Oklahoma City is off to one of the best starts in NBA history, but it hasn’t been without trials. This Thunder team is getting tested in many different ways. People will point to the team’s light schedule to start the season, but truthfully, there hasn’t been a single game where this Thunder team was at full strength. They’ve figured out how to win, regardless of who’s on the schedule that night.
Once again, Oklahoma City is doing a great job not letting injuries be the main storyline. The storyline is clearly the dominance of this team, and the potential draft capital that they’ll have this summer. But it’s starting to look like a mirror image of last season on the bench.
The good news? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hasn’t missed any time — and as long as he’s in the lineup, Oklahoma City still has a great chance to win against any team in the association. He is what makes this team elite. The bad news, though, is that for the second straight season, Oklahoma City just can’t get collectively healthy at the same time. It feels like right when they get a major contributor back in the lineup, another major contributor goes down.
Last season, it was in the front court — as Isaiah Hartenstein started the season sidelined, and right when he returned to the lineup, Chet Holmgren suffered a serious injury. This season, it started with Jalen Williams rehabbing his wrist injury, while Aaron Wiggins went down a week into the season. Williams returned this week, and Wiggins is on deck for a return, but Hartenstein is now on the shelf for the next few weeks with a right soleus strain.
Oklahoma City is going to win games regardless, this team and the scheme is too good to suggest otherwise. But it’s a bummer that, once again, the Thunder can’t develop chemistry with a fully healthy roster. It showed down the stretch last season, as Holmgren and Hartenstein tried to find chemistry on the fly, and the rest of the team tried to help them. play through it. Especially with how Oklahoma City plays, chemistry means so much to the group on the floor.
On the bright side, though, the revolving door of injuries have given extended opportunities to guys on the bench who have proved to be ready for the moment. So far this season, it has been Ajay Mitchell. With Hartenstein down, guys like Jaylin Williams and Branden Carlson will get extended run, and they’ll have a chance to seize the opportunity, too.
The Thunder will find a way, as they always do. But they might need to figure some things out on the fly once again this year.