Are the Thunder breaking the NBA?
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What sparked the discussion about the Pelicans' winning streak?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for December 23rd, 2025. I'm Dave DuFour here with Espera Henne. Coming up, the Pelicans are hot. They just won their fifth straight. We're going to talk about that. And Andrew Schlecht is here to talk about the Thunder after their latest win and whether or not they're breaking the NBA.
Good morning, everybody. What's up, S? Good morning. Spoiler alert. Yes, they are breaking the NBA.
Yes. Okay. It's not so much they're breaking it as they've broken it because they're better than everyone and they own all of the draft picks. Yes. Spoiler for the end of the show. Absolutely. Hey, speaking of spoiler, how about these Pelicans, man? Playing spoiler.
How are the Thunder performing in their recent games?
Yeah, a little bit, right? We wrote them off. They make a coaching change, and all of a sudden, things are a little bit different. Zion's been back out there. They pick up another win. They're fifth straight. They beat the Mavericks, who have been playing better basketball, by the way, with Anthony Davis and Cooper Flagg out there. Like I said, Zion's been coming off the bench for this team here lately. S, what have you noticed about the Pels in this turnaround? I mean, it's more than just a vibe shift.
It's a shift of personality on there. I think the number one change is one, Derek Queen is the franchise where he is starting. He's our starting center for the rest of the year. And I think that was a decision James Brago made very, very quickly. This is his team. We're rolling with it. We've drafted this guy. We're entrusting this guy. And the same thing applies to Jeremiah Fears, who is just downhill gravity. He's our starting point guard. Let's go with that. Now you have these two guys off the bench who, if you think of them as bench players, you're like, oh, wow, this is a really talented team now. Jordan Poole, Zion Williamson, two guys who can light it up offensively. I think those two as bench guys, especially Zion, you think of Zion as a guy who –
25 minutes a night gives him that range where he can stay healthy, hopefully play longer, hopefully play more games throughout a season. And what bench player can you think of that drops 24 points on 14 shots for you? There's not that many.
Right.
Well, you know, if you think about this, one of the secrets to success for a six-man-of-the-year candidate is scoring a lot of points. Absolutely. Points per game bias. Right. You're playing against a lot of second units, right? It's not like you're getting the other team's fastball. So even if this is just temporary... To get him healthy, to make sure that, you know what I mean, he's playing his best basketball. I don't think it's a bad idea. As long as, you know, when he has a great game like he did last night, you always have the option of him closing with Derek Queen. I mean, Queen's ability to pass and to shoot and stretch the floor opens up a lot. And the other thing is, I actually think James Borrego has done a really good job of getting Zion moving without the ball.
Yeah. A couple of times tonight where he kind of comes off the, you know, like a double a double drag moving towards the basket. Anything where he's going downhill is unstoppable.
Yeah. Especially going left. Right. Right. If he's if that likes double pin stuff that he has curling to the basket is off of his left hand. His downhill gravity is going to create shots for other guys. And that means open opportunities for Trey Murphy, who's a knockdown three points. shooter for Sadiq Bay who's having a really good season by the way Sadiq Bay kind of like an afterthought but he was hurt last year comes into the Pelicans this year and looks like the Sadiq Bay that we kind of know good score a guy who can kind of light it up himself this team just has a lot of offensive talent, they were probably not as bad as their start was. It was just about finding the right pieces and pushing the right buttons.
And to your point, I think that's a credit to the coaching. Absolutely.
Okay.
What strategic changes have the Pelicans made recently?
And it begs the question, What does this team look like right now if they had made the coaching change during the offseason, which is always something, I mean, in my time doing this job, I've always pushed toward you make the coaching change early.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What sparked the discussion about the Pelicans' winning streak?
0:08–0:53
2
How are the Thunder performing in their recent games?
0:53–3:58
3
What strategic changes have the Pelicans made recently?
3:58–13:15
4
How did the coaching change impact the Pelicans' performance?
13:15–16:13
5
What are the Thunder's chances of making the playoffs?
16:13–23:53
6
What makes the Thunder a team to watch this season?
23:53–27:10