The Thunder Need to Re-Find Their Defensive Energy
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Once upon a time, the Oklahoma City Thunder were showing teams a top-10 defense nightly. They’ve also shown incredible offense that has put up 120+ points with ease. Both of those characteristics can be pointed at a few lead guys one way or another.
Think defense, Darius Bazley and Aleksej Pokusevski have put together a solid interior presence while Lu Dort and Shai Gileous-Alexander looked solid with their perimeter defense. The guys on the team with less talent have shown great energy that’s helped the defense be able to take a step forward.
The defensive energy, however, has seemed to take a step back. It’s visual on the court, and it’s important that Gilgeous-Alexander leads the energy on defense, because to see your star point guard, which averages nearly 30 points per game, is a statement and proves his leadership while his younger team follows.
The Thunder has got the youth to be able to harass teams on that side of the ball, and they’ve got to have pride in that when playing a more experienced team. If they can disrupt the opposing offense in the slightest while playing the level of offense they’ve been able to lately, they’re going to be able to continue to surprise people this season, and not so much by playing good teams close, but beating them.
However, the Thunder have had to deal with inconsistencies in the lineups, and while some of that is head coach Mark Daigneault experimenting, injuries have come at unfortunate times and gets the squad out of rhythm.
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