{"id":110769,"date":"2024-12-06T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=110769"},"modified":"2024-12-06T06:42:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T11:42:35","slug":"is-sga-j-dub-best-duo-thunder-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/06\/is-sga-j-dub-best-duo-thunder-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Is SGA and J-Dub The Best Duo in Thunder History?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Seattle SuperSonics were moved to Oklahoma and became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008. Since their creation in 2008, the Thunder have had many great duos. The first was Kevin Durant<\/a> and Russell Westbrook<\/a> who took the league by storm from 2008-2016. This duo was dominant as they made one NBA Finals appearance and had four Western Conference Final appearances. Unfortunately, they were unable to win a ring together, and Durant left to sign with the Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n

Shortly after that, there was the duo of Westbrook and Paul George<\/a> that lasted for two seasons before they split up after back-to-back first-round exits. However, the current Thunder with SGA and J-Dub are starting to form one of their best duos.<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> and Jalen Williams<\/a> have played two full seasons together and are in the midst of their third. When Chet Holmgren<\/a> went down with an injury,<\/a> people began to see even more of the potential of how dangerous this duo can be. Shai is averaging 29.8 points per game with 5.4 rebounds and 6.5 assists. Williams is averaging<\/a> 21.7 points per game with 6.1 rebounds and 5.0 assists. In addition, both players are shooting above 50% from the field and Shai is shooting 32.6% from three compared to Jalen who is shooting 38.9%. Today, we will examine the reasons why this SGA and J-Dub might just be the best duo in franchise history.<\/p>\n

Is SGA and J-Dub The Best Duo in Thunder History?<\/h2>\n

Shai and Jalen Complement Each Other Very Well<\/h3>\n

It is hard to find two superstars to lead your team and have success in the NBA. It is even harder to find two that complement each other very well. However, that is exactly what the Thunder have found in Shai and Jalen. The other duos in Durant and Westbrook as well as George and Westbrook also complemented each other well, but not like these two do. What SGA does well is also what Jalen does well, and they also cover up each other’s weaknesses. SGA is not the greatest three-point shooter but has been working on it, especially this season<\/a>. Williams is a better and more-consistent three-point shooter. In response to that, Shai is a better scorer at driving to the hoop and in the mid-range than Jalen. One is the shooter. while the other is the merchant in the mid-range and at the rim.<\/p>\n

In addition to their strengths and weaknesses, they both have similar games. If you watch them play, they have very similar play-styles as they hunt the same type of shots. This is something rare that you find with duos in the NBA. Usually, you have two great stars but their play-styles are different. The benefit this gives the Thunder is that whenever one of them sits, they don’t have to change their offense to fit the other one’s play-style. They can essentially run the same offense for the full 48-minute game, a luxury other teams don’t have.<\/p>\n

They are Both Super-Efficient Scorers<\/h3>\n

If you look at all the all-time great duos that went on to win a ring, they both were great at doing something. For example, the Warriors had Steph Curry<\/a> and Klay Thompson<\/a> who were lethal shooters from behind the arc. This was something that hindered the potential duo of Westbrook and Durant, or even Westbrook and George. That is something that the SGA and J-Dud duo have as they are both super-efficient scorers.<\/p>\n

Shai and Jalen both are shooting above 50% from the field as they have been doing for the past three seasons. This is something that is hard to do in the NBA, especially for a guard like Shai. Furthermore, something that doesn’t allow duos to have long-term success is their egos come into play. This is the benefit the Thunder have with Shai and J-Dub. Up until this point, there has been no friction between them.<\/p>\n

Their Two-Way Ability<\/h3>\n

Finally, something that a lot of NBA duos don’t have is that they are both committed on the offense and defensive side. Even the duo of Steph and Klay, only Klay was fully committed on that end. However, that is not the case with the OKC duo, as both Shai and Jalen are committed not only on offense, but also on defense. While both aren’t lockdown defenders like Lu Dort<\/a> or Alex Caruso<\/a>, they still can hold their own against the best scorers in the world and are good defenders. They aren’t stars that you can hunt on the defensive end like you can at times with Luka Doncic<\/a>, Damian Lillard<\/a>, or Steph.<\/p>\n

The Last Word on SGA and J-Dub’s Duo<\/h3>\n

Even though Shai and Jalen are on track and have all the makings to be the best duo in franchise history, they unfortunately aren’t right now as that title still belongs to Westbrook and Durant. That duo was super special and they also made multiple appearances in the Western Conference Finals and also made the NBA Finals, a feat that Shai and Jalen have yet to accomplish. Regardless, this duo has all the makings to become the best duo in franchise history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Seattle SuperSonics were moved to Oklahoma and became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008. Since their creation in 2008, the Thunder have had many great duos. The first was Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook who took the league by storm from 2008-2016. This duo was dominant as they made one NBA Finals appearance and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5171,"featured_media":110835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,22],"tags":[4609,69,50,53,1489],"class_list":["post-110769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-thunder","tag-jalen-williams","tag-kevin-durant","tag-paul-george","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110769"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110836,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110769\/revisions\/110836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}