKC relied on its elite defense to win a championship.
Continue good ball movement
The Thunder will likely be without a traditional playmaker. Topic and Mitchell have carried the offense, but with both out, they must get creative. That's how they blew out the Pelicans and scored nearly 100 points in 40 minutes. The offense got going with good ball movement.
If the Thunder win, they will need an evenly distributed scoring performance. Several players will need to score double-digit points. Nobody left is really capable of being a 20-plus point scorer. Without a true go-to scorer, off-ball movement and outside shooting will have to carry the load.
Malevy Leons and Chris Youngblood are some solid candidates. Leons could be a fastbreak threat with his length. Youngblood is a quick outside shooter who needs little space to let it fly. Jazian Gortman can also create a little bit off the dribble.
Barnhizer and Carlson step up
In all likelihood, Brooks Barnhizer and Branden Carlson will be the Thunder's best players. The two two-way players led them to a blowout win over the Magic and Pelicans. Barnhizer has played better the deeper they got into the Summer League. Carlson finally debuted after dealing with an ankle injury.
Barnhizer will need to be impactful. He can provide a boost with steal-and-score sequences. He can also help the halfcourt offense with second-chance layups. Because of a lack of top scorers, he will be given plenty of chances to get buckets.
Meanwhile, Carlson needs to continue to do what he does against G League competition. He's dominated at that level as a seven-foot stretch center who can rack up blocks. He might not be able to do it against NBA players, but he's the perfect G League player who stuffs the statsheet.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
WIRED
4 hours ago
- WIRED
This Smart Basketball Tracks Data About Every Shot. It Could Be Headed to the NBA
The league is considering adopting the tech for in-game use. Since the sensor is in the valve stem, the ball dribbles, shoots, and rebounds nearly the same as always. Courtesy of David Dow/NBA During a late June workout, Duncan Robinson was focused on the speed of his shot release. As a veteran NBA sharpshooter, the ability to get his jumper off quickly is vital for Robinson. Before he could stop this particular workout, he had to make three consecutive corner three-pointers without holding the ball for more than 0.4 seconds on any one shot. But how to track that sort of thing? The answer lay inside the Spalding TF DNA ball Robinson was using. Produced by a company called Sport IQ, the ball contains a 'smart valve,' a replacement for a traditional inflation valve that's outfitted with tracking technology. The sensor captures everything from simple makes and misses to metrics like the arc of each shot, the spin rate of the ball, and—vitally for Robinson—release time. Robinson tells me he's been using versions of SIQ connected balls for around five years, the bulk of his NBA career. 'I haven't come across anything quite like it,' he says. And before long, the same tracking technology Robinson uses in workouts could make its way inside every NBA game ball. Largely unbeknownst to players on the court during 2025 NBA Summer League play in mid-July in Las Vegas, roughly half their games were played using a ball outfitted with a modified version of SIQ's smart valve. The ball was engineered by league partner Wilson into its regulation NBA ball. If these test runs in Vegas prove successful, the NBA will have a new data-gathering tool at its disposal to both improve and speed up certain officiating decisions. Down the line, the adoption of the tech could potentially lead to big leaps in other areas like fan engagement, stat tracking, and analytics, thanks to the system's ability to precisely track the basketball during play. This isn't the first time the NBA has tested a connected ball at Summer League, though; initial attempts half a decade ago fell flat. And while the technology has improved significantly since then, big hurdles remain when it comes to convincing the full body of NBA players—a notably persnickety group—that a basketball with a sensor in it won't behave any differently than the basketballs they're used to. I went to Sin City and talked with stakeholders around the NBA, from teams and players to league staff and SIQ's brain trust, to get some exclusive info about how this technology works, how testing went, and whether we should realistically expect a 'smart basketball' to debut in the NBA sometime soon. Design Evolution While a number of nuances and variations exist within this large market, the basic construction of a basketball has remained unchanged for decades. A combination of rounded surfaces and precisely placed grooves, the basketball is meant to bounce uniformly with a single minor exception: a small 'dead' spot at the point where the ball's air valve is inserted to maintain airtightness. When the ball is dribbled directly on that valve spot, it slightly changes the way the ball rebounds. Across decades, players at every level of the sport have simply accepted this slight imperfection as part of the game. When the NBA first tested connected balls from multiple vendors at Summer League back in 2019, even the minuscule tweaks they made caused some issues. For starters, connecting sensors to the interior wall of the ball created dribbling concerns. 'If you position the sensor on the inner surface of the cascade of the basketball, then you are creating a [second] dead spot like you already do with the valve,' says Maximillian Schmidt, cofounder and managing director of Kinexon, a sports data and sensor company that was among the vendors the NBA tested in 2019. 'And as that was the preferred option by the corresponding ball manufacturers, the result was that there was always some kind of [additional] dead spot. It's not preventable, no matter how small you make it.' The sensors also simply weighed too much, largely due to both tech limitations at the time and the NBA's initial ask that the sensors capture both ball location and ball 'touch' events—a combination that required multiple sensor types built into the same setup. Players noticed both the dead spot and the added weight. Even so, multiple parties involved in those blind 2019 tests say they actually went relatively well. 'People said there were sensors in the ball when there weren't, and people said that there were not sensors in the ball when there were,' says Dayveon Ross, cofounder and CEO of ShotTracker, another vendor the NBA tested in 2019. ShotTracker's product, which includes both ball sensors and other features, has been used extensively at the college level, including across the Big 12 conference in recent years. 'So it was kinda 50-50, which is exactly what you want.' But those 2019 tests did not ultimately result in any permanent NBA adoption of a connected ball. The issue of the ball's feel was part of that; so, too, was the league's desire to invest more of its resources at the time into computer vision programs, which could glean much of the same location data as a connected ball without the physical hassle. 'It got to a point where we said, the design's just not there,' Tom Ryan, senior VP of basketball strategy and growth at the NBA, told me during a sit-down interview in Las Vegas. 'These sensors are too big, they're too noticeable. So we kinda said, pencils down on this approach for now, until it gets significantly smaller. And that's where we are now.' Enter SIQ and a new approach: replacing the existing ball valve with its 'smart valve' technology. The tech purports to solve both the NBA's prior issues. As essentially a valve replacement, it creates no additional dead spot in the ball. Plus, it only adds a negligible amount of weight, per CEO Erik Anderson. 'On an approximately 600-gram basketball, we add less than 1 gram of weight,' Anderson says. Courtesy of Logan Riely/NBA The NBA is also simplifying its requirements this time around. Rather than attempting to track both location-based data and touch data, as it did in 2019, the league is simply interested in the latter for these 2025 tests. During Anderson's presentation to team staffers and various assembled media at the NBA's yearly Launchpad event in Vegas on July 14, he showed a side-by-side video. On one side, players were shown dribbling and shooting an SIQ connected ball. On the other side, we saw SIQ's internal system display a green light whenever the ball was in free flight and a red light whenever it was being touched by a player, the floor, or the hoop. The setup can be slowed down to isolate each frame of the video, allowing any viewer to determine if the ball is actively being touched during any captured frame. The league hopes this data will soon be helpful for various 'last touch' officiating decisions like out of bounds, goaltending, or basket interference calls. While SIQ's sensor can't detect the identity of the player touching the ball, the eventual goal is to pair this system with the NBA's existing Hawk-Eye optical tracking data. 'You synchronize the time stamp of the ball sensor technology with the time stamp of the video solution, by millisecond,' Schmidt explains. 'So in the end you can synchronize the video frame with the data feed, and you look at the data of which player had what limb closest to the ball, to identify who could have touched it.' I've recently had a chance to demo the same SIQ tech Robinson used in his workout, which uses the same smart valve but is a bit different from the NBA ball. (SIQ provided me with this ball so I could test it out.) It's produced by Spalding, for starters, as opposed to Wilson; the league switched its official ball vendor from Spalding to Wilson starting in the 2021-22 season. Plus, the ball I handled tracks those additional metrics like make/miss, spin rate, and other data points the NBA currently isn't utilizing. With the caveat that I'm a miserable basketball player, I can report that the consumer ball feels no different than any other I've played with. I forgot it had a sensor in it at times—until I checked my phone and saw my godawful stats on SIQ's connected app. My opinion hardly matters compared to a pro like Robinson's, but as it happens, he agrees. 'The integration is impressively seamless,' Robinson says. 'It feels like a regular basketball. There's no weight discrepancy or anything that really feels abnormal. That's part of the magic, you feel like you're playing with a regular ball—and then all of a sudden you connect it to your phone and you're getting this live-time feedback.' But will enough of Robinson's NBA peers agree? Testing in the Paint The NBA Players Association is arguably the most powerful player's union in North American pro sports. Its members are also, shall we say, quite particular. 'There's no other league that I'm aware of where the perception and the approval of the players is as important for something like that as in the NBA,' Schmidt says. In other words, the ball had better feel truly identical, or these guys are going to notice. And if the players aren't in, getting a connected ball approved for official play via collective bargaining is all but impossible. Schmidt's company, Kinexon, has recent experience with this player approval process in another major sport. Alongside Adidas, the company was centrally involved in creating a connected soccer ball used for offside and other officiating decisions starting with the 2022 FIFA World Cup. That testing process included months of blind trials across several major European soccer leagues, plus a variety of mechanical and ground truth tests. The NBA is taking a similar approach here. Per multiple sources, initial tests of the SIQ Wilson ball at the G League Winter Showcase in December 2024 were largely mechanical in nature. Officials confirmed ball connectivity, ensured there was no significant data loss, optimized the sensors, and that sort of thing. Summer League was the first instance of blind player testing. Sources tell me that roughly half the games played in Vegas between July 10 and 20 utilized the SIQ ball, which was connected to and tracked by sensors set up around both arenas on the UNLV campus. Players were surveyed after each game, both on ball-related topics and unrelated ones (to maintain the blindness of the trial by avoiding any obvious tip-offs). Sources say the NBA prioritized tests in games featuring players who have spent time in the NBA in the past, plus for guards and others who tend to handle the ball most often. 'The testing now is going much smoother [than in 2019],' Ryan says. Test results provided to WIRED by the NBA back up that assertion. SIQ's connected balls were tested in 58 Summer League games, with roughly 550 postgame player surveys conducted. The NBA received zero comments about ball changes or playability issues on any of these surveys. For his part, Robinson also doesn't think the change should cause any playability issues. 'I don't foresee that being an issue,' he says. 'I'm somebody who's pretty particular about the ball that I shoot and the feel that it has and all that sort of stuff. I was actually on record as noting a material difference when we shifted from Spalding to Wilson [in 2021], as a lot of players were.' More testing is needed, including in settings where more veteran NBA players can get their hands on the SIQ ball. Ryan tells me the league would love to collect at least a full season of data while using the ball in the G League (essentially the minor leagues for the NBA), another common testing ground for possible future NBA tech. A connected basketball is likely coming to the NBA sooner rather than later. And while officiating is the current focus, it's easy to envision other uses in areas like stats collection, broadcast graphics, and fan engagement. 'Do they want to do it from a rule basis, where it's who touched the ball last,' Robinson muses. 'Or do they maybe want to take more of a marketing approach and say, 'Oh, that last 3 by Steph Curry, he released it in 0.3 seconds and his arc was this.'' If SIQ's ball can survive the rigors of NBA player testing—and as long as details like player data usage and rights can be worked out in agreement with the player's union—don't be surprised if that sort of data is showing up in broadcasts fairly quickly. 'I hope that we get there soon,' Schmidt says. 'The only thing we need is the approval from the players.'
Fox Sports
8 hours ago
- Fox Sports
Phoenix visits Indiana following Mitchell's 35-point outing
Associated Press Phoenix Mercury (16-9, 9-7 Western Conference) at Indiana Fever (14-12, 9-7 Eastern Conference) Indianapolis; Wednesday, 7 p.m. EDT BOTTOM LINE: Indiana Fever hosts the Phoenix Mercury after Kelsey Mitchell scored 35 points in the Indiana Fever's 93-78 win over the Chicago Sky. The Fever have gone 8-6 in home games. Indiana is seventh in the league averaging 8.2 made 3-pointers per game while shooting 33.6% from downtown. Mitchell leads the team averaging 2.4 makes while shooting 38.3% from 3-point range. The Mercury are 7-5 on the road. Phoenix ranks fifth in the Western Conference scoring 33.0 points per game in the paint led by Alyssa Thomas averaging 11.1. Indiana averages 84.4 points per game, 4.6 more points than the 79.8 Phoenix gives up. Phoenix averages 83.1 points per game, 2.7 more than the 80.4 Indiana gives up to opponents. The matchup Wednesday is the first meeting of the season for the two teams. TOP PERFORMERS: Aliyah Boston is scoring 15.4 points per game with 8.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists for the Fever. Mitchell is averaging 22.2 points over the last 10 games. Thomas is averaging 15.7 points, eight rebounds, 9.4 assists and 1.5 steals for the Mercury. Sami Whitcomb is averaging 11.1 points over the last 10 games. LAST 10 GAMES: Fever: 6-4, averaging 84.9 points, 33.8 rebounds, 21.7 assists, 8.5 steals and 2.7 blocks per game while shooting 44.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 80.9 points per game. Mercury: 5-5, averaging 84.4 points, 34.7 rebounds, 22.2 assists, 7.1 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 44.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 82.3 points. INJURIES: Fever: Caitlin Clark: out (groin). Mercury: None listed. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
"For nine years, he refused to speak a word against that team" - Kevin Durant's mom revealed her son was frustrated with the Thunder
"For nine years, he refused to speak a word against that team" - Kevin Durant's mom revealed her son was frustrated with the Thunder originally appeared on Basketball Network. For nearly a decade, Kevin Durant stored his frowns beneath his pillow. He showed up, put his head down and tried to make it work in Oklahoma City. His bond with his teammates felt real, and the connection to the city ran deep. Through the injuries, the near-misses and the constant outside noise, he never spoke ill. "For nine years, he refused to speak a word against that team — he loved those guys and that city," said his mom, Wanda Durant, after her son's July 2016 free agency decision distorted the sports landscape. "But this summer he said, 'Mama, I can't do it anymore. They're not in this thing with me, we're not together like we were – I feel like I need something different.'" Oklahoma City had just finished one of the most painful collapses in modern playoff history — a blown 3–1 lead against the 73-win Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference finals. Up 13 with six minutes to go in Game 6. Three chances to finish it. To just need four more wins for a title. They never got there. And neither did Durant. The writing on the wall The end was a hurtful unraveling. A rupture at the seams of what had once looked like a dynasty in waiting. Durant was 27. Already a four-time scoring champ. Already an MVP. He'd battled injuries, headlines and heartbreak. He'd given everything to Oklahoma City. And suddenly, he felt like he was all alone. "It felt like that whole thing was set up for me to leave," Durant said in the aftermath of Oklahoma City's postseason collapse, "especially after they blew a lead in the Finals, because I damn sure wasn't going there if they'd won. But after Game Seven, I called up my agent and said, 'Damn, dude, Golden State – what if?'" That call changed basketball. Before July 4, 2016, Durant was still the face of the Thunder and the guy who carried a small-market franchise to relevance, who nearly toppled Kobe Bryant in 2010, who came one win away from the Finals in 2014, and who'd just come within one win again. But afterward, he was a Warrior. It was a move that detonated the NBA's competitive balance and a decision that gutted Oklahoma City. A transfer of power that echoed through every arena he walked into afterwards. But there was something deeply human about it: exhaustion. Durant had emptied himself for nine years — and for the first time, he couldn't shake the feeling that his journey wasn't shared passion Even Game 7, the one they lost in Oakland, had felt like a goodbye dressed in heartbreak. "Man, I saw us in the ball caps and T-shirts, with our fans going crazy and dancing," Durant remembered. "That town was so good to us, showed us love even when we lost. I wanted it more for them than even me." Durant scored 27 points that night on 10-for-19 shooting, but the Thunder scored just 88. Russell Westbrook went 7-for-21. They turned the ball over 12 times. Klay Thompson had just torched them in Game 6. The Warriors outlasted them with poise and movement. The Thunder had the edge in talent but lost the war in cohesion. And perhaps, that was the thread Durant couldn't unsee anymore. He knew how good he was. But he'd stopped believing it was enough and that the partnership beside him worked. It stopped feeling like the franchise could evolve fast enough to match what the game was becoming. Golden State had shown him something — not just in how they played but how connected they looked. So when the cap spike hit and the Warriors could magically create max space, the stars aligned. The world thought he was selfish, leaving poor-ole Russ high and dry. But Durant thought there was no more juice left to squeeze in Oklahoma. So he left. And while those fans down in Bricktown may never warm to his decision to depart for the enemy, they can't ignore that Durant's exit nearly a decade ago was the first domino in the Thunder's path to title story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 28, 2025, where it first appeared.
