The OKC Thunder have received quite a bit of attention as of late regarding their relationship and camaraderie as a collective.
Infamously, the ball club has regularly found their players jumping in on one another during post-game interviews following a win, often seeing as many as five-to-seven Oklahoma City players huddled up at once.
Recently, these antics were denigrated by Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green during an episode of his eponymous podcast, The Draymond Green Show, labeling it as "alarming," as he noted there's "a certain seriousness that it takes to win in this league" and that "all the bromance" may be counter-productive in this particular aspect.
However, despite his take on the matter, it is not the end-all-be-all stance among players who have come across great levels of success in the association.
During a November 5 episode of The Young Man and the Three podcast, former All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year, Joakim Noah heaped praise upon this Thunder team for their sensational on-court efforts and specifically highlighted the importance of their brand of cohesion, as it naturally helps improve their chemistry on both ends of the ball.
Joakim Noah praises OKC Thunder for their overall camaraderie
"There are guys who get a lot of deflections and you can just tell as a team they like each other. On the defensive end, when it's a vocal team like that and you got Chet who's definitely taken that next step, and then you also got that big boy Hartenstein who's coming in. They're not even fully healthy. It's going to be really interesting to see what this team looks like," Noah said.
Noah would continue on with his praise-filled segment on Oklahoma City to stress the importance of "connectivity" on the defensive side of the ball and stressed that, with how they've been playing as of late, they're truly shaping up to be a "dangerous" threat in the league.
This stance by the former 13-year veteran is backed up not just by the eye-test but, frankly, the advanced metrics, as the Thunder have already shown to be truly lethal on the defensive end, ranking first in steals (13.4), blocks (7.3), opponent points (99.4), and defensive rating (96.5).
Prior to Wednesday's loss to the Denver Nuggets, they had also become the first team in NBA history to kick off a season 7-0 while besting their opponents by a double-digit lead by game's end.
Though Dubs star Draymond Green may see OKC's "bromance" as being potentially hazardous for to their title hopes, Joakim Noah is of the belief that it's played a major role in their early season excellence on the less glamorous side of the ball and, as the old saying goes, defense wins championships.
Perhaps only time will tell which of the two mentalities will wind up proving to be correct.