Oklahoma City Thunder 2017–18 Uniform Breakdown
With the new NBA season approaching we wanted to take a look back at how the Oklahoma City Thunder performed in each of their uniforms last season. There’s going to be a lot of numbers, so we’ve offset that with lots of pretty pictures too.
Let’s dive in.
Here we have the overview of all four uniforms the Thunder wore last season. Gone are the days of white at home and color on the road. With the introduction of the Nike uniform editions, teams can now pick and choose what uniform they want to wear regardless of venue. As you can see above, despite this new freedom, the classic white uniforms at home were still the strongest look for OKC.
The other way to compare these four uniform editions is to look at winning percentage. While the Thunder had their ups and downs last season, two-thirds of the time they donned their Association whites, they came away with a victory.
The Thunder Blue Icon uniform stayed just above .500, while the two new looks, Statement and City, fell just below.
The Statement uniform will be used again next year, while the City uniform will be replaced.
Now that we’ve compared the uniforms to each other, let’s dive in to each look individually and break down the numbers further.
First up, the Association Edition. The Thunder won 78% of home games in which they wore their white uniforms, while their road percentage was a paltry 28% (Note: much smaller sample size here. 23 home games vs. 7 road). The other thing to note here is the +7.9 point differential. This is by far the best of any uniform the Thunder have. When I close my eyes and picture Russell Westbrook posterizing a hapless defender, or Paul George cooking at the top of the key, or Abrines splashing from the corner, you better believe in my mind they’re wearing the white uniforms.
Next up is the Icon Edition. Previously reserved for road games, the Thunder decided that the baby blues would be the de-facto “National TV” look for OKC. This means, that while they only posted a .555 win percentage at home, a higher than ususal amount of those games were against premier opponents. (Thunder wore blue at home against the Knicks, Celtics, Warriors x2, Lakers, Cavs, Rockets, Spurs, and Jazz). When you put it into perspective, it makes that number seem a little bit better.
The Statement Edition. The crowd favorite. “By far the best jersey they’ve ever had” according to Zach Lowe. Everyone seemed to love this striking set, except maybe Enes Kanter. Yet, while they were beloved for their looks, their performance yielded mixed results. After debuting on November 24, 2017 the Thunder wore their new look 7 times at home, and 12 times on the road. Unlike the Icon set, OKC wore this look against teams both great (GSW) and not so great (DAL) and yet found ways to lose to either.
Lastly, the City Edition. These uniforms were by far the most divisive earning wide criticism from fans across the league. That didn’t stop some from embracing the bold look, as the gray uniforms were actually voted second favorite (albeit losing by a wide margin) in our uniform poll on Twitter. And while the visuals underwhelmed, the performance did as well. The Thunder only wore the uniforms five times, winning twice, before ditching them on March 20 never to be seen again.
The good news is, the Association, Icon, and Statement uniforms will be used once again by the Thunder for the 2018–19 season, while the City edition will be replaced by an all new look.
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