Three weeks into the season, and the league is starting to reveal its character. The Oklahoma City Thunder are showing that defending a championship might be less about avoiding complacency and more about reinforcing what already works. Guards like Tyrese Maxey and Cade Cunningham aren't just filling stat sheets—they're forcing defenses to choose between bad options. And after an offensive explosion to start the year, defenses are finding their footing with tactical adjustments that go beyond traditional schemes. Here are three things I've been noticing when I watch games.
1. The Thunder Aren't Playing Like Champions—They're Playing Like the Thunder
What I'm seeing when I watch Oklahoma City is a team that hasn't changed its approach because winning a title validated what they were already doing. They're 8-1 through their first nine games, their best start in franchise history, and they've done it while navigating a minefield of injuries. Jalen Williams hasn't played a single minute this season while recovering from offseason wrist surgery.
The injury situation reached its peak in their most recent game against Portland, where they were without Chet Holmgren (lower back strain), Alex Caruso (rest on a back-to-back), and Lu Dort (right upper trap strain). That's three regular starters sitting out. Head coach Mark Daigneault responded by starting second-year guard Ajay Mitchell for the first time this season, alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, and Isaiah Hartenstein. They lost that game, but the fact that they were even competitive while fielding such a depleted lineup speaks to their depth.
But here's what stands out to me about their first eight wins: four of their first six games were within five points in the final five minutes, with the first two going to overtime. They're not blowing teams out—they're grinding. And when games tighten, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has a clutch usage rate of 47.6%, the second-highest among players with at least 10 clutch minutes. That number jumped from 37% last season. The Thunder are deliberately putting the ball in his hands when it matters most, and that's not desperation—that's design.
Defensively, they're doing what championship teams do: maintaining their identity even when the rotation shifts. The Thunder were the top-rated defense in the NBA last season, and they're leading the league in defensive rating again this year—all with Jalen Williams sidelined due to injury. They're compact, they rotate with purpose, and they don't give up easy looks at the rim. When you can shuffle lineups and still suffocate opponents, that's not luck—that's culture.
My takeaway: The Thunder aren't trying to reinvent themselves after winning a title. They're reinforcing what already worked. If you want to beat them, you'll need both elite shot creation and the depth to survive their defensive pressure for 48 minutes. Most teams don't have both.