For the four years prior to the 2019-2020 season, Oklahoma City was primarily known as a team with a guy that would go for a triple-double almost every night and four other guys on the floor to help fill up the stat sheet.
Though that narrative changed somewhat with the addition of Paul George, the Thunder were still pretty much the Russell Westbrook show.
Things are different this year.
Despite not having a player averaging over 20 points per game, the Thunder are thriving.
The vibe in the locker room has changed. Players are being held more accountable. And the stat sheet reflects that.
Oklahoma City has three players in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, and Dennis Schroder who are almost identical (in Gallo and Schroder’s case, exactly identical) in scoring, averaging 19.5 and 19.3 points per game, respectively.
Not far behind them in Chris Paul, putting up 17.4 a contest.
No one player outranks the other, yet they can all take over a game any given night.
At 33-22 heading into Friday’s game against the Denver Nuggets, of those 55 games, it’s been almost an even split for leading scorer: Schroder has the most with 17, following by SGA with 14, Gallinari with 11, and Paul with 10.
Schroder told Erik Horne of The Athletic that the credit for the unselfish mentality of the team has to go to Billy Donovan.
“I’ve never seen three elite point guards being on the same team having that much joy, coming out and playing for each other than all the weapons we have on this team. To bring that on the same page and everybody playing like we’re playing is unbelievable. We’ve got to keep getting better ever day and it’s going to be a problem (for the opposition)”.
More from Dennis Schroder today on Billy Donovan/last year to this year. So there's no discrepancy, the questions Schroder was asked are typed out word-for-word. H/T @BradyDoesSports on the second question: pic.twitter.com/qKTA4HJnRl
— Erik Horne (@ErikHorneOK) February 20, 2020
Schroder added that everybody on the team has “had to sacrifice” so that the Thunder can be where they are in the Western Conference standings.
Oklahoma City will have a chance to gain some ground in the conference standings on Friday when they host the second-seeded Denver Nuggets.