OKC Thunder Lose Key Shooting Specialist Days After Trading Lu Dort

The Oklahoma City Thunder have spent years building a roster capable of surviving change. This summer is beginning to test just how far that flexibility stretches. One significant departure had already forced Sam Presti to acknowledge that OKC would need to “reimagine” itself. Three days later, another familiar face was headed elsewhere.

Lu Dort was traded to the Atlanta Hawks on July 19 in a move Presti explicitly called a “financial decision.” The Thunder GM acknowledged that “losing Lu will certainly have an effect on the team,” while pointing toward greater responsibility for Cason Wallace and Ajay Mitchell. What followed was unrelated to that decision, but it created another vacancy around the reigning champions.

“The Houston Rockets are hiring Chip Engelland as a new assistant coach on Ime Udoka’s staff, sources tell ESPN,” Shams Charania reported on July 22. “Engelland — well-regarded in player development and shooting speciality — spent the last four seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder after a 17-year run in San [Antonio]…”

Houston also gives Engelland a familiar partner. He and Udoka overlapped for 11 seasons in San Antonio, first during Udoka’s playing career and later when Udoka joined Gregg Popovich’s staff. They were assistant coaches together when the Spurs won the 2014 NBA championship.

For Oklahoma City, however, replacing Engelland means replacing more than a shooting technician. His work often centered on small mechanical adjustments and the confidence behind them. Josh Giddey once described Engelland as “different to any other coach I’ve ever had,” explaining that he wasn’t “trying to change my whole shot” but instead focused on “little things” and carrying progress from one session to another.

Sam Presti offered a similar assessment when Oklahoma City hired Engelland in 2022.

“I think Chip is a really special talent and a special person,” Presti said. “He, like anyone that is highly skilled, sees things for what they can be and not for what they are. I think he does an excellent job of building relationships that allow people to improve.”

Engelland’s reputation was reflected in his standing within Oklahoma City’s staff, where he became one of the NBA’s highest-paid assistants. Houston is reportedly giving him comparable status and compensation, with the Rockets also beating out the Utah Jazz for his services.

Houston’s shooting problem is more nuanced than simply being inaccurate. The Rockets made 36.4% of their threes last season, ranking 10th in the NBA, but attempted only 31.5 per game, which ranked 28th. Their spacing became even more vulnerable in the playoffs, when they shot 30.2% from deep and made 10.0 threes per game during their six-game first-round loss to the Lakers.

That makes Engelland’s arrival particularly intriguing for Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun. Thompson shot just 21.6% from three on 1.5 attempts per game last season, while Sengun finished at 30.5% on 1.8 attempts. Houston already has two dangerous interior creators; developing even functional perimeter shooting around their games could change how defenses are able to guard them.

OKC Thunder’s Shooting Growth Shows Why Chip Engelland’s Exit Matters

The numbers surrounding Engelland’s four seasons in Oklahoma City help explain why his departure matters. Before his arrival, the Thunder shot an NBA-worst 32.3% from three in 2021-22. That climbed to 35.6% in his first season before Oklahoma City led the entire league at 38.9% in 2023-24.

The progress was not perfectly linear. OKC shot 37.4% from deep in 2024-25 but fell to 33.8% during its championship playoff run. A year later, however, the Thunder shot 36.5% in the postseason, third among the 16 playoff teams, while making 13.4 threes per game.

There were individual jumps, too. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went from shooting 30.0% from three in 2021-22, the season before Engelland arrived, to 38.6% in 2025-26. Dort, meanwhile, peaked at 41.2% in 2024-25 after shooting 33.3% across his first three NBA seasons. Those gains cannot be credited to one coach alone, but they add context to the developmental environment Engelland helped build.

Engelland ultimately leaves Oklahoma City with a championship on his résumé after being part of the staff that won the 2025 NBA title. The Thunder have not formally named a direct shooting-coach replacement, leaving his developmental responsibilities to be absorbed elsewhere on Mark Daigneault’s staff.

Houston, meanwhile, is betting on a developmental track record that stretches well beyond Oklahoma City. Kawhi Leonard shot 29.1% from three in his final college season before working with Engelland in San Antonio and made 37.6% as an NBA rookie. “Chip is my guy,” Leonard later said. “He’s a great shooting coach and I was in the gym every day.”

Engelland now brings championship experience from San Antonio and Oklahoma City to a Houston team trying to take another step in the West. Whether he can reproduce any of his previous shooting-development successes remains to be seen, but Thompson and Sengun give him two of the league’s more consequential projects. For Oklahoma City, the task is different: preserving the developmental infrastructure Engelland helped shape without the coach who spent the last four seasons inside it.

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