The Oklahoma City Thunder are reaching historic heights game after game.
The fourth-team ever to start 21-1 or better in a season. Currently beating its NBA record from last year in victory margin by several points. Defending MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander seeking out his 95th-straight game of scoring 20-plus points or more—all while on a 13-game win streak appearing to be head and heels above any other NBA team at this point in the season.
The team is dominant, and it didn’t happen over night. A culture had to be fostered, the right guys had to be in position.
Looking back to the 2023-24 season, this team made a massive leap and claimed its first top-seed ranking in the Western Conference since 2012-13. This team has kept its foot on the gas ever since, but it had to put things in focus after being booted out of the playoffs in that same season.
That boot came from the foot of the Dallas Mavericks. A team built with Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and several highly-talented surrounding players, who ultimately were able to make the NBA playoffs. One thing was exposed by this Thunder team in that series, and it helped general manager Sam Presti and head coach Mark Daigneault really gauge where this team was at mentally and physically.
Their less-than-average perimeter defense allowing P.J. Washington to sink three after three combined with an inept rebounding core with rookie Chet Holmgren taking the brunt of the load, there were holes in this team at that time.
Granted, nearly all of its talent were just about 25-years old or younger. Still, Presti and Daigneault knew what they needed—that came in the form of Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, who would help fill those gaps and eventually assist this team in claiming its first-ever NBA title. One couldn’t definitively say this team would have won without those two.
And now into the 2025-26 season, this Oklahoma City squad stands as one of the most well-rounded teams in the league, excelling on virtually all fronts with a slew of talent and upcoming draft picks. That series loss against the Mavericks helped put things into perspective for Gilgeous-Alexander and co., and now the Thunder is truly firing on all cylinders as a team who is just outright exceptional.
On Friday night, the Thunder and Mavericks will take the stage in the spotlight again, this time in two very different spots.
On one hand, a team dominating the Western Conference and NBA as a whole coming off an NBA title—on the other, a team who traded away one of the top talents and scorers in the league that is now sitting at 12th in the same conference.
Looking back, that playoff loss Oklahoma City took a couple years back proved to bear some important fruit. Though, it appears that this Thunder uprising was already on the horizon.
