Despite leading the Western Conference with the best record, there are still doubts about how far the Thunder can go in the postseason.

Feb 13, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) and center Isaiah Hartenstein (55) react to a call for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the third quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images / Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

A few things are true of the Oklahoma City Thunder and the 2024-2025 season: They have the best record in the Western Conference, their star guard is making a case for his first career Most Valuable Player award and this roster has yet to make a deep run in the NBA playoffs.

The latter is the most concerning and because of it, some questions have been raised about OKC’s ability to be successful in the postseason.

With the All-Star break coming to an end and a few days of rest for the entire league, the Thunder prepare for the last part of the regular season.

To some, this stretch of play will show a lot about how good OKC is, as well as prove to others that they are a legitimate championship-caliber team.

OKC needs to keep winning in the fashion they have to date and minimize its losses. If they continue to do that and firmly hold onto the one-seed in the West, that will already prove some doubters wrong.

Still, the lack of playoff success with this specific personnel is what creates that doubt.

This may be an unfair argument against OKC, however. Sure, they only won one series and lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the second round, but there are clear differences in how OKC is playing this season compared to last.

The Thunder have made a clear step up on defense and also added Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, two key nightly contributors.

Jalen Williams has also emerged as this team’s second star. Even with Chet Holmgren just now getting into the fold, Williams made his first All-Star game and is posting career-best per-game stats.

The play of Williams and the team’s new additions is a huge difference between the two squads and is a reason why they are playing how they are.

If Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to play at this caliber, he will have as good a chance as anyone to walk away with the MVP award.

If that doesn’t silence any doubt about his or his team’s ability to succeed, nothing will. He’s averaging 32.5 points per game right now on 52.3% shooting, along with 5.1 rebounds and 6.1 assists.

He has a clear MVP case and if he wins that award come playoff time, there will be more respect for him in that aspect.

The Oklahoma City Thunder don’t have anything else to prove to anybody in the regular season. It would be a shock to most if they started dropping games now and if they do have anything to prove, it’s in this year’s NBA playoffs.