The NBA Has No Answer For the OKC Thunder

The NBA Has No Answer For the OKC Thunder

Are we actually watching one of the greatest teams in NBA history right now? Because the Oklahoma City Thunder are now 20 and1, the second best start to a season ever, only behind the 2016 Golden State Warriors. And the wild part is Oklahoma City is yet to play a single game with its fully healthy starting five. This Thunder team feels impossibly good so far this season. And it genuinely feels like the NBA has no answer for the Oklahoma City Thunder. For every historical season, you need a historical player. And for the Thunder, their guy is Shay Gilis Alexander. This version of SGA is by far the best we’ve seen from him, which is wild considering that last season he won the MVP, the finals MVP, led his team to a championship, all while averaging 30 points per game in the playoffs. And yet somehow watching him this year, it really does feel like he’s taken yet another step forward. Nothing about his game is rushed. He just moves through a game like he’s seen everything before. He’s getting to his usual spots with the same controlled pace that he’s always had. On the surface, it looks like the same old SGA, but underneath two major evolutions are currently happening. The first one being the playmaking leap. For years, Shay has been elite at making the quick simple read. kick out passes, dump offs, and the easy passes where he wasn’t able to get a clean look. But this season, he’s breaking down defenses in a completely different way. He’s no longer just reacting to a coverage. He’s reading defensive coverages ahead of time, knowing exactly where he’s going to pass the ball to. That’s been the clear shift, and the numbers will tell you the same story. He’s averaging a career-high 6.7 assists per game, and the turnovers are down from 2.4 a game last season to just 1.7 this year. On top of that, he has a pass to turnover ratio of 7.6%, which now puts him in the 90th percentile among all playmakers, improving from his 81st percentile ranking at 8.9% just a season ago. And this matters a whole lot more than people realize. Last season, his reactive playmaking was good enough to win two game sevens and an NBA championship. But asking him to replicate that exact path to the title again this year, that feels almost impossible because anything can swing the other way in a game seven. And with Aaron Gordon and Tyrese Hallebertton both sustaining injuries in both those games, it’s fair to say that Oklahoma City is going to need more offensively this time round. What the Thunder really needed was a version of SGA that could constantly punish teams for selling out on him, turning traps and overloaded defenses into wide openen looks for the rest of the team. That’s the next stage of their halfcourt offense. And right now he’s doing it every single night with total command. The second leap that’s been happening is the shooting. And honestly, this might be the part that is breaking defenses the most. The mid-range has always been his home. He is yet again living in the mid-range area, shooting 54% on long mid-range jumpers in the 88th percentile and shooting 54% on short mid-range jumpers in the 89th percentile leaguewide. Defenses know what’s coming. And yet, they still cannot stop it. But it’s the three-point shot where everything changes. Last season, he shot a very respectable 37.5% from deep. But this year, he’s up to over 42%. That instantly rockets him into the elite tier of NBA shooters. That in itself completely changes the way you have to guard him because you’re no longer able to just go under every screen as you have to be out there at the level to contest. And for Sheay, that means the driving lanes have never been more open and he’s getting more opportunity to bait for fouls because defenders have to be more aggressive closing out from further away. This season, SGA basically took the only two weaknesses in his game, the playmaking and three-point shooting, and turned both of them into legitimate strengths. He’s now flirting with a 504090 season and he’s under the 90% at the free throw line by less than 1% as he’s doing all of this while carrying one of the highest workloads on the ball in the NBA. SGA spends about 36% of his time on the ball, which is elite usage territory. And yet his efficiency still looks like something out of a video game. When you combine that level of volume with that level of efficiency, you get one of the cleanest high usage scoring profiles from a guard in league history. It’s no wonder he casually walks his way to 20 points every game like he’s barely trying. And after that 123 115 win over the Blazers, Sheay reached his 93rd straight game with at least 20 points, tying Wilt Chamberlain for the longest streak in NBA history. 93 straight. You do not stumble into that. Nobody in the modern NBA touches a record like that on accident. And the best part is what his evolution has done for the rest of the group. Because Sha’s leap doesn’t just make him better. It raises the ceiling of this entire team. A season ago, the Thunder were already one of the best defensive teams in basketball. But what they’ve turned into this season is something far beyond just elite. It’s one thing to have a great scheme or a great rim protector, but Oklahoma City has built something that almost no modern NBA team has managed. a defense where every single player on the roster can genuinely guard. When you look at this team’s rotation, you start to realize there isn’t a single weak link that opponents can hunt. Even SGA has proven an ability to hold up in single coverage. Every lineup has size, length, switchability, and a level of collective discipline that just doesn’t look normal for a young team. And that’s what makes this such a nightmare. You’re not able to just go mismatch hunting because there’s nobody favorable to attack. The point of attack defense sets the tone every game and it always starts with Lud Dort. He takes the toughest guard or wing matchup every single night. And by using a combination of size, strength, balance, and raw physicality, he pretty much can guard anybody in the game. But the real chaos begins the second you turn your head. The other four defenders collapse on you instantly. They swarm, they dig, they jump the passing lanes, and they turn every mistake into a fast break. And when this team does get out in transition, they score more fast break points than any team in the history of the NBA. This isn’t just pressure, it’s suffocation. And let’s say somehow you do break through that initial wall. Well, congratulations. Now you have to deal with Cadet Homegrren and Isaiah Hartenstein inside. Cet is already one of the league’s best shot blockers. But what makes him truly special is how he can switch onto guards on the perimeter, slide his feet, and not give up an easy look. Hartenstein brings a totally different element. still a threat as a shot blocker, but he’s also an elite post defender with the ability to hang with guys like a Jokic or an Alprren Shenon. And then he has Chad Hongren to come over and help defense. I mean, that is a torture chamber for an opposing big. These two cover ground for each other. They’re constantly communicating and they’re cleaning up every mistake that the perimeter players give up when they’re being overly aggressive trying to get in the passing lanes. Most teams are lucky to have just one great rim protector, but Oklahoma City has two of the very best. But the part of the defense that is truly overwhelming to work against is the rotation. It feels like every option on every possession disappears the second you think about using it. And that isn’t just off of talent. That’s buyin. That’s a team that wants to play defense more than anybody else in the league. And that effort level on top of an elite defensive system creates something that genuinely overwhelms opponents. And that’s the foundation for a stat that moves OKC from a great defense into a historical outlier. Relative defensive rating. This is how much better you are than the rest of the league. The all-time benchmarks we always go back to are the ‘ 04 Pistons, the 1996 Bulls, and the 2008 Big Three Boston Celtics. These teams are the gold standards for defense. The kinds of defensive teams that shaped the modern era and won championships through the first 21 games of the season. The Oklahoma City Thunder have a minus 11.1 relative defensive rating by far. and it isn’t even close. The best relative defensive rating of the modern era. Not just a hot stretch, and it’s certainly not a typo. They are legitimately the best we’ve seen in a very long time. When a team starts with an 18-1 record without their second best player, that tells you something outrageous about just how good they are. But when that second best player happens to be a guy who scored 40 in the NBA finals, who can run an offense, defend four positions, and might secretly be the most complete wing in the entire league, his return doesn’t just help. It raises the ceiling of the group yet again. And it makes you rethink what this roster is actually going to be capable of when they are fully healthy. Jaylen Williams is basically the bridge that connects everything. He’s the guy who smooths out the halfcourt offense and makes it look fluid, especially when SGA has to go to the bench. And honestly, the more you watch him, the more it feels like JDub might be the most versatile player in the sport. He started games for this team as a center when Oklahoma City had no bigs last season and in the brightest lights of the NBA finals when Indiana was trapping Shay and forcing the ball out of his hands. Jaylen Williams stood up and became the point guard for this team for long stretches of that series. And I mean, that is just not normal. That’s the kind of skill set that won them the championship. And now that he’s back, he’s going to be able to steady the bench minutes, run the offense when Shay sits, making Oklahoma City even more dangerous. And when you remember just how ridiculous his offensive leap was from October last year to the NBA finals, it isn’t hard to expect that he’s going to take another leap this season once he gets his legs back under him. Combine that with the fact that the team was already 18-1 without him. And yeah, every other team in the league should be absolutely terrified right now. And it isn’t just the offense. The reason he’s able to slide into all these different roles is because he’s legitimately a highlevel defender. I feel like a lot of people kind of push this under the rug about Jub, but he legitimately is one of the best defenders in the game. He guards one through four with zero issues, and he just checks every defensive box that a modern team could ever ask for. And of course, the first game back was always going to look a little rusty. He was adjusting to the NBA pace again, figuring out his timing, recalibrating the jump shot, and all the normal stuff that comes with your first game back after missing time with an injury. But even at something like 70% strength, he still gave OKC eight assists, two steals, elite defensive possessions, and total control over the bench minutes. Then in his second game back on the road in Portland, he put up 16 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and three blocks. Even though the shot wasn’t fully there, once that rhythm does come back, which it’s going to, this version of Jaylen Williams is going to look like a fully formed star all over again. And the fact that he’s been able to impact all over the floor in just his first two games back, I believe, is only a sign of what’s to come. But what really makes this Thunder team so overwhelming doesn’t have anything to do with the star power. It’s what’s under the hood. They can beat you in more ways than any other team in the league because every star player in the rotation brings something different. And more importantly, every player is playable in high lever postseason moments. There isn’t a guy on this roster who gets hunted, who gets schemed off the floor, or who forces OKC into a lineup they didn’t want to use. Instead, they have a rare combination of youth, skill, two-way ability, and complete stylistic flexibility that almost no other team in the league is able to match. Chedgrren might be the clearest example of this. He’s taken the leap that we all anticipated. He’s rolling to the rim harder, putting real pressure on opposing defenses, attacking mismatches, and he’s still providing them with floor spacing, knocking down 35% from deep, which puts him in the 79th percentile leaguewide. And defensively, he’s starting to look like a system all by himself. He erases drives, he redirects possessions, and he alters roughly 10 to 12 shots a game, even if he’s not actually blocking them. and he still blocks plenty of shots at 1.5 a night. You can almost watch his game developing in real time. And month by month, he looks more and more like a perennial AllNBA player. Then you’ve got Isaiah Hartenstein, who’s really been able to be the stabilizer whenever Holgren isn’t in the game. And it’s just all of the little things that iHeart does that’s just so impactful. You clearly saw that in the two games without him against the Suns and Blazers where Oklahoma City had to battle deep into the fourth quarter of both, which is something they really haven’t had to do all season. That alone should tell you just how important Isaiah Hartenstein is to the overall structure. Then you’ve got AJ Mitchell, the breakout guard, who looks like he’s been in the league for eight years instead of two. He brings strength, composure, and real on ball creation without ever needing to dominate possessions. He gets to the paint with force, has an ability to finish through contact, and he organizes bench units with a calmness that fits OKC’s system perfectly. When I watch him, he reminds me of a Maverick’s Jaylen Brunson. And if the Thunder can find a way to keep him long-term next to Shay, I mean, that would be ridiculous. On top of that, you have three incredibly dangerous defensive players with Lou Dort, Kase Wallace, and Alex Caruso. All of them are fundamentally sound. All of them fit the system perfectly, and all of them are fully playable in the playoffs. Caruso, in particular, has been absurd. The Thunder are 9.3 points better with him on the floor, which is incredible considering OKC are already a plus 15.3 when he’s not in the game. But when Caruso’s on, that jumps up to a plus 24.6 net rating. That’s a level of dominance you almost never see. And that has to do with the defensive impact. The team’s defensive rating with Alex Caruso in the game is at a 96.9. In today’s NBA, that’s basically impossible. The Thunder don’t just have depth. They have the ability to throw so many different lineup combinations at an opponent. And all of them work at an incredibly high level. When you look around the league, no other contender has this many variations that they can play. And all of these different lineups that the Thunder use can all defend and most importantly will all hold up under the brightest lights of the NBA playoffs. This Thunder team aren’t just winning games. They’re doing it in such a dominant fashion that it almost feels unfair. They have a superstar playing at a historic level. A second star returning to a team that was already 18-1 and a third star who is very quickly turning into an AllNBA caliber big. On top of that, they’ve got the deepest, cleanest, most playoff ready rotation in the NBA. And somehow, while all of that is happening, they’re running a top five offense and anchoring all of it with a defense that isn’t just elite. It’s performing on a level that challenges the best defensive units in the history of the sport. Through the first 21 games of the season, the Thunder have looked like one of the best teams in the modern era. They’re 20 and one and they’ve done it without ever seeing their fully healthy starting fight. And once they get everybody back, this team might prove to be impossible to stop. But another young team that has quietly put together something really dangerous on the other side of the league is the Toronto Raptors, as they have truly emerged as one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. And if you want to learn why, then you can check out that full breakdown video right now.

The NBA Has No Answer For the OKC Thunder

This Thunder team has been impossibly good so far and it genuinely feels like the NBA has absolutely no answer for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Are we actually watching one of the greatest teams in NBA history right now? Because the Oklahoma City Thunder are 20–1, the second-best start to a season *ever*, only behind the 2016 Warriors. And the wild part is that OKC still hasn’t even played a game with its full starting five. They’ve dealt with injuries, reshuffled rotations, and stayed dominant anyway — and their second-best player, the guy who dropped 40 in the NBA Finals, just got back a few days ago…
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