The Thunder Are Somehow Just as Good as They Were With Russell Westbrook and Paul George

No Paul George. No Russell Westbrook. No problems.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are thriving and taking the NBA by storm just like nobody predicted. I mean, who really expected them to be this good?

After shipping off both George and Westbrook this offseason, the Oklahoma City Thunder were expected to have a down year and contend for one of the top lottery picks in the draft in the ridiculously difficult Western Conference. Expectations could not have been more wrong.

The Thunder are currently thriving, sitting at a solid 20-15, good enough for seventh in the Western Conference and are riding a five-game winning streak heading into Monday's game against the Philadelphia 76ers. Remarkably, this is only two games behind what Oklahoma City's record was last season at the 35 game marker.

Their record is about on par with how well the did last season, which is absurd considering they shipped off a perennial All-Star and former MVP last season.

Point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been an absolute superstar recently for OKC. Over his past six games, the former Kentucky Wildcat is averaging around 27 points per game and the Thunder have been cooking.

With a solid starting five where each player averages over 11.5 points per game and no player averages over 20 points per game, the Thunder have truly flipped the script. Transforming from an iso-ball oriented offense heavily led by George and Westbrook into a team oriented offense has been what has allowed for their success this season.

Oklahoma City is playing some high quality basketball and could be a shock team come playoff time in April.

Watch out for OKC.