One game after being matched up with Jimmy Butler, second-year Oklahoma City Thunder forward Darius Bazley will face another challenge on the defensive end.
Bazley may get time on both New Orleans Pelicans stars Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson. Head coach Mark Daigneault expects him to play more on Williamson.
“With Williamson in their lineup, he’ll likely handle that,” Daigneault said. “He had some possessions on Ingram last game but it’s kind of hard to move him onto Ingram with the rest of their team.”
With the two big bodies of Williamson and Steven Adams in the post, it will be more important for Bazley to stick deep and allow someone like Lu Dort to handle Ingram.
Listed at 6-foot-6 and 284 points, Williamson can truck his way into the lane. The Thunder have some capable defenders, but not necessarily the size to stop him. The team will see if Bazley’s height and wingpsan can slow him down.
Yet the fact that there is a question of which star Bazley will guard speaks well to the second-year player’s growth on the defensive end.
Daigneault said Monday that he wants Bazley to learn to defend other positions than power forward.
“[What] was really good for him was he guarded Butler for much of the game,” Daigneault said Monday following the Miami game. “That’s something that we’re going to continue to take a look at, is putting him on some of those bigger wings that a lot of these really good teams have.”
Bazley said he didn’t think he defended Butler well. The Heat star had 18 points on 6-for-12 shooting in 26 minutes.
“Defensively, I gotta be better. All-around,” Bazley said.
He’ll get a different type of experience against Williamson, who had 12 points in 17 minutes in the matchup against the Thunder on Dec. 31. Overall, Williamson is averaging just over 20 points per game.
“These are all things that are learning experiences for him,” Daigneault said. “He’s done a nice job, as I mentioned over the last couple of days, of his approach and learning from all these different experiences he’s getting.”
