OKC Thunder's Specialty as Defensive Unit Illuminates Individual Contributions

As a unit, the Oklahoma City Thunder defense has been as good as anyone's and is going to be as good as anyone's for the remainder of the season heading into the playoffs.

With the depth, versatility and capability to adapt with star players out, the defending NBA champions have discovered a way to manage a 17-1 record 18 games into the season—all without one of its top defenders in Jalen Williams who is still recovering from his wrist procedure.

Now ineligible for postseason honors, Williams' return will certainly be felt. But as it stands, this team is more than impressive. They've been dominant thus far, and large part has been to that wall of a defense head coach Mark Daigneault and his players have been able to curate early along in the season.

Last year's Daigneault defense was also masterful, but it's improved even more when looking at the pace this Thunder defense is competing.

The Thunder broke an NBA record with the highest point differential in the league a year ago, beating teams by 12.9 points on average in the regular season. At this point into the 2025-26 campaign, this team has mounted a 16.9 point differential, four points more than the NBA record the team just broke the year prior.

And with its defense barely letting up over 100 points a game on average thus far at 102.8, its defensive rating is easy to see why this team has been able to manufacture these large leads with its high-powered offense.

A lot of it has to do with individual talent, and that can be seen in the metrics as well—of course, defense is a team function. But with guys like Ajay Mitchell, Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren, guys who have a knack for defense, this type of talent is what helps make a well-coached defense like this so great.

Among players who have played at least 10 games on the year, Oklahoma City boasts eight players in the top 20 of defensive rating. Meaning, they've let up the least amount of points on their given assignment.

Caruso stands tall at no. 1 in this category, both in the NBA and for the Thunder. Following Caruso is second-year man Mitchell, then by Holmgren, Isaiah Joe, Jaylin Williams, Cason Wallace, Chris Youngblood and Isaiah Hartenstein. These type of talents are integral to this defense, and it's been noticed.

As Oklahoma City prepares for a back-to-back championship season, this defense is going to need to retain that talent and effort moving forward, and likely will.