Lu Dort only had 99 days to recover from a 105-game season.
It’s a rare downside to winning an NBA championship, which the OKC Thunder accomplished for the first time by defeating the Indiana Pacers in the finals. And while Dort iced his body with champagne showers and stayed off his feet by cruising around victory parades in buses and Lamborghinis, he still found himself needing to conserve energy for the rapidly-approaching 2025-26 season.
So instead of hitting the court hard this summer, he took a hard look at his body. The 26-year-old pro hired a new personal chef. He worked with a nutritionist. And the results spoke for themselves when he arrived for OKC’s first day of training camp on Sept. 30.
Dort now has his best Body Composition Analysis (BCA), a method used to determine the proportions of fat, muscle and bone in the body, since 2019. That should only make the All-Defensive guard, who goes by “Lu The Beast” on his socials, even more of a monster when OKC tips off its season with a home game against Houston at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“I took my diet and how I was approaching the weight room,” Dort said. “I just wanted to spend less energy on the court, still be ready for training camp and have a good body. … My body feels really good. I did the work that I had to do after all of the celebration this summer.”
Dort isn’t the only Thunder player who prioritized getting his body right this past offseason.
Head coach Mark Daigneault also noticed that Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren arrived at training camp looking bigger. So did Ajay Mitchell, who can use the added strength to round out his game defensively. Even Jaylin Williams is nine pounds lighter.
Those sorts of improvements are key for OKC, which didn’t make any splashing signings or trades this offseason. It’s instead relying on the progression of its returners.
“Some of it is just, in a vacuum, the individual changes guys have made,” Daigneault said on the improvement he has seen in his team. “There’s a lot of examples of that. … There’s no guarantee that the things we were good at last season will carry over, so we have to constantly figure out ways that we can improve.”
Justin Martinez covers sports for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Justin? He can be reached at jmartinez@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @Justintohoops. Sign up for the Thunder Sports Minute newsletter to access more NBA coverage. Support Justin’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
NBA preseason: Thunder vs. Nuggets
TIPOFF: 7 p.m. Friday at Paycom Center (FDSN, KSBI-52)