If The Regular Season Were To End Today, What Awards Would The Oklahoma City Thunder Be Up For?

The NBA season is still on pause. At this point, we don’t know if the regular season will resume at some point, be skipped over to go straight to playoffs, or if the season will be canceled altogether with COVID-19 spreading across the league and the world as a whole.

With that in mind, if the NBA were to cancel the remainder of the regular season, who would win what NBA awards? The Oklahoma City Thunder certainly have quite a few awards they would have a shot at winning.

While the Thudnder obviously wouldn’t win all of the following, they at least have someone who should be considered. What specific awards might the Oklahoma City Thunder have someone in the running for?

NBA Coach of the Year

Billy Donovan

The last coach of the year in Oklahoma City was Scott Brooks in 2010. He lead the team to a record of 50-32, good for 8th seed in the Western Conference. This was a 28-win increase from the year prior.

So far, the 2019-20 Thunder under Billy Donovan has a better win percentage than that 50-win team under Brooks. The currently sit at 40-25 and are the 5th seed in West, they have the 9th best win percentage in NBA.

Donovan has done an exceptional job staggering the three outstanding point guards on the Oklahoma City roster, ensuring there is always at least one quality ball handler and scorer on the floor at all times. He has gotten the most out of every player on the roster, getting great production from every individual member of the team.

One of the most hard playing teams in the NBA this season, the Thunder shattered their initial 31.5 win projection early in the season.

NBA Basketball Executive of the Year

Sam Presti

Since moving the franchise to Oklahoma City, they have never won this award. This season, Sam Presti deserves to be in the conversation.

Being in one of the most difficult situations last summer, having his hand forced and trading away an MVP candidate from last season in Paul George, he got an enormous return. Oklahoma City got their point guard of the future in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a lethal scorer than can be flipped for more assets in Danilo Gallinari, and a whopping five first-round picks.

Later that summer, he traded franchise cornerstone Russell Westbrook for Chris Paul and even more first-round picks. Paul has now exponentially increased his trade value, established a winning culture in Oklahoma City, and can also be flipped for more assets down the road as well.

Now, with the most first-round draft capital over the next half-decade and a young core to build around, Sam Presti has the Oklahoma City Thunder looking like one of the brightest teams of the future in the NBA after his back was against the wall last summer.

NBA Most Improved Player

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Another award a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder has never won is the NBA Most Improved Player award. While second year players typically don’t win an award like this due to the jump from year one to year two being expected, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander still deserves consideration.

Looking at his stats from his rookie season with the Clippers compared to this season with the Thunder, he has nearly doubled his production in several statistical categories, including points and rebounds.

The fact that Gilgeous-Alexander is just 21 years old and leads a top ten NBA team in scoring is extremely impressive. Outside of Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, there are very few players who you can say this about.

Regardless of his experience in the NBA, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is deserving of being a candidate for this award.

NBA Sixth Man of the Year

Dennis Schroder

The first and only Thunder player in history to win this award was James Harden in 2012. Averaging 16.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in 31.4 minutes per game that season, Harden was a spark off of the bench for Oklahoma City.

In similar fashion, Dennis Schroder is averaging 19.0 points, 4.1 assists, and 3.7 rebounds in 31.0 minutes per game this season for the Thunder. Heads all bench scorers with 1178 total points and is third in assists with 250.

Historically, guards that score at a high level typically win this award and he is just that. Schroder has already won a Western Conference Player of the Week award this season and was also a nominee for Western Conference Player of the Month in December.

The Thunder bench scores the ninth most bench points per game in the league with 39.9, and Schroder accounts for nearly half of those. To put that into perspective, the Portland Trail Blazers, Boston Celtics, and Houston Rockets all average 28.0 points per game off the bench or less as an entire team. Schroder’s bench production is extremely valuable and a direct catalyst for Oklahoma City’s success.

Dennis Schroder also leads NBA in clutch plus/minus at +115. There have been few players in the entire NBA who have been better scorers than Schroder this season.

NBA Most Valuable Player

Chris Paul

The only two winners of this award in Oklahoma City history are Russell Westbrook (2017) and Kevin Durant (2014).

Chris Paul definitely won’t win NBA Most Valuable Player, but he certainly deserves recognition for what he has done both on the court and in the locker room. His leadership has been a huge reason for such a young overall team finding chemistry early in the season and becoming one of the best teams in the NBA since Thanksgiving.

At 34 years old, he is averaging 17.7 points, 6.8 assists, and 4.9 rebounds per game on 90.0% shooting from line and is only attempting 12.8 shots per game. As someone who has missed many games due to injury throughout his career, he has only missed one game all season and it wasn’t even due to injury.

Paul has taken a backseat on offense this season has and allowed others to take over throughout the game. That being said, at the end of games, when it is time to take care of business and pull out a win, he has shined like no other. He leads the NBA in the clutch points (144) and is the main reason the Oklahoma City Thunder have been the NBA’s most clutch team this season.

Again, Chris Paul is by no means a top-five NBA candidate, but he deserves to be at least discussed as one of the most valuable players in the NBA all season.