Before the start of the 2023/2024 season, the Oklahoma City Thunder had been mostly written off as most had assumed the Thunder to be still in the process of a rebuild, including Ross Lovelace of Inside the Thunder who stated “nobody thinks this team is ready to win it all or compete for a championship quite yet”. However, the Thunder have dominated throughout the NBA season and less than two months out from the start of the NBA Playoffs are currently tied for first in the Western Conference, alongside the Timberwolves, who are both (41-17).
The Thunder’s regular season success is no fluke, as the Thunder are one of only two teams in the NBA who are top four in the league in both defensive and offensive rating. The Thunder also rank second in the league in overall net rating, which measures a teams point differential per 100 possessions.
The Thunders true shooting percentage, which measures a teams efficiency in shooting the ball, is also ranked the highest in the league at 61.3%.
The past ten NBA seasons disclose further evidence that the Thunder are one of the most legitimate contenders in the 2023-2024 season. Dating back to the 2013-2014 San Antonio Spurs, the NBA champion has been at lowest the third seed in the eastern or western conference. A first seed has won the championship a total of six of the last ten seasons, and a second/third seed have both won twice.
Following this model, the teams currently with the highest chance to win the NBA championship are the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves; who are both tied for first in the western conference, as well as the Boston Celtics, who are at the top of the eastern conference.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander throughout the 2023-2024 NBA season has blossomed into one of the NBA’s finest players being an All Star Game Starter, as well as being recently ranked second highest in MVP voting for the league. “Thirty point Shai” as some have called him, is averaging the second highest amount of points in the league at 31.2 points per game. Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging above 30 points per game while mainly attacking the interior and mid-range which seems almost nostalgic in a time period in which many players solely specialize in outside shooting.
Thunder Forward Chet Holmgren has paired nicely to Gilgeous-Alexander while having an impressive rookie season ranking second in the NBA’s most recent rookie of the year rankings. The combination of a highly skilled guard that prefers to attack off the dribble in Gilgeous-Alexander, as well as a forward who excels in screening/ rolling, and popping for the open three has resulted in an offensive scheme deadly for opposing squads to counter.
In a move that shocked the entirety of the NBA world, the Thunder recently traded for talented veteran Gordon Hayward in exchange mainly for Tre Mann and Vasilije Micic. Hayward adds another shooter/scorer to the roster who is able to be both a team leader as well as another offensive option, while replacing two players which rarely fit into the rotation. Oklahoma has not lost a game in the “Hayward Era”.
In the next few weeks, it will become known whether or not the Thunder will carry their success into the regular season; however, as of now all signs point to a deep playoff run and potential championship win in a western conference that has gotten increasingly competitive.
