NBA Analyst Labels OKC Thunder Juggernauts After Hot Start

The Oklahoma City Thunder are off to a fast 3-0 start in the 2024-25 NBA season and NBA Analyst Tim Legler spoke about the Thunder being a juggernaut on his show, All-NBA.

Oct 27, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren (7) celebrates after dunking against the Atlanta Hawks during the second half at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images / Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

For the first time since 2016, the Oklahoma City Thunder are 3-0. Despite their perfect record, the Thunder have still not played a perfect game. Still, Oklahoma City has enjoyed three lopsided wins, all of which included garbage time.

This is on the back of their elite defense, effort level and overall talent. On Monday's All-NBA show from NBA anaylst Tim Legler and Adam Mares, the duo dubbed the Thunder as juggernauts, going as far as to put Oklahoma City in the same tier as the Boston Celtics.

Legler leaned heavy on the Thunder's defensive approach with their ability to bring energy and limit offenses.

"It's amazing because, I hate the term 'flip the switch' but it was more of a collective energy that they found that made it nearly impossible for Atlanta to do anything [on offense]" Legler said "With Chet [Holmgren] at the five flying around at that spot...their switches, their help and recover was literally like an instructional video."

Despite it being a two possession game entering the final frame, the Thunder ran the Hawks out of the building in their home opener on Sunday, which Legler highlighted.

"[The Thunder defense] turned a decent game, an entertaining game, into a blowout," Legler said.

His co-host chimed in discussing Chet Holmgren's leap, while a lot is made of his offensive upgrades, the defensive end has also improved.

"They were executing so well, that you look at this and say 'how is this team at this level already?'" Adam Mares said "[Chet Holmgren] was a monster last year defensively, but his timing this year is on a whole nother level. His timing on rotations and his timing, he just seems to know when to time it and when to jump to get the block...It feels a level up from what we saw last year and he was fantastic last year."

Legler, who is considered one of the brightest basketball minds in the media, put the Thunder on the same level as the Boston Celtics early on this year.

"Look, they already had a great team a year ago, Chet Holmgren makes this much of a leap in year two, right now there are two teams on a different level than the rest of the league. Boston and Oklahoma City are on a different level," Legler said.

Mares went as far as to call the Thunder juggernauts after their 3-0 start, in what could be a historically great season for Oklahoma City.

"There is two juggernauts [Boston and Oklahoma City]...Defensively, I think they are the best defensive team in the NBA and they're so deep that I go I'll put them in Boston's category. I look at that, and that is a winning formula when you have that much defense and offensive players like Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander], [Jalen Williams, and Chet [Holmgren]," Mares exclaimed.

The ten year NBA veteran believes the Thunder will win plenty of games this season based on effort, and they seem poised to be a team that not only captures the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference again but make some noise in the playoffs.

"They are just going to win games by a byproduct of how they play, how hard they play, they are just going to win game organically by showing up and playing," Legler said "Coming out of the summer, they look very motivated to not only have the No. 1 seed again but actually do something with it."

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