[Highlight] Oklahoma City Thunder with a great lockdown defensive possession against the Suns, as it ends Shai Gilgeous-Alexander poking the ball away from Devin Booker, forcing Booker to take a heave attempt from the backcourt
Legion of boom
I just like how well we switch on defense it feels like they come on waves
SGA’s defense here is elite. Helps on the drive while maintaining contact with the dunker and closes out without committing and then putting pressure on the ball.
SGA is a legit 50/40/90 guy playing all nba level defense
Is the 90 the free throws he gets a game?
It’s the number of tears you have right now
Ah. Weird stat
Best defense of all time idc anymore im dying on this hill
Nope bulls
I mean out of any all time defense this just isn’t the right one to bring up
Russell’s Celtics, Duncan’s Spurs, or 04 Pistons are all better options to compete with 24-26 Thunder
I think tracking data for defensive efficiency goes back to 97, at least pbpstats only go that far.
Since then, Spurs really have been a class of their own. They have 4 of the top 10 seasons when it comes to relative defensive efficiency. 1999, 2004, 2005, 2016.
4 teams in the span of 17 years is absolutely crazy work.
Last season’s OKC had a historic defense and barely cracked the top 10 when the season ended.
(This year’s team is currently ranked first but I expect that to go down as the season goes along)
bulls didn’t really have the best defense of the 90s, though obviously they were the best team; they led in defensive rating in ‘96, but the knicks did so three years in a row and never dropped below 4th during jordan’s entire peak.
you could definitely also make a case for hakeem on his own, lmao
Yep, I see OKC winning another chip this year. This is what Nico saw in his dreams “defense wins championships”.
I still have to see them surpass Denver in a series before I’m really ready to cement that. They’re loaded with talent, they were loaded last year and still got put to 7 against the best player in the game right now
Am I high, or did this same 19-1 Thunder team beat the Nuggets last year on their way to a championship?
It’s the Nuggets who have to prove they can get pass OKC, not the other way around.
Do you guys just actively hate parity? I’m not saying the Thunder aren’t the favorite, just that I don’t think them hoisting a banner is decided until they’ve surpassed Denver. Vice versa. I get it’s Reddit but can we talk like humans at a bar discussing sports and not like chronic online basketball enjoyers stuck in an echo chamber?
Edit: quickly decided that we can’t, it’s OKC running away with it so no need to even think critically about the game. Reddit in doods lmao
What do they have to do to surpass Denver? Beat them twice?
I wonder if the Nuggets fan who felt sorry for me for thinking that our defense is good is doing okay this evening.
Well they lost to a Wemby-less Spurs tonight so safe to say he’s not doing well and I’m all here for it
DIRTY, MAULING, PHYSICALLY ASSAULTING!!
/s right?
In all my years of watching basketball, I can’t remember a better and more active defense. Everyone just moving on a string!
Enjoy your second year of watching basketball next year!
who was better in specifically 2024 lmao
Read this post and the comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/XxHEjP0m5d
don’t see how this is related; your argument is that there was a better defense than okc in 2024 specifically. who was it?
OKC don’t play classically good defence, Presti and Daigneault have done a world class job of identifying that what’s more important is playing aggressive defence, because the gain in turnovers outweights the relatively small number of fouls being called per fouls actually committed
we’re in a thread below a clip of them playing classically good defense, which is kinda hard to ignore.
they’re ninth in fouls this year, which is high enough, but you’d think if they really were fouling that aggressively they’d be above teams like the celtics or pacers, who are bottom third in the league in steals. the thunder are tied for first in that stat with the (actually pretty good) suns, who draw the most fouls in the league.
the pacers are second, and absolutely swarmed okc in the finals, playing pretty much the exact style of defense you describe. it worked well for them! but i mainly see it as something you can get away with in the playoffs, when the whistle is a lot more hesitant - if fouls are up by as much as your link argues, why aren’t okc’s?
at the very least, the other teams taking cues from that supposed style should be able to close the six (!) point gap in defensive rating. the second ranked team in that stat, the heat, are closer to the 20th (the sixers) than the thunder. notably, the suns are outside the top 10, so that aggressive defense clearly doesn’t work for everyone!
at a certain point you have to acknowledge that this is baseline a very good - and disciplined - defensive team that’s capable of executing where others can’t.
I think both things can be true - the Thunder have a team of athletes who play very good defence, which is based on and enhanced by over aggression.
Other teams will catch up - the point of the other post is that teams are only just starting to adjust to think about playing the same way. Give it a couple of years when loads of teams are doing it and the league will legislate it out. OKC still will still have a great defence, but players like Dort will be unplayable.
it’s definitely not mandatory to like them; i’m more than fine with letting you off with that opinion and we can both see how this shakes out in a couple years. but hopefully i’ve given some indication of how unusually well they’re playing even within that style.
the clip above is a good example of what they do well. daigneault coaches them to keep their hands way back when the ball handler is driving and only reach - primarily outside, away from the chest itself - when the opponent resets and starts sizing the defense up in a backwards direction. other teams trying to copy okc won’t take advantage of that momentum shift and will instead just go all in with both hands on drives, which’ll get you called for a foul every time. not every overly aggressive defensive play is a foul!
in the same way, shai pressures booker hard into the backcourt, but stays away from the ball itself, cause he doesn’t need to risk getting tangled up like that when the clock’s running out. he keeps that pressure on when booker reclaims the ball, but stays to one side, so he still feels strongly defended and unable to focus on getting a proper shot up, but there’s no chance of giving up a shooting foul on a long heave. it’s all split second and takes better instincts than it looks. it’s all about playing as aggressively as possible while not actually fouling as much as your opponents think you do - players like jokic get incredibly frustrated, and i would too.
Hmm, I think the Thunder are a bit handsier than you’re suggesting here (especially in use of the off arm for leverage on defence) but I respect the insight. The only other thing I’d add is that where OKC are so aggressive in the backcourt they get away with calls against them when the opponent drives, which is frustrating to watch if you’re not a fan.
Ultimately what makes the Thunder such a frustrating team to watch overall is that they play world class defence and offence without gaming the rules, but we’ll never know how good they really are at either given that so much of their play is predicated on gaming the rules.
Holy hell, the ways to keep putting down okc are hilarious. Shai’s not good he’s a free throw merchant, unethical baller. Now we’re saying this defense isn’t good, it’s not ‘Classic’ good defense. This fucking sub man
no where to hide
I can’t see the fucking ball wtf is this court
SGA is a solid defender, but how was this not a foul here?
Right before he gets the steal, his whole left hand is grabbing Booker’s torso. He literally pushes him while he goes for the steal.
It’s marginal. Do you really think that his hand being there impeded bookers progress? It didn’t. And even if you wanted to say it did, Shai had poked the ball loose by that point.
I see the hands touching his torso but that’s not a foul unless he pushes. Can you show the time on the video where you see the push?
But it’s a foul for Shai when he drives and the defender puts a hand on him?🤔🤔
Yes because when it’s a live dribble it’s different than a shooting motion. Defenders have their hands on Shai’s torso etc all the time and that’s when Shai will go into his shooting motion to bait the foul.
Booker obviously isn’t going to bait a foul from halfcourt. Thought a Knicks fan would understand by now
A foul on who?
Because it was okc committing the foul, if it was Shai it’d be a foul and you legit can’t argue it anymore
Bro u cant even expect the league to make sense anymore when it comes to this team.
If SGA is guarded the way Lu Dort guards his opponents, he will be shooting 40 FTS a game.
For some reason the league just wants to promote this trash ass product.