Former Sixer Isaiah Joe finds success with Oklahoma City Thunder and sticks in rotation

For Isaiah Joe, it was all about getting an opportunity.

As a 76er, the shooting guard was buried deep on the bench behind reserves De’Anthony Melton, Shake Milton, Danuel House Jr., Matisse Thybulle, and Furkan Korkmaz. That led to him being waived Oct. 13.

After being signed by the Oklahoma City Thunder three days later, Joe blossomed into one of the NBA’s most proficient shooters.

He ranked sixth in the NBA in three-point percentage at 43.5% heading into Thursday’s game against the Sixers at the Wells Fargo Center.

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“There’s like spikes,” Sixers coach Doc Rivers said. “He plays a lot of minutes some nights. Some nights he doesn’t play a lot. But when he does get an opportunity, he looks great. He’s making shots.

“He always competed, defensively, overall. I’m happy for him. You know our roster is so deep. It’s just good to see him playing.”

Joe has averaged career highs of 7.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 13.5 minutes in 34 games with one start.

He made 7-of-10 three-pointers while scoring 21 points against the Denver Nuggets on Nov. 23.

Joe was an accomplished three-point shooter and a solid defender during his two seasons with the Sixers. However, he couldn’t stay in the rotation last season. He followed that up by playing a total of 1 minute, 8 seconds in the final four games of his team’s second-round playoff loss to the Miami Heat. Even that’s a bit misleading because those minutes came in mop-up duty in the series-ending Game 6.

The problem was that Joe didn’t always flourish when called upon. But he displayed consistency while playing for the Sixers during summer league in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas in July, and he made 4-of-8 three-pointers this preseason.

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Since he was signed after training camp, Joe was initially in the back of the line of the Thunder’s depth chart, making his opportunities to play few and far between.

“And early on, every time we threw him out there, it was like he was ready to play, ready to make shots,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “And he’s also a hard-playing guy. He plays defense and competes. He plays inside the team structure. And the more opportunities he got, the more he kind of rose to it.”

That performance has allowed Joe to emerge as a regular rotation player.