Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Details How OKC Thunder is Able to Play Efficient Offense

The Oklahoma City Thunder plays an unselfish brand of basketball with plenty of awareness.

The Oklahoma City Thunder plays one of the more exciting brands of basketball across the league. The team's ability to play an uptempo style while generating high-quality shots creates that creates some offensive outbursts that even some of the best defenses can't slow down.

While holding an 8-4 record through 12 games, the Thunder is tied for the sixth-best win percentage across the league. When looking at where the success is coming from, the team is tied for the sixth-best scoring offense in the league, too.

With the fifth-best net rating in the league, how does the Thunder, despite playing lineups that are often losing in the rebounding department, play such a positive brand of basketball?

There are no egos on the team. This starts with the All-NBA guard who averaged over 31 points per game on over 50 percent efficiency from the field a year ago. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is able to score at an elite rate while playing into the system, and this allows for the rest of the team to follow suit on that end of the floor.

Chet Holmgren and Cason Wallace, who each have 12 career games played as they're early in their careers, have gotten off to incredible starts, playing perfectly into the offensive system. There's a reason for this, too, and Gilgeous-Alexander broke it down after the team's win over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday.

"We have shots that each individual player knows they want to shoot," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "It's something that we chart as a group, shots that are comfortable for each player, what type of shots. We try to stay within that guideline."

This is a big part of how the Thunder is able to play in sync on the offensive side of the ball. Having that level of understanding of where each player likes to receive and shoot the ball allows for an added layer of efficiency from the team, and causes for much less wasted possessions.

One example of this being set into motion is Lu Dort's shot diet on the season -- or even Wallace, who was mentioned earlier. Both players let the offense come to them while shooting quality looks with corner 3-pointers or putting the ball on the ground from the wing or baselines while not forcing any shots. This allows the other guys to understand where to position themselves to keep the offense moving and flowing while creating more and more efficient shots as a team.

Playing such an efficient offense has allowed the Thunder to build the 8-4 record it has while covering other issues such as rebounding or lack of size defensively. 

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