Oklahoma City bringing the Thunder yet again

Despite no team winning back-to-back titles since the Golden State Warriors in 2018, an overwhelming 80 per cent of National Basketball Association (NBA) general managers plumped for the Oklahoma City Thunder to retain their crown this 2025-26 season.

With a 5-0 start to the season following a 107-101 win over the Sacramento Kings on Oct 28, Mark Daigneault’s men are offering early signs that the faith is not misplaced.

The annual anonymous NBA general manager survey's recent record is shaky; since the Warriors' 2018 title, executives have only picked the eventual winner correctly once.

However, from 2008 to 2018, they chose the winner seven out of 10 times.

If you do not trust the general managers, how about the ex-players who run the rule over the league from the Inside The NBA studios?

Ahead of Oklahoma City’s road win over the Indiana Pacers on Oct 23, 1993 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and two-time Olympic gold medallist Charles Barkley said of the Thunder: “They’re the deepest team in the NBA. They’re two-deep, they’re pretty much three-deep in their positions. They got it all, so they are heavy favourites...

“They just plug and play, because as long as they got Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) and Chet (Holmgren), they got to be.”

Two-time former NBA champion Kenny Smith agreed, adding: “Let’s say Shai has to do something for a month, they’re still a play-off team. They would be a top-eight team in the West without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, that’s how strong this team is.”

Canadian guard Gilgeous-Alexander is the reigning league and Finals MVP as well as its scoring champion and has begun the season in a similar vein.

In his first five games of the new term, the 27-year-old is averaging 34.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.4 assists. Against the Pacers, he set a new career-high of 55 points in the 141-135 win.

In Oklahoma City’s title-winning run, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 32.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.4 assists in the regular season and 29.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists during the play-offs.

At half-time during NBA Finals rematch against Indiana, three-time Finals MVP and four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal said of Gilgeous-Alexander: “In order to be a great player, you have to be the master of your pace. This kid right here has his own pace. He’s going to do what he wants to do, when he wants to do it.

“You can single coverage, double coverage. When he wants to score, he will score. He’s really good at drawing fouls.

“He is the master of his own pace. Take your time, pump fake, bump. MVP is doing what he did last year. And again, I think he’s the best player in the league.”

And Daigneault warns that his star man is getting even better.

Speaking after the 117-100 road win over the Atlanta Hawks on Oct 25, the Thunder coach said his elite scorer is also improving as a playmaker.

Said Daigneault: “In terms of his play, he looks about the same. The only thing that’s really shown up a little differently is he’s really starting to manipulate the game as a playmaker.

“The scoring has been loud, but some of the passes he’s made and the reads he’s made against the different coverages he’s seen in these first few games have been really good.”

But Oklahoma City are more than just Gilgeous-Alexander.

They are a team characterised by their suffocating defence, owning the best defensive rating – the average number of points a team allows per 100 possessions – in the regular season of 106.6, before turning the screw even further in the post-season to top the rankings at 105.7.

The Thunder’s second and third options, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, define this quality, with both proving to be genuine two-way players at the wing and centre respectively.

Williams at 24 made the NBA All-Defensive Second Team in 2024-25 and earned his first All-Star nod. He has improved his scoring (21.6) and assist numbers (5.1) in all of his three seasons, while also recording career-best averages in rebounds (5.3), steals (1.6) and blocks (0.7) en route to lifting the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.

Williams has yet to feature this campaign as he recovers from surgery on his right wrist during the off-season, having required nearly 30 pain-killing jabs during the play-offs, where he averaged 21.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists and dropped 40 points in a crucial Game 5 win in the Finals.

He told ESPN: “It was a necessary evil to win. I would’ve cut my hand off to win a championship.”

In Williams’ absence, Holmgren, the Thunder’s most decisive defensive weapon, has stepped up, with 23.0 points, 10.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists in four games this season.

That the Thunder managed to win the championship despite the 23-year-old missing 50 games in the last season due to a fractured pelvis should be an ominous sign for the rest of the league.

Highlighting Holmgren’s improvement, teammate Isaiah Hartenstein said: “Confidence, but also just playing through contact. I think that’s what he’s been a lot better in... He’s one of the best bigs in the league.”

And it is not the only worrying sign for their rivals.

Oklahoma City were the league’s youngest team in the previous campaign, but still recorded the highest-ever points differential (12.9 points per game) and most double-digit wins (54) in a season in NBA history.

They have kept virtually the whole roster intact, including all the top 13 players in terms of minutes per game. With a young core – only Alex Caruso and Kenrich Williams are above 27 – now boasting championship experience after the franchise’s first title since moving from Seattle, the Thunder should still be below their ceiling.

After the win over the Hawks, Holmgren warned: “There’s still room for us to be better.”

Then there is the Paycom Centre, a raucous home fortress of 18,000 where fans refuse to sit down until the home team score their first bucket.

So what could silence the Thunder?

Said Barkley on The Bill Simmons Podcast: “The only thing you’ve got to worry about with them is they’re going to get everybody’s best punch next year, and it’s going to be a shock to their system.

“They’ve been like the cool little kids for the last couple of years. They finally reached their potential. But now, when you’re the hunted, man, it’s a different animal.”