Oklahoma City Thunder training camp is officially underway and the fruits of every player's hard work over the summer will be on full display for all to see soon.
Most NBA players put in long hours over the offseason to improve their game. A few OKC players in particular are well known for always being in the gym and weight room. The Thunder Big 3 of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren were each asked on media day about what improvements they made during the summer.
The back to back MVP has famously returned each season as a better player with one particular honed in skill.
"Every season, and every off-season, I use it to try to find ways to become a more well-rounded basketball player," Gilgeous-Alexander said in response to a question about playing more off-ball with Team Canada. "And that was just an area of the game where I felt like I could be a better basketball player. And some summers, it's defense; some summers, it's off-the-dribble shooting; some summers, it's posting up. And yeah, nothing more than that. Just try to become the best basketball player I can be when it's all said and done."
This summer was an especially big one for Williams as he fought back from a plague of injuries and looks to remind everyone of his All-NBA talent. His focus was on getting fully healthy.
"That was one of the big things, I had never really had any injuries that set me back," Williams said of his recovery. "So it's more just about like rest and understanding like my body and like some of the cues to like let me know that my hamstrings are going to get tight or like understanding that it's not just like my hamstring, like trying to open up my hips a little more and do stuff that I've been doing throughout my whole year, just understanding my body and more and more every year so that if I have signs during the year, I can address them right away and know what to do."
Holmgren was asked whether his summer work was focused more on expanding his game in terms of weaknesses he noticed during the season.
"I'd say it's a combination of things," Holmgren said. "One, I'd say there is no perfect balance, but you have to try and find the best balance for yourself of, you know, kind of what is currently showing up within your situation based on how your team plays, how other teams play you and your team. And then there's also a mix of things that you inspire to do, that you aspire to be able to do, that can't show up until you work at them to be able to do them at the level you need to do them at for them to show up. You can't spend all your time working on one or the other. I think I found a good balance of that this summer, as I have in the past. I'm always excited to chase improvement."
Internal development is usually synonymous with young talent. But one of the key factors for OKC's continued success is that Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren are still getting better each season. Their offseason work is one of the many reasons why.
