The Oklahoma City Thunder are 24-1 this season. That’s the best start to any season since the legendary Golden State Warriors did the same back in the 20125-16 season. They wound up winning the most regular-season games in NBA history (73), and while they didn’t cap it off with a championship, they still went down as one of the greatest teams of all time.
The parallels between the two teams are evident. They were both defending champions with a trio of up-and-coming, young stars, and they were both heavily criticized for their style of play. The Warriors were a jump-shooting team, and the Thunder has drawn criticism for their physicality and constant trips to the foul line.
More than that, they both had two players who were clearly ahead of the rest of the pack. Stephen Curry was the unanimous MVP, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is reaching Michael Jordan levels of scoring dominance.
As pointed out by Carson Breber of The Volume Sports, the Canadian guard has scored 61 points in his past 56 minutes on the court. He’s missed just six total shots, and he has a box-plus-minus of +67.
The Thunder have no rival in the league
Mark Daigneault’s team has a league-best Net Rating of +17.2. That means they’re outscoring their opposition by 17 points per 100 possessions, all that while Chet Holmgren and Shai sit for most of -- if not all of -- the fourth quarter.
This team showed no signs of slowing down when Jalen Wililams was out at the beginning of the season, and they’ve been as bruising and physical around the rim without Isaiah Hartenstein as well.
The Thunder are far from done adding talent
Former first-round pick Nikola Topic has yet to make his NBA debut because of injuries and his bout with cancer, but he’s also a potential All-Star just waiting in line to keep adding to their already-stacked roster.
If that wasn’t bad enough for the rest of the league, they also own the Los Angeles Clippers’ first-round selection this season, and it might be a top-5 pick if they don’t turn things around.
Sam Presti has stacked enough first and second-round draft selections to get any player he sets his sights on. He technically has enough firepower to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo if he wanted to, even though he would have to break up the core for salary-matching purposes.
It’s been a while since a team had the league in this type of chokehold. In all honesty, they might even break the 2015-16 Warriors’ record and actually finish the job in the NBA Finals.