Lou Williams' James Harden take compares 2012 Thunder to this year's squad

01/12/2025 01:30 PM

Former NBA sixth-man turned analyst Lou Williams recently compared this year’s Oklahoma City Thunder team to the 2011-12 squad, which featured Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. It’s an interesting debate after Shai-Gilgeous Alexander led the Thunder to 15 consecutive wins. Oklahoma City is 31-6, the second-best record in the association, and remains atop the Western Conference.

However, is this year’s Thunder team on the same level as 2011-12? Williams isn’t convinced, per FanDuel TV.

“Not yet,” Williams said. “I think they’re going to put a lot of pressure on the league for years to come. If they’re able to keep this core group of guys together, they’re super young. I don’t know what their situation is with the salary cap and everything going on around them on the business side, but basketball-wise, you can tell this is a team that loves playing together. This is a tight-knit group, and they don’t lack confidence.”

Still, Williams considers the 2011-12 squad the Thunder’s best team ever.

“They feel like they can be a championship team. They feel like they can go out and compete for a championship. They’re not just happy to be here,” Williams added. “But when you start talking about [best team] ever, you got to look at those teams they had with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Anytime you have a team and can afford to have James Harden come off your bench and be your sixth man of the year, that’s a deep basketball team. From Serge Ibaka to Dion Waiters, all of these guys that they had in that group.”

"Anytime you have a team and you can afford to have James Harden come off your bench, that's a deep basketball team."

Lou Williams says the 2013 Thunder team is still better than this year's squad

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— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) January 9, 2025

Lou Williams calls the 2011-12 squad the best Thunder team ever

All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander says the Cavs loss that snapped the Thunder’s 15-game win streak made them a better team. While the Thunder are on pace to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012, Lou Williams considers that to be the gap separating the two despite James Harden and the 2011-12 Thunder losing the Finals 4-1 to the Heat.

“Yeah, they fell short of playing in the NBA Finals, but they had somewhat of a similar identity as this team now,” Williams said. “Everybody was young. They were still trying to figure out who they were and carve out their legend and who they were going to be as stars. So, in hindsight, we can look back and see what that team was able to accomplish. This team is still writing their story out now. But I can’t give them that crown until they get to a point, at least, to where those old OKC teams were.”

Gilgeous-Alexander’s 39 points led the Thunder to a 126-101 win against the Knicks on Friday.

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