3 reasons the Oklahoma City Thunder have overachieved this season

3) Billy Donovan has done a great job

You could make the argument that in his fifth season with the organization, Billy Donovan has never been better. You don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s Gregg Popovich providing testimony.

That’s high praise coming from someone who is universally accepted as one of the greatest coaches to ever grace an NBA bench.

It’s true, Donovan has done a fantastic job commanding a squad that has crushed preseason expectations. He’s gotten slack over the years with the team’s many postseason disappointments, but he deserves credit for their success this campaign.

Under the guidance of Donovan, the team possesses a 14th ranked offense (per NBA stats) and 10th ranked defense. Likewise, they’re currently tied with the Denver Nuggets for most clutch wins in the season (23) and have the highest net rating in the final five minutes of regulation or OT with the score within five points (25.8).

Ultimately, there are several reasons explaining how and why the Thunder have played beyond what was expected of them, this was just three key ones. They’ve still got 28 games to go but barring a major disaster, this season can be deemed as a success.