Last season, the OKC Thunder thrust themselves into the record books by becoming the youngest team in league history to clinch a number one seed in a conference standings and win a playoff series.
Now, in this follow-up campaign, it seems Oklahoma City is once again on pace toward accomplishing historic feats, though, this time, they may be more individual-based rather than collective.
Through this first quarter of action, both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams have found themselves playing lights out basketball.
Naturally, this statement is quite evident when considering the fact that, despite the club's wide-spread injuries, the tandem has managed to guide the Thunder to the third-best record in the entire association at 16-5 and ownership of the top seed in the West.
However, further examination of both Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams reveals that they both are trending toward highly prestigious territories.
OKC Thunder duo currently on pace to accomplish historic feats
Over his last three years, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has quietly become one of the game's most effective scoring threats, as he finished 2022-23 off with 31.4 points per game and 2023-24 with 30.1 points per game.
Through 21 games played, the 26-year-old is right on the cusp of posting these kinds of averages yet again, as he's currently sporting 29.8 points per game. Should this number increase by a mere .2 points by the campaign's end, SGA would become just the 10 player in the NBA's 77 years of existence to average 30 or more points in three consecutive seasons.
The nine who have already accomplished such an achievement:
* Michael Jordan
* Wilt Chamberlain
* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
* Oscar Robertson
* Elgin Baylor
* Adrian Dantley
* Bob McAdoo
* James Harden
* Joel Embiid
To say this club is elite would be an egregious understatement, and having someone like Shai join their ranks would be a major accomplishment for the rising superstar. That said, this isn't even the most exclusive company that a Thunder player is trending toward joining, as Jalen Williams' production is inching toward entering into a class of one.
Logging 31.8 minutes a night, J-Dub is posting career-best averages virtually all across the board with 21.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.1 steals, and roughly a block per game while sporting a true shooting percentage of 60.0 percent.
To put into perspective just how wild these numbers are, the only player in league history to finish a season with these kinds of averages is Michael Jordan back in 1990-91.
Now, granted, there are still 61 games left to be played, which leaves a ton of opportunities for the numbers for both of these studs to fluctuate.
Nevertheless, this shouldn't take away from just how special Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams have been amid the turbulence that has come throughout the 2024-25 NBA season.