Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by JE Skeets discuss Oklahoma City’s remarkable start to the season – led by the MVP’s incredible efficiency on the offensive end. Check out the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
OKC is scoring 1.24 points per isolation by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
And that’s currently the best all-time number in the player-tracking era.
Best of all time.
SGA exceeds his 1.22 mark set two seasons ago In the 23-24 season, over Kevin Durant, Tyrese Haliburton, and Chris Paul, James Harden with their 2017, 2018 Rockets offense; those two guys both on there.
And so, With SGA playing at this level with him, Scorer, with him as a passer, regardless of what he’s doing.
I think you talk about OKC’s depth and the number of different lineups they play, The elite defenders they have at every position.
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They also have the best isolation shot creator in the game today.
One of the best we have ever seen.
So they can play in flow, play in motion, play.
Through different guys.
But they can also just turn to this guy.
Yeah, that’s a great point.
Like a lot of this offense, And their success comes from their defense.
There’s no doubt.
But in a close game, you can turnlike what a luxury to turn to one of the best Sort of ISO guys we’ve seen over a stretch now of all time in, In SGA.
I mean, the confidence he has in getting to a Spot, going left, step back right, whatever.
Like, there’s no defender I think who thinks can at least stop him.
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In a, in a, obviously a one-on-one situation, given enough room.
And if they send multiple guys, he’s more than capable as a passer, and they have great Shooters on that team and other guys stepping up.
So it’s a dangerous squad, and, you know, you just hope everybody I was gonna say everybody stays healthy for the most part.
But yeah, they missed JWub forever.
Now iHeart’s out.
Who’s to say another guy or two won’t show up, but it won’t matter because, uh, Dagna plays all these guys, trusts every one guy, and they believe so much in that system That it is a bit of a plug-and-play.
So, a great team.
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It’s truly, truly remarkable what they do defensively, How much better they are defensively than everybody else.
And so, I would pick them to win over 70.
To your point, Skeet, it’s like beating 73.
That’s really unbelievable, but we’ll see.
We’ll see there.
I, I, I, one thing I do look forward to is seen with the NBA.
Cup, I’ve long said that I think the cup will generate meaning someday, when A team wins the Cup, finishes with the best regular season record.
And wins the NBA Finals, like an NBA Triple Crown, if you will.
For a team, and I think OKC has a real chance.