Last week, Draymond Green made some eyebrow-raising remarks about this OKC Thunder team, particularly when it comes to their postgame interview antics.
On a December 31 episode of his podcast, The Draymond Green Show, the Golden State Warriors star had a few choice words for Oklahoma City's all-inclusive nature during on-court media sessions after winning games this year, saying that it's "a little alarming" seeing all these Thunder players swarming on top of one another for, in his eyes, "the bromance " doesn't help their intimidation factor.
Though Green is an established winner in the association, as he's been a part of four separate NBA Championship runs and has played in a total of six NBA Finals, to the franchise's faithful followers these comments were viewed more as a reach by a rival player who, quite frankly, seems to be running out of negative things to say about the undefeated Thunder than anything else
On Monday, during a post-practice media session, some of OKC's own talents publicly went about and echoed this kind of sentiment, particularly beloved 3-and-D wing, Luguentz Dort who clapped back at the four-time All-Star's statements by proudly and prominently saying "we're not going to change for nobody."
Luguentz Dort claps back at Draymond Green's Thunder remarks
"I'm focused on what we're doing here. I don't really pay attention to that type of stuff... It's a comment like any other comment on TV. We'll just keep working on what we're doing. That's how we are," Dort said.
Green seemed to place a large emphasis on the notion that he believes the Thunder may be negatively impacting their "fear" status across the league with their post-game actions which, to the forward, is something "you have to instill in teams in order to win."
However, Dort would suggest that what has the most impact on their intimidation factor as a collective is what they do during a contest, not what happens after.
"I don't think this has anything to do with how we act after the game. At the end of the day, we're going to play the way we play and if a team fears us or not, we're gonna keep doing what we're doing and do everything that we can do to stack wins. However we do that, we're going to focus on how we want to win games," Dort said.
So far, it seems quite clear that this beyond the buzzer joy that the Thunder showcase has not negatively impacted their successes on the hardwood. Through two weeks of action, Oklahoma City is one of only two teams still sporting an undefeated record (6-0) and ranks first in defensive rating (95.1), second in net rating (17.4), and second in plus-minus (17.7) as a team.
While it's worth noting that the season is still so young and that the playoffs are clearly a different beast both mentally and physically, should they keep up this high-end level of two-way play while adding a few of their core players into the rotation who, at the moment, have yet to log a single minute as they recover from injuries, it's hard to see many faults in this title-hopeful's game.
If their on-court interview shenanigans are the most "alarming" thing about this Thunder squad, they're in a great position as they make their way through 2024-25.