Community Shootaround: Thunder’s Dominance
The NBA has spent the last decade or so trying to keep the playing field level. The aim for parity generally seems to be working, especially with the restrictive tax aprons making it difficult for some contenders to make meaningful roster moves.
Only one problem: The Thunder, thanks to draft pick hoarding maneuvers by top executive Sam Presti, seem almost invincible.
Courtesy of the highly productive 2019 Paul George trade with the Clippers, the Thunder acquired a superstar in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander along with multiple first-round picks. The reigning Most Valuable Player led them to last season’s championship and seems poised to do so again.
The Thunder have a ridiculous 24-1 record and could break Golden State’s record of 73 regular season victories.
They rank in the top five in nearly every offensive and defensive statistical category. They’ve achieved this despite their second-best player, Jalen Williams, appearing in only six games. He’s rounding back into form after recovering from a wrist injury – he had a 25-point, 8-assist performance against Utah on Sunday.
Oklahoma City has arguably the deepest team in the league and heads into the NBA Cup semifinals this weekend after thrashing the Suns by 49 points in the quarterfinals.
What makes the Thunder even scarier is that they could legitimately control the next few drafts. They have a shot at multiple lottery picks next June, including the reeling Clippers’ unprotected first-rounder.
Imagine dropping AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson or Cameron Boozer onto this already loaded roster. OKC is also owed multiple first-rounders in the 2027 draft as well.
Of course, trying to retain all their top players will eventually create luxury tax issues for the Thunder. It’s still hard to envision this franchise not being a dynasty.
That brings us to today’s topic: Will the Thunder breaks the Warriors’ record of 73 regular-season wins this season? Are they destined to win back-to-back championships? If not, which team can prevent them from taking the title again? How many titles can the Thunder win over the next decade?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Thunder, Spurs Advance In NBA Cup: League Announces Schedule Changes
The Thunder and Spurs will meet in the NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas on Saturday after winning their respective quarterfinal matchups on Wednesday.
The Thunder improved to 24-1 on the season with a blowout home victory over the Suns. The game was never close, as Oklahoma City won each quarter by double-digits and defeated Phoenix by 49 points, making it the most lopsided loss in Suns history.
Oklahoma City made 55% of its three-pointers, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (28 points) and Chet Holmgren (24 points) leading the way and no Thunder player logging more than 27 minutes.
In the late game, the Spurs overcame 35 points from Lakers star Luka Doncic and 26 from Marcus Smart in his return from a back injury to pull off a 132-119 win on the road. Stephon Castle had 30 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists in his second game back from a hip injury, while six other Spurs scored in double digits.
The Thunder and Spurs will face one another on Saturday at 8:00 pm Central time for the right to advance to the NBA Cup final on Tuesday. Players on the losing team in that game will receive bonuses of roughly $106K apiece, while the winning team will face either the Magic or Knicks in the championship game a shot at the top prize ($531K per player).
Notably, Spurs star Victor Wembanyama has a shot to return from his calf strain for that game vs. the Thunder, per head coach Mitch Johnson.
“Very much so,” Johnson said after Wednesday’s win when asked if a Saturday return is in play for Wembanyama (Twitter link via Mark Medina). “He had a very good day today. He had a very intense day this morning. We’ll have to see how he responds and reacts tomorrow.”
The Thunder and Spurs will now play each other five times this season, including three times in December. The two clubs are scheduled to square off on December 23 in San Antonio and on Christmas Day in OKC.
The NBA also announced a handful of scheduling updates on Wednesday night, per Medina (Twitter link). The Suns and Lakers, who only had 81 games apiece on their respective regular season schedules, will face one another on Sunday in Phoenix at 7:00 pm CT.
The Thunder and Spurs had both been scheduled to play games on December 17, but those contests have been pushed back one day to Dec. 18 in order to give them an extra day of rest following the NBA Cup. OKC will now host the Clippers next Thursday, while San Antonio hosts the Wizards that night.
Thunder Notes: Paul, SGA, Dort, Holmgren
The single season that Chris Paul spent with the Thunder planted the seeds for last year’s championship run and the current 23-1 start, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
Paul was traded to Oklahoma City in the summer of 2019, along with a collection of draft assets, in the deal that sent Russell Westbrook to Houston. He regularly invited his younger teammates to his home on off nights to watch other NBA teams play and used those games as teaching opportunities. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort both credit that experience with helping them develop into better players.
“Chris really was the first person to show me what it meant to be a professional,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He was always doing extra. It was more so off the court than on the court. It was the things you don’t think about as a kid. As a kid, you’re taught to just work super hard, but you’re not really taught nutrition and taking care of your body, getting massages, getting treatment, those type of things he was always on top of. He just always had a get-better mentality in every way, in every way of life.”
Paul was especially influential with Dort, who was in his rookie season when they were teammates. Paul bought him an iPad to study game footage, along with a subscription to the Second Spectrum video service. He was also vocal about encouraging Dort not to pass up open shots, even though he was connecting at less than 30% from beyond the arc at the time.
“I used to be on Lu all the time,” Paul said. “I used to say, ‘Lu, you play defense so hard and you compete so hard that I don’t care if you miss (shots) on offense. I just want you to shoot it and give yourself a chance.’ When guys compete and play like that, then you live with the results.”
There’s more from Oklahoma City:
- In an interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Gilgeous-Alexander said the Thunder became more motivated to succeed after losing to Milwaukee in last year’s NBA Cup final. OKC was already establishing itself as one of the NBA’s elite teams, but it fell by 16 points to a veteran Bucks squad in the title game. “It definitely helped. It for sure helped. Losing in general helps all the time,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It’s easy to learn from losing. It definitely just showed us the formula for losing. The way we played that night, we didn’t give what the game required and it showed us that. And I think that prepared us to go into the playoffs having to play for something. It showed us before the schemes, before the scouting report, before the making shots, missing shots, the personnel, you’ve got to bring a certain level of intensity, focus and fight to the game if you want a chance to win.”
- One reason for this year’s improvement is the presence of Chet Holmgren, who was only available for 32 regular season games last year. Holmgren has reinvented himself on offense, observes Rylan Stiles of Sports Illustrated, becoming an efficient shooter all over the court and a reliable scorer in transition, pick-and-rolls and post-ups.
- The Thunder’s dominance may make teams reluctant to go all in with trade offers for Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, suggests Kirk Goldsberry of The Ringer. Particularly for Western Conference teams, it may not make sense to mortgage their future in a major deal if OKC looks unbeatable.
And-Ones: Front Offices, I. Mobley, NBA Europe, Quaintance
The Thunder are coming off a championship and are just the third team in NBA history to open a season with at least 23 wins in their first 24 games, so it comes as no surprise that general manager Sam Presti came out on top in The Athletic’s annual poll on the league’s best front offices.
A group of The Athletic’s NBA writers asked 36 executives around the NBA to rank their top five front offices, and Oklahoma City received an overwhelming 31 first-place votes.
The rest of the top five wasn’t simply made up of the teams at the top of the NBA’s standings. Brad Stevens and the Celtics placed second, followed by Rafael Stone and the Rockets at No. 3, Pat Riley and the Heat fourth, and Kevin Pritchard and the Pacers rounding out the top five. Each of those front offices received at least one first-place vote.
The Cavaliers, Timberwolves, Knicks, Spurs, and Warriors finished in the top 10, with another 15 teams cited at least once, either as a top-five front office or as a group considered to be “on the rise” and earning an honorable mention. According to The Athletic, the five clubs not to be mentioned at all were the Mavericks, Kings, Pelicans, Suns, and Bulls.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Isaiah Mobley, the older brother of reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley, is in the process of finalizing an agreement with Hapoel Jerusalem, sources tell Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com (Twitter link). Mobley, a 2022 second-round pick who spent parts of three seasons in the NBA with Cleveland and Philadelphia from 2022-25, has been playing this fall with Manisa Basket in Turkey.
- The fall of 2027 continues to be viewed as a “realistic target” for the launch of the NBA’s European league, according to FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis. Joe Vardon of The Athletic passes along some of the other comments Zagklis made about the prospective league during a news conference on Tuesday, including the fact that the goal is to give more teams across Europe a pathway to qualifying for the NBA’s league than can currently qualify for the EuroLeague.
- Kentucky’s Jayden Quaintance has cracked the top five in the latest 2026 NBA mock draft from Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report, behind the usual suspects at the top. The 6’10” sophomore forward is making his way back from an ACL tear he sustained while playing for Arizona State last season.
Jaylen Brown, Jamal Murray Named Players Of The Week
Celtics wing Jaylen Brown and Nuggets guard Jamal Murray have been named the NBA’s Players of the Week, the league announced on Monday (via Twitter).
Brown won for the Eastern Conference, while Murray claimed the award in the Western Conference.
Brown, the 2024 Finals MVP, led Boston to an unblemished 3-0 record in games he played from December 1-7. He sat out the Dec. 4 contest at Washington, which the Celtics won by 45 points. The 29-year-old averaged 34.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.0 steal on .538/.471/.889 shooting in three appearances last week (37.7 minutes per game).
A Georgia native who played one season of college ball for California, Brown is well on his way to making his fifth All-Star game in 2025/26. He’s averaging career highs of 29.1 PPG and 4.9 APG while also contributing 6.2 RPG and 1.1 SPG through 23 contests (33.7 MPG).
Murray, meanwhile, helped guide Denver to a 3-1 record last week. The 28-year-old Canadian averaged 29.8 PPG, 7.5 APG, 4.5 RPG and 1.3 SPG on .595/.621/.929 shooting in four appearances (33.8 MPG).
Murray is off to a fantastic start to the season himself and appears well-positioned to make his first All-Star appearance. Through 22 games (35.0 MPG), he’s averaging 25.0 PPG, 6.8 APG and 4.5 RPG — all career highs — with an elite shooting line of .506/.447/.898.
According to the NBA, De’Aaron Fox (Spurs), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams (Thunder), and Murray’s teammate Nikola Jokic were the other nominees in the West (Twitter link). Jalen Brunson (Knicks), Jalen Johnson (Hawks), Tyrese Maxey (Sixers), Michael Porter Jr. (Nets), and Brown’s teammate Derrick White were nominated in the East.
Injury Notes: SGA, Thunder, Booker, Essengue, Schröder
Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will miss his first game of the season on Sunday when the Thunder face the Jazz in Utah, tweets Clemente Almanza of Thunder Wire. Gilgeous-Alexander is dealing with bursitis in his left elbow, per the team.
The superstar guard is one of seven Oklahoma City players who will be out Sunday. Others include rotation members Luguentz Dort (right adductor strain), Alex Caruso (right quad contusion), Isaiah Joe (left knee soreness) and Isaiah Hartenstein (right soleus strain).
Here are more injury notes from around the NBA:
- Suns head coach Jordan Ott provided an update on star guard Devin Booker on Friday, according to Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (Twitter video link). Booker is recovering from a right groin strain and could return for Wednesday’s NBA Cup quarterfinal at Oklahoma City. “We’ll continue to assess him day-by-day, but he’s been through this before,” Ott said. “So he knows exactly where he’s at and his body and he’s made good progress in a short amount of time. … If his body is feeling good and he’s in a good place, he’ll absolutely be available (Wednesday).”
- Speaking to the media on Saturday, Bulls lottery pick Noa Essengue said his season-ending left shoulder injury was a dislocation, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network relays (via Twitter). The French forward added that he dislocated the same shoulder a couple of years ago and his surgery is scheduled for Wednesday.
- Kings point guard Dennis Schröder was out again last night in Miami due to a right hip flexor strain, notes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link). While Schröder’s strain is “mild” and he’s considered day-to-day, he has now missed five straight games, having last suited up on Nov. 24 vs. Minnesota.
And-Ones: First-Time All-Stars, 2026 Draft, NBA Cup, More
The 2026 NBA All-Star Game is still over two months away, but a number of players around the league are emerging as legitimate candidates to appear in the game for the first time, writes Zach Harper of The Athletic.
Harper points to Bulls guard Josh Giddey, Hawks forward Jalen Johnson, Pistons center Jalen Duren, and Heat guard Norman Powell as Eastern Conference standouts who could become first-time All-Stars, while identifying Lakers guard Austin Reaves, Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija, Thunder big man Chet Holmgren, and Nuggets guard Jamal Murray as the most plausible first-timers in the Western Conference.
Of those players, only Duren looks like a shoo-in to make the game, according to Zach Kram of ESPN, who takes his own early look at potential All-Stars and divides players into two groups — “near-locks” and “on the bubble.”
Duren is among Kram’s seven near-locks in the East, though he considers Giddey, Johnson, and Powell to have strong cases to make the cut. In the West, Kram thinks Murray could still find himself on the outside looking in despite a career-best first half, given the strength of the competition for the 12 spots. However, with eight international spots to fill and the potential for injury replacements beyond the initial 24 All-Stars, there could be multiple paths for the Nuggets guard to finally earn the honor.
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Although Kansas guard Darryn Peterson has only appeared in two games so far this season, he’s the 2026 draft prospect that NBA scouts seem most excited about, according to Sam Vecenie of The Athletic, who places Peterson atop his most recent mock draft, ahead of Duke’s Cameron Boozer and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa. Tennessee’s Nate Ament has slipped out of Vecenie’s top five, with UNC’s Caleb Wilson at No. 4, followed by Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr.
- A panel of ESPN insiders answers a series of questions related to the NBA Cup, including which player was the MVP during the group stage (Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got two votes apiece) and which team has the best chance to upset Oklahoma City in the knockout round (the Lakers earned three of five possible votes).
- In an interesting story for ESPN, Kevin Pelton takes a deep dive into the data to explore the impact of familiarity on shooting efficiency and explains why a number of high-profile players who changed teams over the summer – including Cameron Johnson, Desmond Bane, and Myles Turner – may have gotten off to slow starts.
- Lindsay Schnell of The Athletic examines how former G League players became NCAA-eligible and what it means for college basketball going forward. “At the end of the day, we’re not the ones making decisions,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “We either adapt to the rules or we get left behind. So until something changes, I guess all of us are watching G League games now.”
Clippers Notes: Next Steps, Leonard, Harden, LaVine
What’s the best path forward for the 6-16 Clippers? Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN spoke to executives and scouts about that topic, with one of those execs pointing out that it’s in the best interest of 29 teams to come up with an answer that question, since L.A. owes the defending champion Thunder an unprotected 2026 first-round pick.
“We might need to get everyone in the league on a Zoom and brainstorm some ideas,” that executive joked. “Invite everybody except (Thunder general manager) Sam (Presti).”
As Bontemps and Windhorst outline, there was no consensus among their sources about what the ideal next step for the Clippers is. While several scouts and executives believe it would be in the team’s best interests to make in-season moves on the trade market, some think L.A. should be a buyer and other view the club as a seller.
Other sources who spoke to ESPN suggested the Clippers would be better off standing pat, suggesting that their roster – headlined by Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and Ivica Zubac – isn’t as bad as the record suggests.
“There are going to be several teams ahead of them in the standings that are eventually going to tank and (the Clippers) will be able to pass them,” one veteran executive told Windhorst. “They won’t admit it now, but there are stealth tankers already at play. You’ll be coming to me asking about the tanking epidemic in the spring.”
“It’s got to be better than this,” a Western Conference scout told Bontemps. “Ty Lue is a great coach. With Zubac, Harden and Kawhi, you’re just too talented to be this bad all season. You have to hold. We’ve only seen (22) games of it. Yes, it’s been terrible, but what can you do?”
Here’s more on the Clippers:
- Among the scouts and executives who told ESPN the Clippers should be in-season buyers, the general feeling was that their cap situation – which includes several expiring or pseudo-expiring contracts – puts them in a good position to go shopping for a “blue light special” before February’s deadline. “There will be teams who will be willing to dump players in two months,” one exec told Windhorst. “Guys who might be able to help them.”
- One scout who spoke to Bontemps specifically pointed to Kings guard Zach LaVine as a player who may appeal to the Clippers. LaVine would bring athleticism and give L.A. another scorer on the wing, and the cost would be modest — if the Clippers were to send out only expiring contracts, they might even be able to extract a draft pick from the Kings along with LaVine, who has a $49MM player option for next season, Bontemps writes. To clarify, there has been no reporting indiating that the Clips have interest in LaVine, so this is just speculation.
- Although Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has deep pockets and has never gone into rebuilding mode since buying the team in 2014, some rival executives are wondering whether the team will consider it in this case, especially since its cap situation is relatively favorable.“There are a lot of ways to use cap space, and if they don’t believe in this core they could really turn their team over in a year if they got flexibility,” an assistant GM told Windhorst. “You look at what they figured out in Phoenix. They had a team that was too old and turned over that roster and it changed their entire outlook.”
- One potential complication in a rebuilding scenario would be maximizing the return for veteran stars like Leonard and Harden on the trade market. The cap circumvention investigation into Leonard and his apparent no-show endorsement deal with Aspiration would limit the forward’s appeal, Bontemps writes. “James has maybe neutral value,” one Eastern Conference scout speculated. “Kawhi has negative value.”
- Asked this week whether the Clippers’ unexpected split with future Hall-of-Famer Chris Paul will diminish their reputation among players and agents, affecting their ability to recruit veteran stars in the future, president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said it’s important the Clippers “own it,” per Law Murray of The Athletic. “You give context to everything. I don’t think you hide from it,” Frank said. “… With that being said, you still have to do what’s right for the team and organization, and we still feel that we have a terrific organization. … We’ve had a really, really successful run during the regular season with different iterations of the team. Chris was a large part of it, and then we were able to get into the conference finals on the next iteration of team, and now we’re on the next iteration of the team. And I do think we have to earn our way every time. But I’m also very, very, very confident that this will always be a destination franchise as long as Steve is owning the team.”
Injury Notes: Sheppard, Dort, Caruso, Oubre, Hornets
Pacers guard Ben Sheppard has been diagnosed with a left calf strain and will be out for at least Friday’s game against Chicago, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link).
As Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star writes (subscriber link), the Pacers have been absolutely ravaged by injuries this season, particularly in the backcourt. Sheppard, a third-year guard out of Belmont, had been one the few exceptions to that — he was one of only four players on the roster — and the only guard — to play every game in 2025/26.
Sheppard had been playing some of his best basketball of the season recently, Dopirak notes. The 24-year-old primarily plays as a wing but had to man the point at times amid several injuries to teammates. In more of an off-ball role, he had 14 points (on 5-of-5 shooting), five rebounds, two assists and two steals in 18 minutes during Wednesday’s loss to Denver.
“He’s playing hard, he’s playing fast, he’s playing unselfish,” head coach Rick Carlisle said after Wednesday’s game. “He’s applying pressure full court. These are elements that we need. Him shooting the ball, 5-of-5 tonight is no surprise. He can shoot the ball. The key thing is that through all the challenges, he’s just remained true to who he is and stepped into the shots that are his shots. That’s his job to do and that’s everybody’s job to do.”
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Thunder wing Luguentz Dort will miss his second straight game on Friday due to a strained adductor, tweets Clemente Almanza of Thunder Wire. Oklahoma City faces Dallas tomorrow evening. Dort, a member of the All-Defensive First Team in 2024/25, missed five games earlier this season with an upper right trap strain. Thunder guard Alex Caruso will be out Friday as well — he’s dealing with a quad contusion which will cause him to miss his third straight contest.
- Veteran wing Kelly Oubre Jr., who is out with a sprained LCL in his left knee, will miss at least one more week, the Sixers announced today (Twitter link via Adam Aaronson of PhillyVoice.com). According to Philadelphia, Oubre is progressing well in his rebab. Oubre, who turns 30 next week, has missed the past eight games and will be out for at least three more.
- Collin Sexton was forced out of Wednesday’s game due to an injury, which has been diagnosed as a left quadriceps strain, per the Hornets (Twitter link). The 26-year-old guard has been ruled out of Friday’s game at Toronto. Three other Hornets — Tre Mann (right knee soreness), Brandon Miller (left shoulder) and Ryan Kalkbrenner (left ankle contusion) are questionable to play against the Raptors.
Northwest Notes: Murray, Strawther, Thunder, Kessler, Beringer
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray exited Monday’s game vs. Dallas due to a right ankle sprain, but it doesn’t sound as if the injury will require an extended absence. In fact, it may not cost Murray any games at all, as he has been listed as questionable to play on Wednesday in Indiana, tweets Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette.
While the update on Murray is good news for the Nuggets, the team is still down multiple starters (Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon), and is also missing reserve wing Julian Strawther, who could have been in line for an increased role if he were healthy. As Bennett Durando of The Denver Post writes (subscription required), Strawther will miss a ninth consecutive game on Wednesday due to a back injury, and it doesn’t sound as if he’s all that close to returning.
“He’s been doing minimal movement stuff,” head coach David Adelman said on Monday. “He was on the exercise machines today. I think it’s just a process of the (treatment) working and then seeing where it leads to, just through activity. (But) not basketball activity or physicality. So at this moment, I really don’t have any update on him, other than it was good to see him moving around.”
According to Adelman, there wasn’t a specific play on the court that caused Strawther’s injury.
“It wasn’t in-game. It was an off day after a game,” Adelman explained. “He just woke up with pain, and then it got considerably worse, to the point where anybody that’s had back issues — I have — it sucks. Like, you can’t do anything. No mobility. So we’re just trying to work our way through it.”
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Do the 21-1 Thunder have a legitimate chance to set a new NBA record by winning 74 games in 2025/26? Exploring that question, Sam Amick of The Athletic takes a look at how this year’s Thunder compare to the 73-win Warriors and notes that at least one member of that 2015/16 team believes Oklahoma City could break Golden State’s record. “I do think they’re capable,” Warriors forward Draymond Green told Amick on Tuesday. “You just need so many things to go right, though — from health, (although) they kind of plow right through health (issues), so it don’t matter, it seems. You need a lot of breaks to go your way, but they’re on the right track. I think 73 wins took some years off my life. But like I said, they’re capable of a lot.”
- In a feature story for ESPN.com, Anthony Slater does a deep dive on one key contributor to the Thunder‘s success, exploring Chet Holmgren‘s lengthy recovery from a fractured pelvis last season and outlining why the center and his teammates believe Holmgren will keep getting better.
- Jazz center Walker Kessler has remained “very engaged” while he recovers from a season-ending shoulder injury, taking part in practices and film sessions, head coach Will Hardy said this week, per Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. Kessler isn’t traveling with the team on road trips, but that will likely happen eventually. “We’ll address the travel part a little bit further into his rehab,” Hardy said. “… I want Walker around the team. Rehab can be very isolating, and I don’t think that’s good for Walker. But that’ll be a little bit further down the road as his rehab gets more established.”
- Timberwolves rookie Joan Beringer hasn’t gotten a chance to play much this fall, but a Western Conference scout tells Grant Afseth of RG.org, “People in that building rave about how willing he is to learn.” For his part, Beringer says he’s focused on making a defensive impact and not trying to do too much in the instances when he gets a little playing time. “If I play five, six, seven minutes, I try to be good in my role, and the coach pushes me in this way,” the 19-year-old big man said.