How Cason Wallace’s defensive potential unlocked a friendly team competition

After Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace named Western Conference Defensive Player of the Year for October and November, All-Star Jaylen Williams revealed how he helped the third-year guard improve his defense. The The Thunder surround Wallace with veteran defensemen in Lou Dort and Alex Caruso as resources from veteran minds to draw on, while Williams, an all-defensive tackler, has challenged all three in his own right.

Williams wanted to see if Wallace could lead the Thunder in steals over Caruso, Dort and himself, he said, a goal that carried over into this seasonwhen Cason is averaging 2.2 steals per game, second most in the NBA.

“It’s more just fun. Maybe we just started joking around. He’s such a good defender, I’ve been trying to get him to do more in his first year,” Williams said. “Then last year he started trying more and more, and he was getting a lot more steals. I just saw different ways that he could get steals that I probably couldn’t, and vice versa. So we just matched each other up.

“Then adding AC, another first-team All-Defense, then Lue, who doesn’t get any steals. It’s just a friendly competition. But we’re just trying to challenge ourselves more to be great in that regard, every day, and not get bored, trying to play defense.”

Getting off his Defensive Player of the Month honorsWallace finished with two steals and one block in the Thunder’s 124-112 win against the Golden State Warriors.

As Alec Caruso, Lou Dort help Thunder’s Cason Wallace

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault knows it’s no accident that Cason Wallace continues to evolve as an isolation defender. The same an argument can be made for Ajay Mitchell’s defense this season, as the second-year prospect moved up from third to fringe starting guard. Thunder’s elite defensive culture is contagious in every way Coach Deno could have hoped for.

“As time goes on, these guys get more experience playing against guys like Jordan Poole — they learn the league, they learn the snaps, their instincts start to grow over time, which I think comes from experience,” Daigneault said. “He obviously has a gift on top of that. You’d have to ask him what he’s doing on purpose.

“But I think he’s become a little more intentional in his study and learning the nuances of the game. I think Dort and Caruso probably helped him a little bit with that. Those guys are pretty tight,” Daigneault concluded.

The Thunder will ride a 13-game winning streak against the Mavericks on Friday.