In their first two games of the season, the OKC Thunder have yet to live up to their preseason expectations. Throughout the entirety of the preseason, the Thunder brass preached ball movement. Yet, through two games Oklahoma City is averaging 241 passes per game, 12 fewer than their 2017-18 average.
Since the NBA made passes per game public at the beginning of the 2013-14 season, the Thunder have never placed higher than 27th in passes per game, often ranking 30th. For many years pundits have looked to Russell Westbrook as the reason behind the Thunder’s lack of ball movement.