The OKC Thunder have just announced another unexpectedly great signing…
This has always been a tricky part of the NBA schedule. Four months without on-court activity will have everyone starving for games, eager to overreact to every standout player, and jumping to conclusions after one week of basketball.
Most of the time, it’s easy to roll your eyes at certain statements, such as which teams will be in the playoffs or who the MVP front-runners will be at the end. Opening week is also never a great time to reassess your preseason attitude or consider anything a botched prediction. After all, we have 170 days left of hoops in this wild, uncertain league.
With that said, we all might have been wrong about the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Across all projections in the NBA media sphere, the range for OKC looked to be from 40 to 50 wins. Pessimists thought they would require another year to develop and not escape the play-in tournament. Optimists had them as a homecourt seed in the West, potentially reaching the second round.
When I posted my win projections, I leaned closer to their floor with a record of 43-39. It was a bet on the West being more competitive than last year and veteran teams finding the proper ways to defend OKC’s halfcourt offense, which I expected to stay league-average.
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The Thunder, packed with youth, loaded with athleticism, and led by a stone-cold killer, are ready to announce themselves as a West rival.
It might sound a little aggressive considering NBA history has proven it’s almost impossible to jump that many places without monumental additions in free agency.
However, if Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is already showing us this type of dominance and two-way brilliance, it’s time to expect the unusual.
Only two games have passed, with OKC standing 2-0 after pulverizing the Chicago Bulls into the earliest players-only meeting in sports history and flexing their clutch gene to beat the Cavaliers.
Their latest win, a collective rally to spoil Cleveland’s home opener, was just an early glimpse of the damage they could do this year. And it’s a great reminder of why they’re going to be the most annoying group to play against.
Trailing 100-90 with only 2:22 left, they lit up the Cavs with an 18-5 run to steal the win. In the matter of seven possessions, OKC showed their offensive potential, with four different players drilling 3-pointers in that span. Five helpers, five buckets, zero errors.
Behind their leader, Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder look poised, organized, and dialed in offensively. It was the next step in their development after defending at a top-10 level for most of last season.
For SGA, we’re seeing an extension of his spectacular FIBA World Cup run, where he made it crystal clear to the basketball world that his reign begins soon.
I’m not a fan of hyperbole, especially as it pertains to young players still working out their path and adding new skills. But after making the leap into superstardom a year ago and already giving us flashes of how terrifying he’s going to be in 2024, Gilgeous-Alexander deserves all of the superlatives coming his way.
He’s already won the right to be called the most devastating attacker and driver in today’s NBA. Better yet — stay with me here — one could say nobody has been more effective at breaking the paint over the last decade-plus.
Between the unremitting rim pressure, the art of keeping a live dribble, and a smooth jumper that can make tough defense useless, SGA is nearing a complete offensive package.
Oh yeah, and he’s still a couple years away from the usual NBA ‘prime.’
