The vibes around this OKC Thunder team are immaculate

The Oklahoma City Thunder are off to a great start, especially compared to their expectation level. The OKC Thunder are flirting with a spot in the NBA Play-in tournament and only sit a game and a half out of the 6th seed in the topsyturvy Western Conference, which not many people envisioned for the OKC Thunder this season.

The Thunder have watched as their max contract guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has turned himself into a superstar in this league. Averaging over 30 points a night, with five rebounds, and five assists a contest. Josh Giddey has looked every bit the part of an All-Star level player in this league since December 1st, and since the turn of the new year, OKC has turned in some of the best offensive production in the league.

The youngest team in the NBA and second youngest team in NBA history (only ahead of last year’s Thunder squad) are making a lot of noise ahead of schedule. The Oklahoma City Thunder are without their second overall pick in Chet Holmgren, saw another one of their three lottery picks from the 2022 Draft Class (Ousmane Dieng) miss extended time, and have been playing without a true center since the middle of December as Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Aleksej Pokusevski each are shelved for an extended period.

All of that adversity has not stopped the OKC Thunder from taking a bit of a leap and forcing the National Media to discuss them as legitimate threats to make the postseason and not disregard them and dismiss them as part of the tanking pile of irrelevant teams.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are ahead of schedule and are playing great basketball recently, as the vibes are immaculate around the OKC Thunder

Mark Daigneault is having this team play to their identity and everyone is buying into their roles which results in a relentless cohesive unit that plays a brand of basketball that every Thunder fan can be proud of.

Not only have the players bought in on the floor, but off the floor, the group is tight-knit with incredible personalities and comradery.

While having a college atmosphere, bench celebrations, and funny social media interactions do not win you any games, it certainly helps for a team that hopes to be built on sharing the wealth and playing a team style of basketball. There may not be a stat to track about this, but we have seen many teams fall apart because they did not have this level of bond off the floor.