OKC Thunder Have Clear Path To Postseason

Just over 50% through the 2022-23 season, the Oklahoma City Thunder are playing their best basketball and are one of the hottest teams in the NBA. Despite being the youngest roster in the league, they’ve put together a record of 22-23 to this point and sit at ninth in the Western Conference.

It’s all above improvement and playing your best basketball at the right time, which has been the case for Oklahoma City since the turn of the calendar year. In the month of January, the Thunder are 7-2 with the NBA’s best bet rating (+12.4) and quickly climbing the standings.

Since the start of 2023, Oklahoma City has shot 40.4% from deep while dishing out 27.8 assists per game. The Thunder offense is as efficient as it’s been in years, with the team producing 124.2 points per game and 121.7 per 100 possessions.

While this recent stretch of games has been the peak of Oklahoma City’s 2022-23 campaign, the season as a whole has also been extremely impressive.

When looking at the Thunder through all 45 games this season, they boast a top 20 offense, top 10 defense and top 12 net rating. They’ve gotten contributions from the top to the bottom of the roster, as the depth and talent of the second youngest team in the history of the league has shined bright. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has emerged as a star while Josh Giddey, Lu Dort and Jalen Williams compliment him in the starting lineup perfectly.

This 22-23 record means Oklahoma City would make the play-in tournament if the season ended today, but is also half a game out of the sixth seed in the West which would guarantee a spot in the playoffs.

There’s reason for optimism moving forward for this Thunder team. There shouldn’t be expectations that they’ll be as productive as they have been since the start of the month, but the collective body of work this season would suggest they’re good enough to maintain a spot in the postseason race the rest of the way.

Furthermore, Oklahoma City has the easiest remaining schedule in the NBA the rest of the season, according to Tankathon and several other models. While this doesn’t guarantee the Thunder will have success, as every team around the league has the talent to be competitive on any given night, it is promising.

The 37 remaining games this season for the Thunder will be against teams with a cumulative record under .500 to this point in the season. This includes several games against the bottom teams in the league, with three contests against the Houston Rockets as well as the San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets each once.

Additionally, OKC has already played the majority of its back-to-backs and three games in four nights scenarios. The rest of the way, there should be adequate rest for the team. There will also be a good amount of home games, with the season’s longest road trips already out of the way for the Thunder.

The roster will also continue to get more healthy as the season goes on. The Thunder have been without key frontcourt pieces in Aleksej Pokusevski, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Ousmane Dieng for several weeks now. As they make their way back onto the court, Oklahoma City’s lack of height will be somewhat offset.

It’s unclear exactly how sustainable the Thunder’s play of late has been, but all signs point towards them having a path forward towards making at least the play-in tournament. Oklahoma City’s next five games will be some of the toughest the rest of the way, so a successful stretch over the next week and a half could only further solidify that happening.