2024-25 Thunder player grades: Lu Dort

The calendar has flipped to August, which means we've officially hit the low point of the NBA cycle. The next couple of months are the driest part of the year. Everybody has headed to vacation and awaits training camp to kick off the 2025-26 season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to enjoy their NBA championship. They had a historic 68-14 regular-season campaign that eventually led to the franchise's first title with a 2025 NBA Finals Game 7 win. They'll enter next season as a favorite to be a rare repeat winner.

To reflect on their title run, Thunder Wire will conduct 2024-25 season grades for all 19 players who suited up for the squad at one point during the year. Fourth up is Lu Dort, who enjoyed a career season with some first-time defensive career accolades:

2024-25 statistics:

• 10.1 points
• 1.6 assists
• 4.1 rebounds
• 1.1 steals
• 43.5% shooting
• 41.2% 3-point shooting
• 71.7% free-throw shooting

Advanced stats:

• True-shooting percentage: 58.6%
• Usage rate: 13.6%
• Win shares: 5.6
• VORP: 1.2
• 3-point attempt rate: 69.6%
• Block percentage: 1.9%
• Steal percentage: 1.8%

Significant Percentile Finishes:

• P&R ball-handler: 58.3 percentile
• P&R man: 70.3 percentile
• Spot up: 76.2 percentile
• Putbacks: 89.0 percentile

Contract:

• 2025-26: $18.2 million
• 2026-27: $18.2 million (team option)

Thoughts:

Campaigned by his teammates all season, Dort was finally recognized by the NBA as one of the top defenders. He was named to the All-Defensive First Team and received some Defensive Player of the Year buzz. It's about time the rest of the league caught up to how good he is.

When you win an NBA championship, you need some luck. That takes form in many ways. One is a role player enjoying a career season. That happened with Dort. The defense was always there. Ever since he joined the NBA in 2019 as an undrafted rookie, that's been his calling card. It's how he carved out a career despite the odds stacked against him.

But after wandering around for a while, Dort has finally found his role on offense. Not afraid to let it fly, he narrowed his role to mostly outside looks. The discipline paid off, being a 40% outside shooter on decent volume. His finishing around the rim also improved. He had one of his most efficient scoring seasons ever simply by cutting out bad shot attempts he'd habitually go to.

It might be overused in the NBA nerd vocabulary, but Dort was about as textbook of a 3-and-D guy as there is. Nearly 70% of his shot attempts were from the outside. He took on the toughest perimeter assignments every game. There's a reason why the Thunder had one of the greatest defenses ever and allowed a handful of 30-plus point performances. He has the right blend of physicality and skill to frustrate the best scorers.

The playoffs also saw Dort add to his Big Game moniker. He's known as somebody who steps up when the stakes are the highest. Unlike previous OKC defensive-first shooting guards, the 26-year-old isn't afraid to shoot the ball. In the Thunder's championship run, he had his moments. From his Game 5 3-pointers against the Denver Nuggets to a circus 3-pointer in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

While Dort can be a streaky shooter, his unwavering ability to keep shooting is what separates him from other role players. It's a nice change of pace in OKC, considering previous players at his position would overthink what to do when the ball reached their hands. Because of that confidence on both sides of the floor, he helped the Thunder win their first NBA championship.

Moving Forward:

Just build off of last season. It took years to figure out Dort's role. The early part of the rebuild gave him offensive freedoms that we all knew eventually would be cut out once the Thunder acquired All-NBA talent alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

To Dort's credit, he finally found a sweet spot this season. He turned into a high-volume outside shooter that defenses were forced to respect. His willingness to take that step back with his counting stats for the betterment of the team was a huge boost. Several other players in his position would let their ego get the best of them and refuse to adapt.

Now it's about repeating that for this upcoming season. Dort should continue to receive decent catch-and-shoot looks. Playing with three All-Star talents gives you that type of benefit. Opposing defenses will do all of their homework on Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. Take advantage of that and knock down your outside looks at a decent rate.

On defense, we already know what Dort will bring. From prime James Harden to prime Luka Doncic, the 26-year-old has taken on the toughest one-on-one assignments for six seasons now. Don't expect that to stop. The Thunder have one of the best defenses, and he's the face of that. Another season similar to last year should add to his trophy case.

Final Grade: A-plus

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: 2024-25 Thunder player grades: Lu Dort