SGA dissatisfied with Thunder s way of winning the championship: We didn t play our best basketball

At first glance, Alexander already has everything an NBA star could desire at this moment.

In June, he won the championship with the Oklahoma City Thunder and won the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. In the same year, he also won the MVP trophy named after Michael Jordan. However, when the 27-year-old star reflects on how the Thunder got to where they are today and admits he's not happy with the way the team has climbed to the top of the NBA, you realize Alexander wants more than that.

"Honestly, I didn't like the way we won the championship, and I don't know if that's the right thing to say," Alexander said. His Thunder team took seven games to eliminate the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs, and also took seven games to defeat the Indiana Pacers in the Finals. "I don't think we were playing our best basketball to win an NBA championship. It was the first time we got that far in the playoffs, so it was a learning experience for us. "

"But to get to the level that we had in the regular season and have that level of focus, discipline, decisiveness and aggression throughout the postseason Game, they need to reach another level. "

Looking back, they are a historically strong team in the regular season, achieving a record of 68 wins and 14 losses. They also have the best net rating in the league (far ahead of the Boston Celtics), the best defense in the league (the Orlando Magic is far behind), and the third-best offense. But then the playoffs came and Jokic and his Nuggets nearly eliminated them, and the Pacers almost did, until Haliburton tore his Achilles tendon in the first quarter of Game 7, changing everything.

"We were definitely more dominant in the regular season than we were in the playoffs," Alexander continued. "So, yeah, that's the biggest thing for me. And for me personally -- as a player, I don't think I'm as good in the playoffs as I am in the regular season. Of course, when you play the same team seven games in a row, they can play seven games in a row. It happens naturally when you watch your tape. I feel like I could have played better, so I try to control that. And that mentality trickles down to the whole team and it does.

They currently have the league's first defensive efficiency (104.8 points allowed per 100 possessions), with the Detroit Pistons (109.6) ranking second. Again, this was accomplished without Williams, who was named to the league's second-team All-Defensive team last season.

The scariest part for the rest of the league, however, and the reason why the Thunder are so confident that their best is yet to come, is that Alexander's obsession with improvement continues unabated. He often talks about his game from an almost "out-of-body" perspective, expressing a deep curiosity about how great he could eventually become. When I asked him to assess the distance between his current status and the fabled ceiling of his potential, his response was enough to make you wonder when his ascent will stop.

"I'd say it's quite a ways off," he said. "There's so many aspects of basketball, I feel like, especially playing my position and handling the ball as much as I do... I'm the initiator of the offense. And the play without the ball. There are different levels of scoring. There's a whole other side of defense. There's scoring in transition. There are so many facets and components to the game, and the greatest players have mastered all of them. "

"I've heard coaches talk about playing against Rondo, It's like being on the floor against a coach. He knows all your plays, what you're going to do next, and stuff like that. There are countless angles and ways to gain an edge on you and your team on a basketball possession, a quarter, and ultimately a game. So until I have a rough grasp of all of that, I'd say, there's a long way to go. "

So, as it turns out, he's not satisfied at all.

"That's what makes him really special as a superstar, " Thunder center Hartenstein said. "It's really easy to follow him. He puts in a lot of hard work. He always puts the team first, and I think that makes him a great leader. "