Non-Mortem: Oklahoma City Thunder

[Clav]

Time of death: None
Record at elimination: 68-14 (16-7 in playoffs)
Head coach: Mark Daigneault

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/oklahoma-city-thunder/yearly
Contract summary:
SGA – extension eligible, or 2yr/80M remain
Hartenstein – 2yr/59M remain, final year 28M TO
Dort – extension eligible, or 2yr/38M remain, final year 17M TO
Isaiah Joe – 3yr/34M remain, final year 11M TO
Aaron Wiggins – 4yr/35M remain, final year 8M TO
Caruso – 4yr/80M extension begins next season
Kenrich Williams – extension eligible, or 2yr/14M remain, final year 7M TO


Rookie Scale/minimums (varies on 2-4 years remaining):
Jalen Williams – extension eligible, or 6.5M QO
Holmgren – extension eligible, or 13M QO
Ousmane Dieng – extension eligible, or 6.6M QO
Cason Wallace – 2yr remain
Nikola Topic – 3yr remain (injured, ACL)
Jaylin Williams – extension eligible, or 2M TO
Dillon Jones – 3yr remain
AJ Mitchell – 3M TO

TW
Branden Carlson
Alex Ducas
Adam Flagler


Dead-cap – 3.7M off the books this year, NONE retained next
Capspace – over the cap, non-tax team
PICKS for 2025 draft:
MIA 1st
LAC 1st
ATL 2nd

A SMALL SEASON REVIEW:
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/okc/seasontype/2

In what was one of the most dominant regular seasons in NBA history, the Thunder made an absolutely terrifying impression on its competition. We’ll touch on the stats soon, hold tight.

In the playoff bracket, the Thunder forced its defense on other teams, but was undeniably led by the 2025 MVP & FMVP, Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. OKC overcame playoff pressure to win it all. [noting that, the only OKC player that had previously been to an NBA Finals was specialist Alex Caruso in 2020 with the LA Lakers].

After beating Memphis, Denver, Minnesota, and Indiana in four consecutive series, the OKC Thunder won the final NBA playoff game of the season, and are the 2025 NBA Championship! Congrats to them, and their fans! It was well deserved from the statistical best team in the NBA this year.

Now lets hit some key observations from the Thunder’s impressive run to NBA Glory:

The Thunder’s first official NBA Title comes in the wake of a devastating RS. One which they won 68 games (54 by double digits, an NBA record), and lost only 14 RS games. The playoff record for OKC was 16-7. Losses were DEN-3, IND-3, MIN-1. They showed cracks in the seven game series against both Denver and Indiana. Despite those issues, the Thunder persevered to win the Championship.

OKC recorded NBA-Record net-rating (+12.9), and SRS (+12.7), a league leading defense (107.5PPG), and two All-NBA players (SGA (All-NBA 1st team), Jalen Williams (All-NBA 3rd team) – and a lot of young pesky defenders that bought into their roles. The regular season showcased that this team generated advantages consistently and didn’t normally lose big leads, no matter who they played. Shockingly, OKC has an average age of 25.5 years old – and they earned the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference with two weeks of regular season play to go. This surely is auspicious for the Association as a whole.

One thing the Thunder didn’t do often was play in close games (14 RS wins of less than 10 pts), which affected some of their late-game performances in the playoffs. Also, playoff basketball is a lot more intense, and the overall youth of the team, and the coach (Mark Daigneault), both led to some head-scratching moments, and games were a lot closer than advertised. Denver and Indiana both hit game-winners against OKC – and both had convincingly large wins. Minnesota had a huge win by 30+ pts, and Memphis was looking dangerous before Morant hurt his hip. Overall, OKC won each series, but had games where they looked very uncomfortable on the road. Without Haliburton, OKC overpowered the Pacers in G7, but it would have been an epic conclusion without the injury. Sadly some star players went down with serious injuries this playoffs, but OKC had their injury issues in the RS.

OKC wins via an MVP player on the roster with a bunch of “3-and-D” guys, essentially. SGA put in an incredibly consistent year, and all his comrades seemed to rise even higher than before – Jalen Williams also earning All-NBA 3rd team accolades. Even with Holmgren missing a large chunk of the year with a hip injury, this team still powered through it relatively well.

To gameplan efficiently, teams needed to conquer the pressure defense and stop the MVP. Ultimately, that wasn’t as easy as advertised, and contentious among NBA fans.

The Thunder’s pressure affected how the game was called as well. I would like to note here that I am a Thunder fan as well as the Supersonics, and can admit through my biases that there were indeed times where the officials did make a difference in the Thunder’s year. Now, by and large, I do not complain too much about refereeing, but it is important to note that perhaps the NBA’s stance on defensive pressure is changing. If they allow more pressure in this way, other teams surely need to adjust and do the same – because it was effective for OKC, and I noticed it. It made a difference in these playoff games.

After falling to Dallas in R2 last year, this team was looking for answers to get better. Than answer was apparently as easy as trading Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso straight up, and signing Hartenstein to a solid 3-yr deal as he was a Free Agent. Those two moves, plus a relatively similar roster, led to positive results. Hartenstein was a perfect addition in the post, and Caruso’s tenacious defense really made life difficult for other teams. Shout out to GM Sam Presti for these winning moves.

Now that the offseason is here, OKC has a collection of contract questions to address - primarily Holmgren and Jalen Williams. But there are other players still in need of extensions, and 3 draft picks (#15, #24, #44) incoming with zero roster spots available unless trades or waives occur.

One thing is for sure, those are “good problems” to have after winning a Title, and surely the key rostered players will get paid, and the deeper bench will be rotated slightly in the coming season.

Congrats to the OKC Thunder and their fans as the only team to avoid the graveyard, and survive the season as the champion.


Importantly, how do you rate this season for the Thunder, and what do you think of their prospects going forward ?

[Deathray]

Daigs made a lot of glaring mistakes throughout the playoffs but maybe he'll learn from them and he did ultimately drive the McClaren to P1. I do think the jury's still very much out on him but there probably aren't any obviously better options available, although Thibs with this defense would be absolutely nasty.

[Godymas]

highest dynastic potential since the 2015 Warriors. Steph, 26, Klay 24, Dray 24. SGA 26, JDub 23, Chet 22. Average team age is around 25.5. The Warriors were 26.6.

I’m a firm believer that winning a championship can unlock certain teams. What’s crazy about OKC is they won a championship and are still selecting surprisingly high in the draft. They still have Nikola Topic, they still have all these picks. This is how teams in the NFL build dynasties, except the NFL draft is much deeper. They hit on win now draft picks year over year to keep the machine strong. OKC can 100% do that.

Now, it goes without saying that no one can predict tomorrow. Boston were older but looked set to win 2-3 years and now are blowing it up. I don’t believe OKC will blow it up due to injury. They could retool if required in a much more meaningful way.

Sam Presti is now a top 3 GM of all time btw.

[KGtabake]

Maybe it's a bit early but i have Sam Presti as the best GM of our era and to me he's top5 all time.
Celtics, Heat, Warriors and Lakers are easier to be built due to culture, market etc etc
To build something like that in OKC is far more difficult.
Time will tell but i think we live in the era of Sam now. And I'm loving it.

[chilluminati]

OKC's youth and maturity makes them a great contender for a dynasty, although I worry about the CBA derailing dynasties before they even start. But without turning this into doomsaying I do think Presti will keep the war chest to continue adding talent through the draft to hopefully stave that issue off. Dumping your assets nowadays for big time players under big time contracts is no longer the play and Presti understands that.

[Wingy]

2 people voted for changing the FO…

[The Servant]

The additions of iHart and Caruso and switching Giddey out were the moves we needed. I still could not have fathomed 68 wins. Even with that, I am in disbelief of the run!

What a year!

[UcanUwill]

Great team, believed in them the whole way, made a bet on them winning it all when they were still playing Denver, tho Jokic and Indiana tested by belief at times.

As international basketball fan and just a guy who doesn't like incorrect stuff, I was very glad that no one called ''world champions'' last night, props on that. But they are definitely your new NBA champions, 7th different team to NBA in 7 years, but this parity CBA will be tested by this team, because they are just getting started.

Shout out to Pokusevski lol. Even Presti put pants on one leg at a time and even he make some basketball mistakes.

[Doctor MJ]

A championship year for a team that should be better next year. Scary times for the league.

[Wingy]

A championship year for a team that should be better next year. Scary times for the league.

Yeah, the time to get them was this year. This run only makes them stronger moving forward. Seen it so many times, the confidence that a title imparts on a team.
Definitely a repeat favorite if healthy.

[Doctor MJ]

A championship year for a team that should be better next year. Scary times for the league.

Yeah, the time to get them was this year. This run only makes them stronger moving forward. Seen it so many times, the confidence that a title imparts on a team.
Definitely a repeat favorite if healthy.

Oh, I think the time to get them was last year.

[Saints14]

Only question to me is how much better can they get? Do Jalen Williams or Chet Holmgren have 1st or 2nd team all NBA potential? Could Cason Wallace take a leap? How good is Nikola Topic and who else can they bring in from this years draft? Hell SGA will still only be 27 next year, what else can he add to his game? Not to mention they’re all finals hardened now, and Daigneault should only get sharper.

Of course, even with the same players each team is unique in its own way - it’s also possible that this iteration had some magic that they are unable to recapture, or they have worse playoff injury luck in the future. Daigneault talks often about how selfless they are and how amazing their chemistry is, we’ve seen that be fleeting. I wouldn’t bet on a decline, but improvement is no sure thing either.

[___Rand___]

Pacers showed that OKC doesn't have any good match ups for the hybrid fast and quick 3/4 guys like Pascal Siakam and Toppin who exploited their defense time and again. Presti might tweak the lineup and either draft or trade for one of those. There was one guy on the bench who is that 3/4 guy but he doesn't seem ready nor is he fast enough. Last year Thunder had a hole at 5. Presti got Hartenstein. He has more than enough assets. What will Presti do this time?

[Dadouv47]

I think we should trade Isaiah Joe + Dieng and a pick or two for a better player but I don't think it will happen. We need a better scorer/two way player than isaiah Joe

Dieng is probably gone though, we will draft one player in the first round and hope we can get some decent minutes from guys under rookie contract.

[The Servant]

Great team, believed in them the whole way, made a bet on them winning it all when they were still playing Denver, tho Jokic and Indiana tested by belief at times.

As international basketball fan and just a guy who doesn't like incorrect stuff, I was very glad that no one called ''world champions'' last night, props on that. But they are definitely your new NBA champions, 7th different team to NBA in 7 years, but this parity CBA will be tested by this team, because they are just getting started.

Shout out to Pokusevski lol. Even Presti put pants on one leg at a time and even he make some basketball mistakes.

Poku is in for MIP and an MVP season one of these days.

[The Servant]

Pacers showed that OKC doesn't have any good match ups for the hybrid fast and quick 3/4 guys like Pascal Siakam and Toppin who exploited their defense time and again. Presti might tweak the lineup and either draft or trade for one of those. There was one guy on the bench who is that 3/4 guy but he doesn't seem ready nor is he fast enough. Last year Thunder had a hole at 5. Presti got Hartenstein. He has more than enough assets. What will Presti do this time?

They seemed to have so much size and quickness, it was shocking. OKC has drafted long players and usually values athleticism but Pacers line up was full of miss matches and looked fast, strong and big out there.

Spot on with this assessment. Ousman Dieng was supposed to be this guy but he never developed, not enough playing time and skill unfortunately. Its a hole that needs addressing.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

I expect JDubs and Chet to improve next year.

I also expect the Thunder to draft some studs that are going to eventually replace Dort, Wallace etc.

[PlatinumState]

Blow it up, its clearly not working

[WestbrookGOATed]

Maybe it's a bit early but i have Sam Presti as the best GM of our era and to me he's top5 all time.
Celtics, Heat, Warriors and Lakers are easier to be built due to culture, market etc etc
To build something like that in OKC is far more difficult.
Time will tell but i think we live in the era of Sam now. And I'm loving it.

Hard to express our love and appreciation for Sam. He's the GOAT.

[WestbrookGOATed]

I think we should trade Isaiah Joe + Dieng and a pick or two for a better player but I don't think it will happen. We need a better scorer/two way player than isaiah Joe

Dieng is probably gone though, we will draft one player in the first round and hope we can get some decent minutes from guys under rookie contract.

I still want Giannis but I'm just being greedy woke up champions brother!