Thunder rookie Darius Bazley drained the shot and ran out to the 3-point line.
“Let’s go,” he shouted, crouching into a double flex.
But his shooting-contest celebration wasn’t over. Veteran point guard Chris Paul called Bazley back for a lob, which Bazley finished with a two-handed dunk.
In the first three days of Thunder training camp, Paul has joined a group of young players — including Bazley, Abdel Nader, Hamidou Diallo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — to shoot after practice. Paul’s gravitation toward the players OKC needs to develop this season is one example of how the future Hall of Famer has begun to influence the Thunder, less than three months since Houston traded him.