OKC needs its sharpshooter to get back on track. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder have had a solid start to the season on paper, as the team is 6-2, but it hasn’t quite been the start the organization was looking for. The Thunder’s future is up in the air as the team has been riddled with injuries early, and it seems every game is a hard-fought battle to win. 

Thus far, it has been the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander show with almost no additional help, as he has had to put up over 40 points in the team’s past two games for them to win. Ajay Mitchell has tried his best to help the Thunder superstar, but there has to be more. 

One player who needs to start turning his play around is Jared McCain. McCain was projected to come in this year and play a big part on this OKC team, as he excelled in last year’s postseason. This had the organization excited for this upcoming year, and OKC believed McCain could come in and take over Isaiah Joe’s spot now that Joe is no longer on the team. 

Unfortunately, this season has not gone well so far for McCain. The young guard started the season on a good note, scoring 20 points in the season opener against San Antonio and helping lead the team to a win. However, since then, McCain hasn’t shown the same level of play. 

The past four games have been rough for the sharpshooter, especially from three. McCain has put up 22 shot attempts from deep and has made only one. He’s been trying to help out in other areas of his game to make up for the lack of three-pointers made, but the Thunder need a boost from deep. OKC currently ranks No. 20 in three-point percentage, sitting at 33.3%. 

For how awful McCain has shot, this isn’t a horrible three-point percentage as a team, but it could be a lot better. McCain and the Thunder improving their three-point percentage could take a lot of pressure off of Gilgeous-Alexander and could allow OKC to continue to compete as the season goes on. 

For Oklahoma City to consistently compete without multiple of its star players, something has to change. That change could be spearheaded by McCain and his three-point shot, and could allow the Thunder to compete in games where they might be outlasted regularly. McCain has shown he has the ability to take over games with his shooting ability in the past, and now the Thunder just need to see that once again.