Why it's easy for Thunder to 'root for' Vit Krejci's breakout on Hawks

Going with the stepback 3-pointer, Vit Krejci created enough distance from Ajay Mitchell to bank in the outside bucket. Part of a franchise-record night, the 25-year-old has quietly been one of OKC's better success stories in recent years.

The Oklahoma City Thunder avoided the upset in a 140-129 win over the Atlanta Hawks. The latter made a franchise record 25 3-pointers to keep up. Krejci had 18 points and went 4-of-10 from the outside.

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Even though the Hawks have been in disarray, Krejci has developed into quite the find. The Thunder added him with the No. 37 pick of the 2020 NBA draft. Missing his first year recovering from a torn ACL, he only lasted one forgettable season in OKC.

In the last four seasons on the Hawks, he's developed into a solid bench player who can go off from deep. He's averaging an unreal 10.8 points on 50.7% shooting and 46.6% from 3 on 5.9 attempts this season. That's the type of outside production the Thunder could use.

Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault was very complimentary of Krejci. When you enter a rebuild, you're bound to have a few players slip through the cracks. He was one of them. And OKC couldn't be happier about it. When he was taken in the draft, most experts thought it was a reach — even with it being a second-round pick during COVID-19.

“He’s another guy that’s easy to root for. The fact he’s scorching hot from 3 and playing as well as he is and every night for them is awesome," Daigneault said. "He had a lot of injuries he had to endure. A lot of ups and downs. The fact he's a surefire NBA player at this point, and a really good one, is really cool at this point."

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Just goes to show you truly don't know where a player's NBA journey will take them. After two seasons, it felt like Krejci was on the verge of being out of the league. Since then, though, his second team provided him a chance to stick and he has as an outside shooter.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Why it's easy for Thunder to 'root for' Vit Krejci's breakout on Hawks