Anyone who has watched the Oklahoma City Thunder over the past few years knows the strength of Mark Daigneault’s team, aside from MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is its defense.
Of course, the team’s superstar guard is its leading catalyst, but Gilgeous-Alexander’s skills complimented by the Thunder’s defense helped OKC to a historic 2024-25 campaign. Oklahoma City won 68 regular season games en route to an NBA title despite a lackluster shooting performance in the playoffs as the team’s defense made up for missed shots.
The Thunder were rewarded for their defensive efforts, too, as Lu Dort and Jalen Williams eached earned All-Defense recognition. Chet Holmgren didn’t play in enough games to qualify for awards, but still notched an NBA-record 5 blocks in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP award may have come largely from his talets on offense, but the reigning MVP is also a solid defender. Alongside the aforementioned players, Isaiah Hartenstein, Cason Wallace and former All-Defense honoree Alex Caruso also contribute heavily to OKC’s high-level defense.
That defense is once again off to a great start, as the Thunder are 14-1 despite missing a number of key pieces throughout the season. Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, Holmgren, Dort and Caruso have all missed time this year, while Jalen Williams and Kenrich Williams have yet to play this year.
After seeing Oklahoma City’s defensive unit show its skills again, popular basketball media member Kenny Beecham thinkgs the Thunder have the best defense in NBA history.
“I will wholeheartedly say with my full chest that I believe this Thunder defense is the greatest defense ever,” Beecham said on his podcast, Small Ball. “The relative defense, this is the greatest, and it’s not even really close. … The connective tissue that this team plays with is insane when you consider a lot of those guys weren’t even rotational players last season. We’re currently seeing the best defense of all time, and because this team was already a historic defense last year, it seems like nobody cares to talk about it.”
Kenny crowning the 2025–’26 Thunder the greatest defensive team ever 👑 pic.twitter.com/ZoXvcwtg7O
— ENJ🏀Y (@EnjoyBBall) November 17, 2025
Beechum, who has more than 4 million followers on social media, points out that players like Brooks Barnhizer, Branden Carlson, Ajay Mitchell and others who weren’t key rotation players last season, have played with the same style and effort on defense that the team’s primary defenders display.
As a result, even with a number of injuries early in the season, the Thunder seem to have picked up right where they left off last year as a stout defensive squad.
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