The OKC Thunder’s Defense PERFECTLY Played The Percentages
The Oklahoma City Thunder are coming off the first NBA championship in franchise history, and that is due in major part to their historically dominant and off-the-charts by the metrics defense. I did a deep dive into just how special this OKC defense is, how they dominated the defensive stats, metrics, and analytics, how they got this good on D, their extremely unique personnel, and what makes them special, and finally, we watch through the tape to see how the Thunder played the percentages in action, funneling shots and putting teams in no win situations on offense.
Intro: (0:00)
The Thunder Have An All-Time Defense: (0:10)
OKC’s Defense Dominates All Of The Metrics:(1:16)
How Are They This Good On D?: (2:26)
The Personnel: (3:16)
Lu Dort: (3:45)
Alex Caruso: (4:22)
Cason Wallace: (4:58)
Jalen Williams: (5:24)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: (6:01)
Chet Holmgren: (6:27)
Isaiah Hartenstein: (7:06)
The Thunder’s Others: (7:36)
Playing The Percentages Out In Action: (8:16)
What Do You Think?: (11:51)
Close: (12:20)
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12 Comments
Human fire hydrant is an incredible bit of writing. Love your breakdowns!
This is the best defense of this era!!
Ask Caruso next time you get the chance why he wears his headband upside down so much. I think classic sports superstition, but I gotta know.
Incredible breakdown
Rarely in that video did you see the offensive players flailing and looking at the refs for a call, because they knew those were clean steals and blocks. That so many of the Thunder players can play that style of defense for entire games is amazing. Yes, they get called for a lot of fouls too, but this video really highlighted how their defense hardly allows other teams to run their offense. Lots of fun to watch, but only if you're a Thunder fan!
Thundet Up! ⛈️⚡️⛈️
It's really fun to watch this style. Solid defense can travel, help deal with jitters, and it can be demoralizing to the opponent.
Jokic saying that the nuggets "will be aggressive and will be testing the refs to call fouls" like they are going to replicate what OKC did.
Wing Defenders
OKC has
Dort (1st team), Caruso (multi 1st team), J dub (2nd team def), Wallace (eventually all defence), Shai all round good defender who won't be exposed
Denver Has
Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, Watson, Braun. None have ever been on a defensive team. Think Watson will be the most likely
Big defenders
Chet (DPOY level), Ihart, J will, K Rich
Denver has….
OKC is similar to the bad boy Pistons with Isaiah, Rodman and those guys with their defense and we all saw how tough that team was. They beat Bird and Boston, Magic and the Lakers and Jordan and the Bulls (albeit they were beating the Bulls only before Pippen and Grant really developed). When you fully buy into team defense like these two teams you always have a chance in any game because defense travels. I think this season they will be even better which is scary for the rest of the NBA.
best defense in NBA history incoming. Everyone on the Thunder is going to be better next season. Everyone. If you think they were good last season. Just wait
If the league will allow us to play this defense again and the offense gets 5% better in the half court. (Highly likely) it’s spells trouble for the league. My concerns is the league changing its calls since okc is a small market. But even then that can be overcome with a better half court offense. I anticipate shai getting less calls, more calls against his shoulder to the chest. I hope he shoots better 3’s to counter. The team will need to carry more this year.
i knew their defense was great but what they did to the Suns earlier that season and what they did to Memphis that first round… my goodness