Brian Windhorst: Other teams, players don’t respect the Oklahoma City Thunder

Brian Windhorst: Other teams, players don’t respect the Oklahoma City Thunder

While the Oklahoma City Thunder ran away with the No. 1 seed in the West and have been the best team in the NBA all season, they are still not commanding the necessary respect among foes in the West, according to ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst.

“I’m not even arguing [the Oklahoma City Thunder] are a lock or they are one of the great teams in the last decade, but my god there is an incredible amount of disrespect for this team,” Windhorst said earlier this week to Chris Russo and Stephen A. Smith on First Take. “I hear it every day. I hear it implicitly from other people I talk to in the league, I hear it implicitly from players out there who are like, ‘Yeah, yeah will be fine on the same side of the bracket as OKC.’ They just don’t respect them.”

Oklahoma City is on track to become the first 67-win team since the Golden State Warriors in 2016-17, their first season with Kevin Durant. It owns the NBA’s fourth-best offense with one of the most dominant defenses in this era (106.2 DRTG), allowing over three points fewer per 100 possessions relative to the next-best team (Magic – 109.3)–as big of a gap as it is from No. 2 to 12.

That has also come without third-year star Chet Holmgren, who’s been limited to just 21 games this season due to injury. They have several multi-positional, versatile defenders who generate an insane amount of deflections (league-best 17.3 oTOV%). OKC flies all over the court every single night no matter what.

The Thunder were brushed away in six games in the Western Conference semifinals last year by the Dallas Mavericks. While I do think they are better and more well-rounded, they still have their flaws.

OKC still isn’t “big” outside of Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein; while arguable MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the best pure three-level shotmakers in the sport, there aren’t many outside of him and Jalen Williams who can create their own shot when the offense breaks down; they are a good (not great) spot-up shooting team and are a bottom-third rebounding team. A wise man once said: “No rebounds, no rings!”

However, I still think the Thunder are the clear favorite out of the West and should have more respect than they do. They have so much functional depth and are incredibly well connected on both ends of the floor. When the game becomes more of a halfcourt warfare, they are one of the best at finding ways to win. That matters in the postseason.

You still have to play the games. If the Thunder can stay healthy, they should have as good of a chance as anyone to make noise in the summer. We will see how it all pans out, but I am not discounting them one bit–nor should anyone.

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