Tramel's ScissorTales: Thunder needs 3-point shooting; here's how NBA Draft prospects fare

Some things from yesteryear are difficult to fathom.

Gas used to be 60 cents a gallon. People would dress up to go to ballgames, church and airline flights. Most everything coming from your television was delivered by four channels.

Here’s another. The Thunder once was a quality 3-point shooting team.

You could look it up.

From 2011-12 through 2013-14, OKC was in the upper half of NBA teams in 3-point accuracy – the Thunder ranked 11th in 2011-12, third in 2012-13 (where have you gone, Kevin Martin?) and 14th in 2013-14.

Better yet, OKC ranked higher in 3-point percentage than in 3-point attempts.

Those days are long gone, of course. Since Kevin Durant’s departure on Independence Day 2016, only once has the Thunder ranked better than 22nd among the 30 NBA teams. Alas, in four of those six years, the Thunder has ranked in the upper half of 3-point attempts per game.

In other words, OKC shoots a lot and doesn’t make a lot.

Some of that is just general incompetence. When you’re not very good, which the Thunder has not been the last two seasons, many 3-point shots are nothing-else-to-try shots. Work for a good shot, don’t find one, someone jacks it up. Or when you’re down 22 with four minutes, what’s the point in NOT firing up a 3-pointer. It’s all rec-center stuff at that point.

More: Jaden Ivey, Chet Holmgren talk fit with Thunder ahead of 2022 NBA Draft

More: Here are 10 intriguing players OKC Thunder could target at No. 34 in 2022 NBA Draft

The Durant departure was bound to cripple the OKC offense, but that transition arrived about the same time as the NBA revolution of 3-pointers.

In 2011-12, the Thunder averaged 20 3-point shots a game, which placed OKC 12th in the league. This season, the Chicago Bulls ranked last in the NBA in 3-point attempts, at 28.8 per game. Ten years earlier, that number would have ranked first.

So, the game has changed. Far more 3-pointers going up, and they’re like baseball home runs. Required for success. Baseball teams can’t survive trying to play small ball these days; basketball teams can’t survive avoiding the deep ball.

As the Thunder rebuild continues with the 2022 draft Thursday night, 3-point shooting must be a priority. OKC must improve its shooting to improve its NBA standing.

And good news has arrived. With the No. 2 pick, the Thunder almost surely will land one of three big men -- Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith Jr. or Paolo Banchero. All are quality 3-point shooters.

The 7-foot Holmgren made 39 percent of his 3-point shots for Gonzaga. Smith made 42 percent of his 3-point shots for Auburn. Banchero made 33.8 percent of his 3-point shots for Duke but is projected to improve.

The Thunder likely will come home from the draft with either Smith or Holmgren. Be still my heart.

The college 3-point line is a little closer than the NBA 3-point line but traditionally has been a good indicator of pro success.

More good news: the Thunder also has the No. 12 pick in the draft, which means Sam Presti could add another shooter.

The Thunder rarely has done so. Josh Giddey was no shooter at all coming out of Australia a year ago, but Tre Mann, picked 18th overall, was a 42-percent 3-point shooter his final season at Florida and was a solid 36-percent deep-ball shooter as a Thunder rookie.

But Aleksej Pokusevski (2020 draft) was not an accomplished shooter coming out of Europe, same with Darius Bazley in 2019.

However, Terrance Ferguson in 2017 was considered a 3-point threat. Ferguson didn’t pan out as a Thunder shooter. Neither did Cameron Payne, taken in the 2015 draft and a good shooter at Murray State.

So you never know. But with that 12th pick, Presti has the option to again try to find a shooting phenom.

All kinds of prospects are being listed as potential Thunder targets, either at No. 12 or a little higher, via trade. The Thunder is not likely to get into the running for Purdue’s Jaden Ivey or Iowa’s Keegan Murphy; both are quality 3-point prospects.

More: Shaedon Sharpe's OKC Thunder ties & takeaways from top NBA prospects' pre-draft interviews

Here’s how the draftable players in the Thunder pick zone stack up as 3-point threats:

Benedict Mathurin, 6-7, Arizona: Over two seasons, Mathurin made 38.3 percent of his 3-point shots. A quality player who probably won’t be available at No. 12.

A.J. Griffin, 6-6, Duke: The wing made 44.7 percent of his 3-point shots and averaged 4.1 attempts per game. An intriguing shooter who also can play.

Malaki Branham, 6-5, Ohio State: Probably considered a stretch to go as high as 12th, but Branham made 41.6 percent of his 3-point shots in his lone season as a Buckeye.

Ochai Agbaji, 6-5, Kansas: A four-year Jayhawk, Agbaji probably doesn’t follow the Thunder timeline. But Agbaji shot 40.7 percent from 3-point range last season and 37.3 percent for his career. So a legitimate shooter.

E.J. Liddell, 6-7, Ohio State: Shot few 3-point shots two years ago as a freshman, but improved to .338 a year ago and .374 this past season, so quite promising.

Jalen Williams, 6-6, Santa Clara: The guard made 35.2 percent of his 3-point shots as a freshman, 27.4 percent as a sophomore and 39.6 percent as a junior. So you tell me.

Johnny Davis, 6-5, Wisconsin: The point guard made 38.9 percent in 2020-21 on limited attempts, then fell to 30.6 percent on more frequent attempts. Who knows?

Shaedon Sharp, 6-5, Kentucky: The athletic phenom didn’t play this past season at UK, so his game is a mystery. Sharp is projected as a solid 3-point shooter, but there’s little data to support that.

Nikola Jovic, 6-11, Serbia: In limited attempts, Jovic made 40 percent of his deep balls in the Euro League last season.

Jaden Hardy, 6-4, G League Ignite: Hardy skipped college basketball to play for the Ignite this past season but is a first-round prospect. He made 33.6 percent of his 3-point shots in 13 G League games.

Tari Eason, 6-8, Louisiana State: The two-year forward at LSU was shaky from deep as a freshman (.241) but improved to 35.9 percent this past season.

Ousmane Dieng, 6-9, New Zealand Breakers: A Giddey clone. Excellent skills for being so tall. Ballhandling, passing, etc. Alas, Dieng shot just 27.1 percent from 3-point range with the New Zealand Breakers last season as an 18-year-old in the Australian National Basketball League.

Dalen Terry, 6-7, Arizona: Not likely at No. 12, but potentially at No. 34, the guard improved to 36.4 percent from deep last season.

Dyson Daniels, 6-8, G League Ignite: The Australian 19-year-old is a jack-of-all-trades prospect – except his shooting is suspect. He made just 25.5 percent from deep in 14 G League games.

Blake Wesley, 6-5, Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish wing seems to be rising on the draft list but made just 30.3 percent of his deep shots in his lone South Bend season.

Jeremy Sochan, 6-9, Baylor: The versatile British import can do many everything well – except shoot. Sochan made just 29.6 percent of his 3-point shots.

Marjon Beauchamp, 6-6, G League Ignite: Athletic, but made just 30.3 percent of his G League 3-point shots in 12 games last season.

TyTy Washington, 6-3, Kentucky: Could fall to the second round, but Washington made 35 percent of his 3-point shots in his lone season at UK.

Jalen Duren, 6-11, Memphis: The center attempted no 3-point shots for the Tigers.

Mark Williams, 7-0, Duke: The center took no 3-point shots in two seasons with the Blue Devils.

'Keep riding it': OU baseball beats Notre Dame, moves a win away from College World Series finals

Sooners stay aggressive in Omaha 

The dangdest baseball play I’ve ever seen came in a White Sox-Yankee game from 1985. Rickey Henderson hit a 400-foot double into the gap, with two runners on base.

But New York’s lead runner, Bobby Meacham, stumbled, with teammate Larry Berra on his tail. They both rounded third base, as centerfielder Luis Salazar threw to shortstop Ozzie Guillen, who relayed it to catcher Carlton Fisk.

Fisk tagged out Meacham, stumbled, then realized Berra was barreling home, too. Fisk reached out and tagged Berra for a crazy double play. All happened within a second or two.

Then came the fourth inning of the OU-Notre Dame on Sunday night in the College World Series in Omaha.

The Sooners’ Sebastian Orduno was thrown out at third base, trying for a leadoff triple on a ball that scooted past Notre Dame left fielder Ryan Cole. Then OU’s John Spikerman was thrown out at third base, ending the inning after Peyton Graham’s single to right.

You know the old saying, you never make the first or third outs at third? There are exceptions to every rule. But I’ve never seen both happen in the same inning.

Moreso, the Spikerman play was one for the ages. Notre Dame third base Jack Brannigan made a sweeping tag on Spikerman, but the ball flew out of Brannigan’s and went straight into third-base coach Clay Van Hook’s midsection. Hit him in a place that hurts, if you know what I mean.

Van Hook doubled over and turned away. Meanwhile, Spikerman never knew the ball was out of Brannigan’s glove. Spikerman rounded third, stopped and resigned himself to being out. Brannigan scurried over to retrieve the ball, and as Van Hook sort of came to himself and figured out what was going on, Spikerman walked in the general direction of third base and was tagged out.

Not the Carlton Fisk turnstile, but still quite crazy.

And a perfect salute to this wild OU baseball team, which has come from obscurity to being one of two unbeaten teams still remaining in Omaha. The Sooners are in college baseball’s final four and have an excellent chance to make the championship series.

Many are the reasons OU has taken the sport by storm. But aggression is near the top of the list. The Sooners are charging up San Juan Hill.

They rank fourth in college baseball in stolen bases, and that attitude hasn’t dissipated in Omaha. OU was caught stealing twice in its 13-8 victory over Texas A&M on Friday night, but the Sooners were 3-of-4 on stolen bases vs. Notre Dame.

OU also had Wallace Clark bunt with one out and runners on first and third in the fifth inning against the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame first baseman Carter Putz threw the ball down the right-field line; two runners scored and Clark went to third. He eventually scored, too, for a 5-0 OU lead.

“Yeah, that's the momentum of the game we talk about a lot,” OU coach Skip Johnson said of the three-run fifth inning, right after the fourth-inning debacle. “I thought it, man, we just lost the momentum. Put the momentum back on the other side.

“But you can take the momentum back with a guy like (pitcher) Cade Horton and what he did.”

Horton in the top of the fifth inning held Notre Dame scoreless again, paving the way for the big blow in the bottom of the inning, all on a little bunt.

“Yeah, we strive, we emphasize executing and doing your job,” Clark said. “And once you do that, everything will fall into place. And I was able to do that today.”

Johnson recalled his many trips to Omaha with the Texas Longhorns.

“I can remember Coach (Augie) Garrido talking about the team that gets the most comfortable when they get here, they play good,” Johnson said. “And we've kind of played our two games real aggressive.”

Carlson: As OU baseball chases College World Series title, it can add to Sooners' spectacular spring

Tramel's ScissorTales: Are the 2022 OU Sooners the greatest softball team in NCAA history?

Mailbag: OU softball as greatest team ever

OU softball is evergreen content.

Brett: “Just got around to reading your Scissortales about the greatest softball team. You contradict yourself. You wrote that in this era, hitting reigns currently whereas pitching reigned 30 years ago and had some stats to back that up. Was there some significant rule change not mentioned in the article that caused that? I don’t know of any, but I am just a casual softball fan. If not, then the game changed because the players changed.

"The scores of the first five WCWS had a median score of 2-0 in your article. In the last 14 years, you write the scores are significantly more. If OU 2022 played Arizona 1994 in some sort of time warp game, OU would most likely beat them about 10-2. Why? Because they have better players. The players have been improving for 30 years. For instance, I am sure that Arizona 1994 would have liked to have hit 155 home runs, but they could only get 93 and that was considered phenomenal. Well, 1994 phenomenal isn’t 2022 phenomenal.

"You do mention ‘context,’ but unless the rules changed, they all played the exact same game. If 2022 OU went back in time and played in 1994, I dare say they would have run-ruled every team they played instead just most of them. There is no reason to add a fudge factor of context in this case. Oklahoma 2022 is the best team of all time… for now.”

Tramel: With all due respect, this argument is wetter than the deep blue sea. Softball 1994 and softball 2022 are not the exact same game. They are not close to the same game. College football 1989 and college football 2008 were not the exact same game. College basketball 1979 and college basketball 2014 were not the exact same game. Even with no rule changes.

By this argument, John Blake’s 1996 Sooners, who went 3-8 and had trouble finding the line of scrimmage after a huddle, are a better team than Bud Wilkinson’s ‘56 Sooners or Barry Switzer’s ‘73 squad. Bigger, strong, faster.

Of course athletes evolve. The golfers of today would beat a prime Jack Nicklaus 10 and 8 in match play. They hit the ball 100 yards longer than he hit it.

That doesn't make them greater golfers. You play with the bodies you have, in the environment you are given, and you succeed or don't. Put Nicklaus in today’s environment, and his drives would go 375 yards.

The ‘22 Warriors would dismantle the Bill Russell Celtics. Bigger, stronger, faster.

That doesn’t make anyone a better team. Or even a greater player. Greatness is defined by how you handle the competition and situations you encounter.

The jobs of 19th-century presidents are nothing like the jobs of 21st-century presidents. Abraham Lincoln would have had zero chance of getting elected in the 2020s. Does that make him inferior to the modern politicians? Of course not.

As far as the rule changes, there have been many. The pitching circle was moved back in the 1980s. A different ball was introduced in 1992. Those helped the offense immensely.

Those kinds of changes helped change mindsets, too.

Babe Ruth’s home run records have been surpassed. Does that mean the Babe wasn’t the greatest home run hitter? Not necessarily. The Babe was a pioneer. He showed what was possible. Similar to Arizona.

'I'll just coach': How an Oklahoma State student went from HS cheerleader to NFL intern

Why is Tyreek Hill ripping the Chiefs?

Tyreek Hill keeps getting second chances. He also keeps making people wonder why he’s getting second chances.

The Kansas City Chiefs took a risk on Hill, made him into a National Football League star and now Hill is taking potshots at the Chiefs and the person most responsible for Hill’s success, Patrick Mahomes.

The Chiefs traded Hill to Miami a couple of months ago, paving the way for Hill to get a five-year contract with the Dolphins that guarantees him $53 million.

But in his latest podcast, “It Needed To Be Said,” Hill said the Chiefs and Mahomes might struggle without him, that he was underused in Kansas City and that Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is a more accurate passer than is Mahomes.

On the latter, Hill technically is true. In 23 NFL games, Tagovailoa has completed 66.2 percent of his passes. Mahomes in 63 games has completed 66.1 percent of his passes.

Of course, Tagovailoa is no cinch to even keep his job, because of his propensity for dumping the ball and not throwing downfield, while Mahomes is the NFL’s brightest star and most exciting player, having taken the Chiefs to two Super Bowls, winning one.

If the Chiefs and/or Mahomes struggle in 2022, it will be a surprise to America. The Chiefs have the third-best odds to reach the Super Bowl this coming season, trailing only the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Was Hill underused by Kansas City? You tell me. The Chiefs threw him 159 passes last season. The NFL leader in targets was Pittsburgh’s Diontae Johnson, with 169. Hill had a team-high 111 catches.

Let’s give Hill this. OSU underused him in 2014, when Hill had 31 catches and 102 carries. He played a bunch of tailback for the Cowboys, which made no sense then and even less now.

Hill was a scintillating talent at OSU, but he was dismissed from the squad in 2014 after a domestic assault allegation. Hill was accused of hitting his pregnant girlfriend and eventually pleaded guilty.

Hill ended up at Division II West Alabama, the Chiefs took a flier on him in the fifth round of the 2016 draft, and he became a star. Hill also survived another domestic-abuse scandal.

So Kansas City has been instrumental in rehabilitating Hill’s life and career.

And now he’s popping the Chiefs.

“I'm surprised a little just because I feel like we love Tyreek here," Mahomes told Kansas City media. “We've always loved him. We still love him. I saw him out at Formula One in Miami. I'm sure it had something to do with trying to get his podcast some stuff and get it rolling.

“It's something I'm sure that he's trying to show he loves where he's at in Miami and he loves his teammates. The thing I loved about Tyreek and I still love is that he wants to win.”

Chiefs coach Andy Reid also declined to throw Hill under the bus.

“I love Tyreek,” Reid said. “He's a good kid. We think the world of him.”

Hill should feel the same about the Chiefs.

More: Tramel's ScissorTales: Ed Gallagher the greatest coach in Oklahoma State athletics history

The List: Major golf runnersup

Will Zalatoris finished second in the U.S. Open on Sunday, a shot behind Matt Fitzpatrick at the Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.

It was the second straight heartbreaking major for Zalatoris, who lost a three-hole playoff with Justin Thomas for the PGA Championship in May at Southern Hills in Tulsa. Zalatoris has played in nine majors; he’s been the runnerup three times. Incredible.

Second-place finishes in majors are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of strength.

Here are the golfers with the most majors runnerup finishes:

1. Jack Nicklaus 19: The great Nicklaus had 18 major titles. He had even more runnerup finishes – seven in the British Open and four each in the U.S. Open, PGA and Masters.

2. Phil Mickelson 11: Mickelson, a six-time majors winner, also has finished runnerup in each of the majors – the U.S. Open six ties, the U.S. and British Opens twice each, and the Masters once.

3. Arnold Palmer 10: Another golfing icon with more second-place finishes than first place (seven titles) – which makes sense, since golfers can tie for second, but not for first. Palmer was a four-time runner up in the U.S. Open, a two-time runnerup in the British and PGA, and a one-time runnerup in the Masters.

4. Greg Norman 8: The Shark, a two-time majors champion, now makes news for other reasons in his retirement, was runnerup thrice in the Masters, twice each in the U.S. Open and PGA, and once in the British.

4. Sam Snead 8: Snead, a seven-time majors champion, was a four-time runnerup in the U.S. Open, which he never won. He also was runnerup twice each in the Masters and PGA.

4. Tom Watson 8: Watson, an eight-time majors champion, was a three-time Masters runnerup, a two-time runnerup in both the U.S. and British Opens, and a one-time runner up in the PGA.

7. Tigers Woods 7: Tiger, winner of 15 majors, never has been runnerup in the British Open but has been second thrice in the PGA and twice each in the Masters and U.S. Open.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today. 

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder needs these 3-point shooting prospects in NBA Draft