You May Not Have Noticed, But The Oklahoma City Thunder Are Suddenly Pretty Damn Good

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There have been a lot of awesome storylines through the first half of the 2022-23 NBA season. You have teams like the Sacramento Kings that are not only leading their division, but at 24-18 through 42 games they are within reach of a top 3 seed out West. Given what that fanbase has gone through over the last 16+ years, that is very cool. 

There's the Pacers who many thought would be in the Wembanyama Sweepstakes who are suddenly over .500 and flirting with a top 7 seed. The Jazz are still floating around the Play In which I'm pretty sure nobody saw coming. 

Then there's the Oklahoma City Thunder.

I get it, there's a strong chance you are not watching the Thunder or even really paying attention to what they're doing, but for my money they're one of the best stories of the first half. Another team that we all thought would be nosediving into the Lottery in hopes of landing Wembanyama, in reality it might just be time to accept that the Thunder are actually starting to become pretty freaking good.

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It's true, their record sits at 21-23 which technically isn't that great, but for a team that won 24 games all of last year, I'd say things are a bit different this season. Did you know the Thunder sit just one game back of a guaranteed playoff spot? Given how they're playing, I wouldn't consider it a stretch to think they can jump the likes of LAC/GS/UTA/MIN when all it might take is another solid week.

Since the calendar switched to 2023, the Thunder have the 3rd best offense in basketball (6-2 record). Defensively, they're 5th and their +10.8 net rating is 3rd in the NBA over this timeframe. Now I know what you may be thinking, that their schedule was probably dogshit and that's why the numbers look so good. In reality….

that's as legit a run as you'll find in the league. I think we've reached the point where the Thunder should be looked at as more than just a scrappy young team that plays hard. They're actually good!

Of course, it all starts with the All Star/All NBA caliber season of SGA. He's been a monster in every sense considering all he does is put up an efficient 30 points every time he steps on the floor, all while not really taking 3PA. 

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That Clippers trade is looking better and better for OKC isn't it? The Kawhi/PG13 duo hasn't done shit, SGA looks like he's blossoming into a legit superstar and then you factor in all the picks the Thunder got as well. What a move by Sam Presti.

The thing is, the Thunder are more than SGA. I don't know if he's getting much MIP hype, but I think it's fair to throw Josh Giddey's name into that conversation. Remember, he's only 20 years old and his Year 2 jump has been pretty big time. Going from 12.5 a game on 41/26% splits to 16/8/5.7 on 47/33% splits has made a huge difference to the Thunder offense, and when you watch Giddey play it's really hard to not love what you see. He has great size at 6'8, his natural feel offensively as a creator is special, and he's gotten so much better as using his size and strength to finish around the rim. 

During this run since the start the new year, Giddey is averaging 20.3/7.4/7.0 on 51/37% splits with 1.5 3PM a game in his 32 minutes. Those are big time numbers for any guard in the league let alone a 20 year old who still has played under 100 NBA games in his career. There was talk that maybe the Thunder reached a little bit with this pick, but I don't know how anyone could say that now. The biggest thing for Giddey was the development of his 3pt shot, and if he's already going to be around league average this early in his career, well then I'm not seeing too many weaknesses in his game offensively. 

Add in solid years from Lu Dort, rookie Jalen Williams and to me, one of the best parts of the Thunder starting to look like a real team is the fact that this entire roster was essentially homegrown. No stars are going to OKC during their rebuild, so it was crucial that the team nail their draft picks, and we haven't even mentioned the fact that Chet Holmgren hasn't even played a second yet!

Part of the reason I think you can buy into what the Thunder are doing is how they are doing against good teams. Sure, at 10-16 that record looks terrible right? Well, those 10 wins against teams .500 or better are more than the Pelicans, Kings, Clippers, and Warriors, It ties them with DAL and is right behind DEN (11) and MEM (12). They are showing the exact type of progress you hope to see with a very young team in a super competitive conference, especially if that defense holds up. Considering it's 10th in the league on the season, my guess is it probably will.

As we tend to see when teams make a leap, the improvement on the defensive end is what gets things started. Young players will develop offensively as they get more comfortable on the NBA level, and with two unselfish guards leading the way I wouldn't worry too much about that. What always seemed to do the Thunder in in previous seasons was their inability to get stops. Now that they're getting those stops, everything seems different.

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It now brings up an interesting question. What does Presti do with all these picks? Has the time come to package some of those together and bring in some win now type talent? Do you stay the course and wait for the next unhappy superstar? Given what the Thunder are turning into, there are some exciting young players I imagine guys would want to play with. At this point they are probably out of the Wembanyama Sweepstakes 

so tanking isn't really on the table anymore. I say go for it (to some degree). Things are close enough to where this team can absolutely play its way out of the Play In. If there are small moves to make around the margins that don't cost a whole lot and don't ruin your flexibility, I'm someone who believes that any sort of playoff experience for a young team is worth it. Even if you get swept 4-0, those playoff reps will help in terms of development. Selfishly, I want to see SGA in a playoff series. Lets say they snag the 6 spot, you don't think something like OKC/NO would be fun to watch? Or if they finish 7th, something like MEM/OKC? Sign me up for both of those potential series.

There's a lot of basketball left to be played of course, but in terms of rebuilds, it certainly looks like the Thunder are currently nailing theirs. If you keep building this season and then get to add someone like this next year

something tells me the Thunder are going to be pretty damn good in the not too distant future. I just goes to show that while tanking kinda stinks, if you draft right and make smart front office decisions, things in the NBA can change in a blink of an eye.