Last season, the Oklahoma City Thunder had one of the best defensive units in the NBA.
Led by Lu Dort, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, OKC’s group was flanked by Cason Wallace off the bench, who also provided great perimeter defense for the Thunder as a rookie.
Even MVP runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander developed into a solid defender last season, averaging two steals per game while averaging over 30 points per contest.
In addition to the impressive group Mark Daigneault and company fielded last season, Oklahoma City added two more staunch defenders over the offseason in Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein. These acquistions combined with the success of last year’s bunch led to The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie ranking the Thunder as the NBA’s No. 1 defense heading into the season.
“The team that I had as most likely to be No. 1 was Oklahoma City,” Vecenie said. “Oklahoma City had the No. 4 defense last season. That was with; rookie season Chet Holmgren, second-year Jalen Williams, Josh Giddey in the rotation… And they, instead of having Josh Giddey, have now replaced him with Alex Caruso. … I think Alex does a better job of guarding perimeter players in the NBA, probably, than anybody else I’ve watched recently. I think Alex is really, really good at defending guards and making their life miserable and his anticipation is unbelievable. His hand-eye coordination just makes their life miserable, he fights through screens… I would argue that he’s not the most important defensive addition that Oklahoma City had. Getting Isaiah Hartenstein is a massive, massive jump.”
In 2023-24, Caruso tallied 1.7 steals and one block per game en route to earning Second Team All-Defense honors. Caruso was voted to the NBA’s All-Defense First Team in 2022-23.
Hartenstein averaged 1.2 steals and 1.1 blocks per game in 2023-24, and will add an element of size to OKC’s defense that Sam Presti and company previously didn’t have on the roster.
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