Heading into the 2026-27 season, the OKC Thunder find themselves rostering a slew of promising young talents who are eager to show their skills on the hardwood and, with this, prove themselves worthy of serving as consistent contributors for the reigning top seeds.
While on-court production is certainly important, what they're willing to do off the floor may be what helps them ingratiate themselves with Sam Presti and Mark Daigneault.
During Monday's media day, coach Daigneault revealed that the primary way in which this Thunder organization evaluates young prospects is by envisioning them "with the team watching film."
While Oklahoma City is already undeniably one of the most talented clubs in the association today and have proven themselves capable of successfully runing the playoff gauntlet and winning an NBA Championship, from the front office and their star talents to green project players at the end of the bench, the goal unanimously shared by this team is to consistently grow and improve.
Putting in hours on the court is only half the battle, and for someone like Presti, it's not even the most important half.
Instead, what truly matters out in OKC is the time spent in the film room and how one analyzes a practice.
Desire to improve starts from the top of Thunder pecking order
Even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, easily the best player on the Thunder and arguably the best in the entire world, abides by this sentiment to always look for ways to improve.
As he acknowledged during media day, "Every summer I try to get better at something." This offseason, it was his desire to improve his off-ball offensive play that took up his time.
While suiting up for Team Canada for this summer's FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifying rounds, coach Gordie Herbert opened up about SGA's aim to sharpen his off-ball production, noting that mastering the craft should only make him "tougher to guard."
This should send shivers down the spines of opposing teams and players, as he's already widely regarded as one of the most dominant players the game currently has to offer, what with his historic scoring abilities and criminally underrated defensive chops.
Of course, even with his current offensive dominance, his play is largely geared toward isolation sets, where he just led all players with 522 total points scored and ranked in the 92.6 percentile last season. Adding a more refined off-ball element should only make him even more dangerous.
As the legendary Pat Riley was famous for saying, "If you're not getting better, you're getting worse." Clearly, this sentiment is shared by this Thunder team, and it's instilled from the top down.
Add us as a preferred source on Google