By the numbers: Thunder in the playoff hunt with one-sixth of season complete

With a dozen games in the book, one-sixth of the NBA season is complete.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are 6-6 and in the playoff hunt through the early stages of the season.

What has allowed them to do this? Is it sustainable? Those are a couple questions we’ll address in this By The Numbers segment.

Role players including Hamidou Diallo and Lu Dort have taken bigger leaps than anticipated while rookie Aleksej Pokusevski has shown good defense. Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is playing like the star that was expected of him when the team entered the rebuild this offseason.

Here are some defining numbers through the first 12 games. All statistics are as of Sunday morning.

Lu Dort's 3s

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Raise your hand if you thought the Oklahoma City Thunder's best 3-point shooter this season would be Luguentz Dort. Put your hands down, you liars. Dort hasn't just attempted the most 3s of any Thunder player. He's made more than anyone else on the team and is shooting at the highest clip. The second-year player has made 28 of his 65 attempts, good for 43.1%. Over 42 total appearances last season -- regular season and playoffs included -- Dort made multiple 3s in only nine games. Through 12 games this season, he has drained multiple in eight. That's allowed him to very nearly double his scoring average to 12.8 points per game. It's been one of the most promising trends of the season for Oklahoma City.

Diallo at the rim

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Here are the guards who lead the league in field goal percentage taken within five feet of the rim (min. 4.0 attempts per game):

We knew that Diallo could finish well, but he's doing it at unexpected levels. These aren't just fast break dunks and backdoor cuts; he's been driving to the rim, attacking defenders and finishing over the big men waiting at the hoop. Entering the season, his status on the team was unclear. After some injuries limited him to 46 appearances during last year's regular season, he played a total of 25 minutes in the playoffs. He was certainly going to get time this season on the rebuilding team, but it felt like it was the year he would have to prove he belonged as a piece of the rotation going into future seasons. Through a dozen games, he's done that. He belongs on the list of Sixth Men of the Year candidates so far.

Aleksej Pokusevski's blocks

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As head coach Mark Daigneault said after the game against the Los Angeles Lakers, rookie Aleksej Pokusevski's defense is coming along better than his offense. The stats back it up. Pokusevski's 1.1 blocks per game leads the team, and his total of 11 is just one below Darius Bazley for the team lead, though Poku has played two fewer games and averages only 16.1 minutes per contest. Per-36 numbers would put his pace at 2.5 rejections per game. Among rookies, he trails only No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman, who is averaging 1.6 blocks in 21.3 minutes per game. Pokusevski has done a good job at using his length to allow him to keep up with players driving to the rim even when they get a half-step on him. His instincts are there. As he learns the game better and adds strength, he can further improve this ability.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, an All-Star?

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As unexpected as some of these numbers in previous sections were, here's something that won't surprise Thunder fans: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has played like an All-Star this season. The third-year guard is one of just six players in the league averaging at least 21 points, six assists and five rebounds per game. The others are Steph Curry, Doncic, Nikola Jokic, LeBron James and Julius Randle. SGA's shooting percentage of 50.8% is second-best of that group behind only Jokic. If you expand those numbers out to 20 points, five assists and five rebounds per game, Gilgeous-Alexander is still one of just 14 players hitting these marks. Every one of the other 13 except Randle has made at least one All-Star game in his career. The Western Conference is loaded with guard talent, but the moves of James Harden and Russell Westbrook to the east opens up a couple spots. Should the Thunder continue winning, could one of the spots go to Gilgeous-Alexander? It'll be a battle that's too early to seriously talk about, but his numbers are there.

Is the winning sustainable?

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Touching upon that final thought in the SGA section: Is this .500 record sustainable? Looking beyond the wins and losses, it's unclear. The Thunder have been excellent in close games, going 3-1 in games decided by one possession, but that's not a great barometer to judge by. The win against the Charlotte Hornets shouldn't have even become a one-possession game, and the comeback over the Bulls can't be something the team expects to do on a consistent basis. Oklahoma City's net rating as a team is -6.4, the third-worst in the league, and their point differential is -6.0, the fourth-worst in the league, according to ESPN. Their wins have come by an average margin of 6.5 while their losses have been by an average margin of 18.7. But they're winning. With a 6-6 record, the Thunder remain in the playoff hunt a sixth of the way through the season despite coming in with low expectations for the second year in a row. Wins are wins, and the Thunder have shown they're not a team to scoff at.