The Thunder found their HIDDEN GEM…

The Thunder found their HIDDEN GEM…

The Thunder have somehow found another second round gym in Brooks Barnheiser and the league can’t keep letting the Thunder getting away with this. Steel after steal in the second round and undrafted guys. He’s going to join a list of great role players for the Oklahoma City Thunder taking in the second round or undrafted such as Aaron Wiggins, Lou Dort, who is an undrafted player who is now an all an alldefensive first team member. guys like this that shouldn’t be having successful careers in the NBA, but the Thunder can recognize talent, bring them onto the squad and develop them. And they’re doing the exact same thing with Brooks Barnheiser. We haven’t seen Thomas play yet either. He’s still he’s still my steal of the draft. We have to wait till preseason to see if that still holds up to be true. But getting him the second best center, you know, rated across the boards in the NBA draft, especially my second best center. I think he was better than common Mawok when you look at overall skill set having him being that steel getting him at 15 overall outside the lottery and then now Brooks Barnheiser who is on a two-way contract who might fight for a way to replace Usman Jen after his contract is up in a year. So it’s going to be interesting to see what Brooks Barnheiser does this year. But we’re going to look at what he did in summer league. Specifically, one game that kind of showcased what kind of player he’s going to be and how the Thunder, they might have just found their Alex Cruso replacement for the future. Before we get into all that though, quick moment to recognize that 9.2% of you guys have that bell notification turned on. I want to get it to 10%. That’s typical on YouTube. Really want to get it to 15. That’d be close to 700 750 you guys having that bell notification turned on. So, if you don’t want to miss a single minute of the action here at Thunder Digest, go ahead, hit that bell notification. And if you aren’t subscribed yet, go ahead, join one of the fastest growing Thunder channels out here on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button. With that out of the way, let’s go ahead and talk about Brooks Barnheiser. And I’ve been calling him the Barnamal because he acts like a straightup animal out on the court. You know, Barnheiser, animal, Barnimal. It just makes sense. But he acts like an animal, a feral animal out there that’s doing everything he can to help this team win. I saw him dive for loose balls while he was playing in summer league. You don’t see rookies do that in summer league. They’re trying to play safe and they’re trying to put on an offensive masterclass. Him, however, he was doing everything from passing to, you know, fighting for tough boards, getting a ton of steals, some good blocks as well, some great defensive possessions, some good help defense along with scoring the basketball in all his games. He completely showed out in summer league and it showcased in the stats right here. And three said it best. It’s another year, another Thunder two-way demon. Remember the name Brooks Barnheiser. And this was his game against the Pelicans. We’ll be taking some look a look at his highlights from this game as well as this was his best game. 19 points, nine rebounds, and two blocks right there. He also had an assist and a steal. Plus 18 and plus minus. Eight of 12 from the field. That’s impressive. He did, you know, attempt a single three. But a lot of guys on the Thunder, you don’t need to take threes to win. They proved that this year. All right. They weren’t a great three-point shooting team whatsoever. Shield to Alexander won the MVP and he only took four or five threes a game. You can take mid-range jump shots or drive to the rim, which is what Brooks Barnheiser was doing entirety of summer league and what Shay did in the regular season, what Dub did in the regular season. A lot of guys on the Thunder, they succeeded at that. So, getting someone that’s going to fit this offensive mold like Barnheiser who’s going to drive to the rim, attack the bucket, and you know, get his spots in the mid-range game and knock him down at a 66% rate. You love to see that. You You love to see that. And his highlights from this game are amazing as we can go ahead and take a look at some of them right here. So his teammate boom gets the steal, passes it up to him. Look at him right here. Slowing it down. Little no look pass up the court and he comes in there for the put back too. Rebound and bucket right there. Goes up, gets fouled. Couldn’t finish it right there. Tough foul to finish. Goes up with for the first free throw. He missed it. Second free throw, however, was good. Next time, all right, on defense, look here. Boom. Fine for that tough rebound. There was some contact. Could have been a foul. They don’t call it. Puts up the half court heave at the end of the second quarter. Him again right here. Look at that beautiful pass to the corner. Gets it to go. An assist for him. That’s This was his one lone assist in the game right here. Takes his time. Creates some separation. Mid-range jump shot was good. He was putting in work everywhere on the court. Right here, his teammates are playing great defense. Look at that help defense on the side. Comes away with the steal. He’s going to push it fast up the court down low to Young Bloodood for the two, but he misses. And Barnheiser comes in with the putback right there. Absolute phenomenal play by him right there. You can see the hustle plays right there. He was passing it up to his teammates that had wide openen layups, get a little bit of contest and they missed it. But since he was following his pass anyways on a fast break opportunity, he got the board and the two points on two separate occasions. You know, you can’t teach that kind of hustle. Some guys, they’re just born with it and they naturally hustle all the time. and he mentioned when he was drafted, he can’t wait to learn from guys like Alex Caruso who went down the same path as him. And I see a lot of Alex Caruso when I watch Brooks Barnheiser play. When I see Barnheiser play, it is very similar to Caruso because they’re doing all the little things. And as you can see, the highlights, nothing of the highlights stood out. It’s not like he had a great highlight tape of dunking on people, some step back threes, tween tween behind the back three-pointer. It was nothing like that. It was just hustle plays and making the right reads. That’s the kind of guys the Thunder want. He proved it in the other half of the game here. Here’s the rest of the highlights right here going all the way down the court and the tough finish and transition right there. Boom. Teammate gets the board. He’s back there ready for it. And another layup as something happened with his foot there. Right here. Look at him in the short corner. Watch him. Watch him making his rotations. Rotations. All right. Teammate gets it stripped away, but he cuts right here for an easy layup. He’s taking his time. He’s patient with it. Look at this on ball defense. That’s some great defense right there. Great contest to force a miss. You love to see that from him. This is the same play. Something’s going to happen right here. It’s going to lead to Brooks Barnheiser on the mid-range driving in. Pump fake. Step through. Layup is good. That’s a beautiful move to see by the second round rookie. Look at that. Poke it away. Steel going down court and almost threw it down, but he gets fouled. Going to the free throw line. Hits the first free throw there. Second free throw was up and it was good. So, as you can see, he’s a solid player. He’s putting in work. The highlights aren’t anything that stands out, but it’s the fact that he’s making the hustle plays. You can’t teach that out of guys. You can’t. He’s making these hustle plays and he’s earning his time. Slowly but surely, you are going to see some Brooks Barnheiser minutes during the season. There’s going to be a conversation once that two-way is done. It might be a conversation of look, let Usman Jen walk and have Barnheiser take it over. something the Thunder could look at doing as well. One, some of these guys that have team options going next season or this is their last year, the deal, they might just straight up decline the team options or they’ll trade them during the regular season and just have Barnheiser take their spot on a cheap rotation contract. You can see something very similar to AJ Mitchell for Barnheiser. A three-year $9 million deal. 3 million over, you know, 3 million every year. That’s cheap and that’s great value for someone like Brooks Barnheiser who’s already on the older side. All right. He’s gonna easily find a way into this rotation and like I don’t want to be this guy, but it makes players like Alex Cruso expendable. You have him learn under him for two seasons and you can have someone that’s very similar to Alex Cruso. And by the time Cruso gets older, Barnheiser could be at a better state than Caruso is at the current moment in 2027, 2028. Have Barnheiser replace him on a much cheaper contract where he’s only making five to six million a year. And that’s how you avoid these second apron things. It wasn’t like this was his only good game either. All right, in his debut, he had nine points, 13 rebounds, a steal, and a block in 25 minutes. He I’m also I’m pretty sure he tied a summer league record for steals in a game as well. And speaking of his steals, that’s his superpower when he’s on the court. Look at this graph graphic right here. All right, steals versus personal fouls in 2025 Las Vegas summer league. And that just shows you Barnheiser is dominating the field. Look at all these players. All right. Some of them with five steals, but they almost had, you know, have five personal fouls. Some of them over five. All right. Someone had four steals and almost like I think that’s 12 or 13 personal fouls. Barnheiser, on the other hand, had 13 steals and only three personal fouls. And this is going to go to the thing of people saying, “Oh, this is just the refs letting Oklahoma City just hack everyone that they want to just let them foul and they’re not going to call anything. But when the other team goes down there for the layups, they’re going to call it for them. It’s summer league. Are we really going to use this excuse again? It’s summer league. This just shows you how good of a uh on ball defender Brooks Barnheiser is. He can steal the ball at such a high rate and it’s going to be deadly for the next few years as this is the Alex Cruso replacement in the future. Two, three years down the line we have to worry about contracts especially that Shay one kicking in. We got to make some space. Alex Cruso is going to be on the decline. You can easily replace him with Brooks Farnheiser who can make anywhere from 3 to 6 million a year. That is much better and a cheaper contract than Alex Crusoe who’s going to be making 20 million a year. But that’s all I got for this video. Let me know what you guys personally thought about Brooks Barnheiser’s performance during summer league along with do you think he is the Alex Grus replacement in two to three years. That’s all I got. See you guys in the next

The Thunder once again got another steal in the second round. Brooks Barnhizer, otherwise known as “The Barnimal”, has been making some noise regarding his recent play during Summer League. Bryson Akins breaks down why Barnhizer could see rotation minutes and replace some role players in the future.

Thunder Digest covers the latest reports, news and rumors regarding the Oklahoma City Thunder. If you want to stay updated with every trade, move and tidbit on players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Mark Daigneault and Sam Presti.

NBA Trade Rumors, NBA Free Agency, NBA Draft, NBA Finals Preview, Fantasy Basketball Advice, NBA Betting Odds, NBA Jersey Review, Player Performance Breakdown, DraftKings NBA Picks, FanDuel NBA Strategy, Sports Analytics, NBA Highlights, NBA News Update, NBA Stats, NBA Roster Moves, NBA Predictions