Top 4 storylines emerging for Thunder through first month of the season

The OKC Thunder have gotten off to a blistering hot start to the 2024-25 NBA season, winning nine of their first 11 games and ranking within the top five in numerous key statistical categories such as blocks, steals, and net rating.

As things currently stand, they are tied for the top record in the Western Conference and are third in the league's most recently updated power rankings.

Of course, despite the noteworthy success they've endured as a collective, along the way a combination of positive and negative storylines have been linked to Oklahoma City, with five, in particular, being ones that fans should be well aware of after roughly a month of action.

OKC Thunder storylines emerging through first month of season

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has officially entered the superstar conversation

While Thunder fans may have already understood just how great of a player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is, it seems like the rest of the league is finally starting to find this out for themselves.

All season long, the point guard has been receiving praise left and right from pundits, players, and coaching staff alike for his sensational on-court abilities and the overall impact his efforts have on winning ways.

Monday, LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue finally put into words what everyone else across the league is thinking: The Thunder stud is, in fact, a superstar.

"Shai's [an] extreme talent. He's playing the game the right way. If you double-team him he's going to make the right pass, if you don't he's skilled enough to get his own shot off anytime," Lue said.

Following up a spectacular 2023-24 season where he finished second in the running for league MVP, Gilgeous-Alexander finds himself off to yet another sensational start during this year's follow-up as he's averaging 27.8 points, 6.5 assists, 5.5 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.1 blocks on 50.0 percent shooting from the floor while showing off his new-found pull-up abilities out on the perimeter.

At this point, it's undeniable that the Thunder guard is soundly in the superstar discussion.

2. Oklahoma City is the best defense in the league

Adding guys like Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein to a Thunder unit that ranked fourth in defensive rating a year ago led many to believe that Mark Daigneault's ball club would find themselves in contention for the label of the best defensive group in the entire league in 2024-25.

So far, these lofty expectations have been met.

As things currently stand, Oklahoma City ranks first in the league in blocks (77), steals (136), opponent points per game (105.2), opponent field goal percentage (42.6), and defensive rating (102.6) while finding four players rank within the top-15 in the association in defensive rating.

This alone is unbelievably encouraging production, but considering they've managed to do so without the help of their shot-swatting free-agency pickup in Hartenstein, it manages to become that much more impressive.

3. Jalen Williams has officially addressed his biggest area of weakness

After a breakout sophomore season in 2023-24, many were hoping to see Jalen Williams take yet another step forward in his career trajectory heading into year three by, specifically, addressing arguably his biggest area of weakness -- isolation scoring.

Last year, the forward struggled mightily to create his own shot, especially during OKC's ill-fated round two matchup against the Dallas Mavericks where he converted on a lowly 38.5 percent of his unassisted field goal attempts compared to a highly efficient 61.5 percent mark on assisted shots.

Throughout the offseason it was reported that J-Dub had been working on his craft as a self-creator, and, through these first 11 games of the year, it seems more than apparent that this hard work has paid off.

From his uptick in isolation sets to his seemingly improved ability to dribble his way into clean scoring looks, Williams is showing that he's ready to become the de facto second scoring option behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and his new career-high averages of 19.9 points on 15.9 attempts and 4.5 long-range field goal attempts per game are clear signs of this.

4. Chet Holmgren's expected to be out through mid-January... what's next?!

Sunday night, the OKC Thunder were hit with some harsh injury news, as it was reported that cornerstone big man Chet Holmgren sustained an iliac wing fracture in his right hip and will require eight to ten weeks to recover.

Not only is this a major blow for the team due to the fact that they'll now be without one of their star contributors through at least January, but it comes at a time when Oklahoma City's depth at the five is already absolutely barren, as both Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams have been sidelined since the preseason.

As a result of their lack of reinforcements, coach Daigneault opted to go with an obscenely small starting lineup during their first game sans Hartenstein, slotting 6-foot-5 Jalen Williams in at center.

This experimental unit ultimately proved successful, as OKC managed to pull out a hard-fought win over the LA Clippers, but the eye test suggested that it may not be a strategy meant to last.

Will the Thunder simply keep things this way until one of their many hobbled centers makes their way back to the hardwood? Should the franchise look to add some external commodities to help bolster their frontcourt?

Only time will tell what the ball club's strategy will be moving forward.