Earlier this month, after one of Oklahoma City’s double-digit drubbings, I asked Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a question: Did you see any of this coming? Fresh off a championship season, the Thunder expected to be good. But 17–1, with the NBA’s best defensive rating (by a lot) and a net rating that dwarfs last season’s NBA-record mark? All with Jalen Williams, the Thunder’s All-NBA guard, in street clothes?
“Yeah,” says Gilgeous-Alexander. “I kind of expected it.”
Not since 2018, when the Golden State Warriors wrapped up a back-to-back run, has the NBA seen a repeat champion. The Thunder aim to end that streak.
Gilgeous-Alexander is having a Gilgeous-Alexander-y season, racking up 30-point games while sitting out more than half of Oklahoma City’s fourth quarters. Chet Holmgren is shooting 56% while giving Victor Wembanyama competition for the NBA’s top defensive honors. Ajay Mitchell has slid into Williams’s spot and emerged as a leading candidate for Most Improved Player.
It’s not individual performances that have impressed Gilgeous-Alexander, he says. It’s the collective effort.
“I think as a group we just prioritize winning above everything,” he says. “I think that’s our superpower. Above our friendships and our talent as a group, we just all really want to win. I think we do that better than any team in the NBA.
“Like every night we come in and we’re like, ‘We’re going to do whatever it takes to win.’ And no matter what the game looks like, no matter what cards are dealt, no matter who’s hurt, no matter how big of a run they just went on, how big of a run we just went on, we’re going to do what it takes to win. And I think that’s what just gives us the edge every night.”
Having that edge isn’t easy. The championship hangover is real. Shorter offseason, longer vacations, a natural disinterest in the mundanity of an 82-game season all can contribute to sluggish starts. It’s among the reasons no defending champion in the last seven seasons has advanced past the second round in the next one.
Yet, Oklahoma City has not experienced any of that. The Thunder came to camp motivated. In shape. Even without Williams, the offense ranks in the top five. Their defensive rating is more than seven points better than anyone else. They have won 10 games by at least 15 points. They have won six by at least 20. Oklahoma City’s lone loss—a two-point defeat to Portland in early November—came on the second night of a road back-to-back.
Inside the Thunder locker room, there are no secret explanations. There was no midsummer powwow. No blood pact to not let success spoil them. Sure, the group text chain was humming last offseason. “The challenges that lie ahead, the human complacency aspect, the target on your back,” says Alex Caruso. “Stuff like that.” Several players traveled to Toronto for Gilgeous-Alexander’s camp. But it was nothing different. It was just … them.
“It’s just our DNA,” Williams says. “It’s what we’re taught when you get there. Focus on the game, don’t take the game for granted, and all the little stuff. That’s our normal. We’re not really looking ahead. We’re looking to this next game that we’re about to play. But after that, it’s like, can’t win anything in October thinking about it in October. It’s more like, How can we get better tonight? And then go from there.”
It starts with Gilgeous-Alexander. Last season, Gilgeous-Alexander became the fourth player to collect a scoring title, Finals MVP and a championship in the same season. He celebrated, of course. “If I was in his position,” says Dort, “I would’ve [celebrated] a lot more.” And then he got back to work. If you didn’t watch him raise two trophies, you might have not known he did.
“That’s just how greatness is,” says Dort. “You know what I mean? That was his goal and that’s what he wanted, and he worked so hard to get it. And then when he got it, he wanted more.”
Nate Mitchell, a coach on the Canadian national team, has worked with Gilgeous-Alexander every offseason since he was 16. The buildup to this one was different. At least logistically. A three-week break plus a week in the weight room before easing into on-court drills. But once Gilgeous-Alexander got going, he attacked it the same way he has every other.
“The same consistency, the same time that he wants to go to the gym, the same time he wants to go to the weight room,” says Mitchell. “The only thing that’s different is he had his son [Ares] around him.”
Indeed, in Oklahoma City no one is satisfied with one-off success. “We don’t have anybody on the team who’s sitting and reminiscing on what a great career they had,” Holmgren told reporters. Since training camp, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault has emphasized not to underestimate the challenge of repeating. And to have the humility to understand it’s incredibly difficult.
“I think everybody on the team is still chasing and striving for more,” said Holmgren. “The championship wasn’t the last check on their bucket list.”
Seems so. On Wednesday, Oklahoma City will welcome in Minnesota. The Wolves are reeling of late, coming off back-to-back losses in Phoenix and Sacramento. The real test for the Thunder won’t come until February, when OKC plays the first of four games against Denver. Until then, the challenge isn’t the opponent. It’s getting up to play them.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Secret to How the Thunder Turned a Championship Into a Juggernaut Season.
