Through five months of regular season action, the OKC Thunder have established themselves as the best team in the association.
From boasting the top record in the association at 59-12 and locking up their second-straight number-one seed in the Western Conference to registering in with the best net rating and plus/minus on the year, it's more than apparent that this ball club has been playing like a well-oiled machine throughout 2024-25.
Yet, despite all their successes and accomplishments to this point, Oklahoma City is still being overlooked by many as a serious title threat.
Considering their lack of experience and widespread injury woes, it should come as no surprise that the Thunder have many doubting their current ability to run the postseason gamut.
However, often the more popular and buzz-worthy reasons given for this skepticism have either been misguided or flat-out farces.
Frankly, at this point in time, the only factor that should really give fans pause regarding OKC's championship aspirations is whether Jalen Williams and/ or Chet Holmgren can show up on the offensive end come playoff time.
Can Chet Holmgren or Jalen Williams show up on offense for Thunder?
As has been regularly highlighted throughout this year's campaign, the Thunder have been heavily reliant on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's offensive contributions.
With their superstar on the floor, the team boasts an elite 121.9 offensive rating and is dropping averages of 123.4 points per 100 possessions while plummeting to a putrid 110.1 rating and 113.5 points per 100 possessions without him on the floor.
Sadly, this isn't a new trend for OKC, as they experienced such hardships during last year's ill-fated two-round playoff run by seeing their already struggling 110.8 offensive rating and averages of 123.2 points per 100 possessions with SGA on the floor fall substantially to a 104.9 offensive rating and 113.2 points per 100 possessions with him off of it.
This inefficiency seems to have directly correlated with Williams and Holmgren's stark drop-off in production from their 2023-24 regular season play, particularly from the latter, who went from 16.5 points per game on 37.0 percent shooting from beyond the arc to 15.6 points on a horrid 26.0 percent shooting from deep.
With the two of them on the floor without Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder saw just 111.2 points per 100 possessions and a negative point differential.
Fortunately, what seems to be boding well for the Thunder in this follow-up season is that they've significantly improved in this department, as they are averaging a mesmerizing 126.2 points per 100 possessions with J-Dub and Holmgren serving as 1A and 1B and sport a ridiculous point differential of +32.
That said, such production has come in just 237 total possessions.
Now, with just a few weeks remaining of regular season play and Jalen Williams' ongoing injury-induced absence, opportunities to get more run with these two serving as focal points will be limited.
The big question heading into the playoffs is whether this level of success is sustainable or if it's merely been inflated by a small sample size.
How Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren produce on the offensive end will likely have the biggest impact on the Thunder's title push this year.