The Oklahoma City Thunder have felt the wrath of taking everyone’s best punches this season, as they face the luxury of being the hunted.
50 games into the 2025-26 season, the Thunder have some apparent limitations that they must address if they want to become the first team since 2018 to win back-to-back titles.
Thunder’s limitations that need to be addressed before their path to repeating
Three-Point Shooting
The three-ball has been an issue for the Thunder over the last couple of seasons. Dating back to their second-round loss to the Dallas Mavericks in 2024, where they shot 33.5 percent from deep.
Even winning the championship last season, the Thunder shot 33.8 percent from deep. Ranking 13th of the 16 playoff teams, resulting in the Thunder being the worst shooting team to win the championship.
And now, here in 2026, the Thunder are 14th in three-point percentage at 35.9 percent from deep.
One could say this narrative may be changing the tide: the Thunder found their rhythm in their most recent win against the Denver Nuggets, with some players delivering signature performances that could be the turning point.
A way to fix this limitation is to leverage Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s gravity, allowing shooters to have more space on the perimeter. This could also be fixed by the Thunder being proactive at the trade deadline and bringing in additional perimeter shooting. Still, it’s more likely the Thunder will bank on internal positive regression.
Consistency with their Half-Court Offense
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander appears to be the lone consistent Thunder player this season, once again, averaging over 30 points per game on 55/39/89 shooting splits.
Ajay Mitchell appears to be the other consistent player, but he is a second-year player who has played in only 79 career NBA games and has yet to play in the playoffs in a significant role. Unfortunately, everyone else has not provided the consistency.
Jalen Williams was supposed to be the other consistent player; unfortunately, he has been plagued by injuries this season, affecting his production and timing.
Chet Holmgren is the other name many will mention, as he has the potential to be a 20+ point-per-game scorer on 50/40/90 shooting splits. However, he lacks consistency as a creator and producer at this stage of his career, which is a question mark outside of SGA, which is why the Thunder are in the middle of the pack in half-court offense.
Team Rebounding
Despite showing the ability to win the championship by forcing a high turnover rate while being outrebounded, this concept gives the Thunder less margin for error.
The Thunder are near the middle of the league in opponent offensive rebounding percentage and second-chance points.
This is a problem for the Thunder’s guards and wings, as they need to improve their gang rebounding to mitigate their overreliance on Isaiah Hartenstein and Holmgren. Outside of Hartenstein, there’s an apparent drop-off in physicality, as they lack size at forward. It is tough to turn this limitation into a strength without acquiring external help.
The current identity and philosophy led to a title, but one thing is clear… the Thunder have some work to do!
Main Image: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
