NBA 2024-25: Mind The Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder were relocated from Seattle in 2008. While I know that many Seattleites have been longing for the return of the SuperSonics since then, they have had some rich history to fall back on in the meantime. True basketball fans adore and cherish just how cool the Shawn Kemp/Gary Payton era was throughout the ‘90s.

PayCom Center, home of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Following some lean years and cascading attendance totals, the franchise drafted future superstar Kevin Durant in 2007, which would be their last season spent in Seattle. In the 2008 draft, they selected both Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka in the first round — the franchise’s last draft selections while known as the Sonics. Their first draft selection while known as the Thunder was James Harden with the 3rd pick in 2009.

Mom made pizza rolls!!! If you know, you know.

It’s well known by hoop heads that the aforementioned run of draft selections is the single-most star-studded and impactful three-year draft run of all-time. Ibaka was the least accomplished of the 4 (and that’s far from a slight). All Serge was able to do in the NBA was become a 2x blocked-shots champion, finish top-5 in Defensive Player of The Year voting 3 consecutive times and win a championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019.

Durant, Westbrook, and Harden, however, are all surefire Hall-of-Famers.

They have NINE scoring titles combined (Durant 4, Harden 3, Westbrook 2).

They have 35 combined All-Star selections with Westbrook’s 9, Harden’s 11, and KD’s 15.

All-NBA selections? How about 27 combined between these three legends with Harden’s 7, Westbrook’s 9, and Durant’s 11.

And, of course: they have each captured the greatest individual player award that the NBA has to offer: Most Valuable Player. Durant & Westbrook won theirs as members of the Thunder in 2014 and 2017 respectively, while Harden took home his MVP as a member of the Houston Rockets in 2018.

So, with all that being said, it would seem preposterous to suggest that there is a star on the Thunder’s current roster that could supplant each of the aforementioned players to become the greatest player in the franchise’s history.

But that’s exactly what I — and many others — are now suggesting.

OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was acquired by the franchise along with a treasure trove of picks back in 2019 from the LA Clippers in exchange for Paul George, is the presumptive league MVP for 2024-25. By the way, that’s WITH 3x MVP Nikola Jokic averaging a 30 PPG triple-double this season (!) in what might be his best individual campaign yet (That includes a 30-20-20 game & a 60-10-10 game).

Yes, that is how dominant SGA has been in both leading the league in scoring and serving as the head of the snake for the best defensive team in the league and one of the best defenses pound-for-pound in NBA history.

It lines up that Gilgeous-Alexander finds himself as the shining star on a dynamic and excellent two-way engine of a team, because Gilgeous-Alexander himself is a two-way marvel. He blocks a historic amount of shots for a point guard WHILE also leading the league in steals this season, and that's all just an add-on to his incredible scoring prowess. SGA just clinched his third consecutive season averaging over 30 points-per-game, and led the Association in 20-pt, 30-pt, 40-pt, AND 50-pt games this season, on the way to winning the first scoring title of his career.

By all accounts and statistics, SGA has established himself as one of the rare "machine-like" perimeter scorers in NBA history, among the ranks of men like Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, and the aforementioned Durant. If you think that's hyperbole, I urge you to check the stats and watch the games.

Steph Curry and Golden State were one of 4 teams to defeat OKC multiple times this season -- they could potentially meet in the WCF. PHOTO CREDIT: CARY EDMONDSON/IMAGN IMAGES/REUTERS

I don't even really have a comp for SGA's game. A more methodical Dwyane Wade? Point being, Gilgeous-Alexander's game is one of a kind -- truly unique.

Given the short-lived tenure for Harden, the lack of a championship from Westbrook, and Durant’s infamous sour exit from OKC — if SGA is able to lead an excellent Thunder team to their first championship in franchise history, given his incredible individual profile and trajectory already (he’s now averaged 30+ PPG for a third consecutive season) — he’ll have undoubtedly earned the title of ‘Mr. Thunder.’

I’ve been over this before here on TRB Sports: the now-78-year history of the NBA can be told through dynasties. The George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers. The Bill Russell Celtics. The Magic vs Bird rivalry. The Jordan and Pippen Bulls. The Shaq/Kobe Lakers. The 3-point revolutionary Golden State Warriors.

Many are saying that this Thunder squad could potentially be dynasty material. Seems a little rushed to say, considering they haven’t climbed the mountaintop even once yet. But it’s easy to understand why they’re being talked up as such.

They have the requisite generational talent in SGA. They have an enviable supporting cast — young co-stars in Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, with nothing but defensive mercenaries like Luguentz Dort and Alex Caruso, as well as three-point snipers like Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins and Jaylin Williams (yes, there's two of them) rounding out their rotation. Their head coach, Mark Daigneault, has impressively climbed up the ranks from the G-League to the pros, establishing himself as one of the most impressive minds in the NBA today.

Time is a flat circle.

Beyond putting together a fantastic roster in the present, they’re also extremely well-equipped to extend their window into the future thanks to the absolute glutton of first-round picks that GM Sam Presti has hoarded over the years.

During last year’s postseason, I was critical of Presti for his lack of aggression in utilizing said glutton of FRP’s at last season’s trade deadline, when the team very clearly needed another big man. Presti instead watched OKC’s Western Conference counterpart Dallas Mavericks acquire Daniel Gafford & P.J. Washington, who were both instrumental in Dallas’ 6-game defeat of Oklahoma City in last year’s Western Conference Semis. It upset me so much that I wrote a whole piece on it a year ago.

But what’s then is then and what’s now is now. OKC signed free agent center Isaiah Hartenstein to plug that hole in the middle, and he’s as big a reason as any for the Thunder’s historically-great regular season that just concluded.

OKC compiled 68 regular season wins. Sixty-eight! That’s tied for the 4th-most wins all time. It’s even more remarkable when you consider that Hartenstein missed 25 games and Holmgren missed 50 (OKC went 19-6 without Hartenstein and a whopping 42-8 without Holmgren).

Expanding on that, OKC finished with the highest single-season point differential EVER, on the back of the most double-digit victories in NBA history — 51 of them! They surpassed one of the greatest teams ever, the 1971-72 Wilt & Jerry Lakers, by defeating the current iteration LeBron & Luka Lakers 136-120 on April 9th.

Lastly on my list of “insane 24-25 OKC stats” — OKC finished 29-1 vs the Eastern Conference this season; their only loss coming to the 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers, clinching the most cross-conference wins by a team in a single-season… you guessed it: ever. For reference, the 73-win 2015-16 Warriors and the Shaq/Kobe 1999-00 Lakers each went just 27-3 vs the East.

In today's day and age, the nicest way I can describe the way most NBA media outlets and fans (largely as a byproduct of the media) is fickle. Opinions about players & teams swing wildly by the day -- I mean, have you watched an episode of First Take lately?

The most common theme I observe is the act of building up teams/players to break them down. In 2019-20 -- Gilgeous-Alexander's first season in Oklahoma City -- they were not expected to do a single thing after trading their franchise cornerstone in Westbrook for an "over-the-hill" Chris Paul. SGA and CP3 led the Thunder to an extremely unexpected postseason berth as the West's 6 seed. They were one of the NBA's best stories, one of those teams that became universally liked and respected by everyone.

Following that season, Chris Paul was flipped to Phoenix, an act that signaled to SGA that he was being handed the keys to the team at just 22 years-old. Each subsequent season following that point, the Thunder have seen incremental improvement led by SGA and his pack of youngsters. SGA was establishing himself as a star, and his young supporting cast grew into their own more & more right alongside him. They enjoyed one of the largest leaps in NBA history standings-wise very recently; going from a 10th-seeded finish in 2022-23 to the West's top seed in 2023-24 — the youngest team ever to capture the #1 seed in their conference. They were an incredible story with young likeable players, lauded throughout the NBA.

PHOTO CREDIT: SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN

Now in 2024-25, the Thunder have got a target on their collective backs. Not just from rival teams in the West looking to knock them out -- from that toxic discourse from some basketball fans & media I mentioned earlier. I've seen it all, from Gilgeous-Alexander being reduced to a grifting "foul-merchant", to the lanky, skinny Chet Holmgren not being built for the physicality that postseason hoop presents, as evidenced by his thrashing at the hands of the Mavericks last postseason.

It's incredible how many people believe this Thunder team aren't built to go all the way this season. Part of me understands it; the Western Conference this season was & is as good & deep as it's ever been.

Teams like the Lakers & Warriors made huge mid-season trades to bolster their stock as contenders behind their Hall-of-Fame bound legends.

The Nuggets, despite their stunning firing of head coach Michael Malone just before the playoffs, still have Jokic with remnants of their 2023 title-winning core still intact.

The Clippers, health-permitting, can absolutely make a run behind James Harden and Kawhi Leonard. The Timberwolves were just in the West Finals a year ago.

And just behind the Thunder in the standings? The Houston Rockets, with head coach Ime Udoka seeking to replicate his 2022 Finals run while with the Celtics. An interesting note here: the Rockets were 1 of 4 teams to defeat the Thunder twice this season, and EACH of those 4 teams are one of the Western Conference contenders I just named -- the Warriors, Wolves and Lakers round out that list.

And by the way, even if the Thunder do make it out of the West, they have the likelihood of facing one of two 60-win teams in the East: the 64-win Cavs and the defending champion 61-win Boston Celtics.

OKC sent a statement to the champs, winning both matchups this season. PHOTO CREDIT: JOSHUA GATELEY/GETTY IMAGES

It's certainly not the easiest road for OKC. But a 68-win team losing BEFORE the Finals has little precedent. The 68-win 1972-73 Celtics fell in the Conference Finals.

17 teams in league history have won 66+ games, excluding OKC. Only three of those teams failed to reach the Finals: the 2009 Cavs, the 2007 Mavericks, and the 2016 Spurs.

OKC failing to reach the Finals out west, when you combine precedent and statistical profile, would be liken to the 2008 66-win Celtics losing (which almost happened -- they faced two Game 7s in their first two rounds).

It'd also be liken to the 67-win 2015 Warriors losing before the Finals. Both the 2008 Celtics and the 2015 Warriors are my closest comparison points to this Thunder team when you consider that all three teams have eerily similar profiles in terms of sheer excellence on both the offensive AND defensive ends of the court.

Teams with similar regular season stat profiles to OKC -- the 2008 Celtics and the 2015 Warriors -- both closed the deal. Can OKC follow suit?

I personally believe that the Lakers with LeBron, Luka, and Austin Reaves, and the Warriors with Steph, Draymond and Jimmy Butler III are the Thunder's worthiest adversaries this postseason. I believe that both those teams' bevy of postseason experience would serve them well in a matchup vs OKC.

But Oklahoma City has been excellent enough from start to finish this year to earn the benefit of the doubt. They're the prohibitive favorite to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy up, even over the defending champs in Boston.

We've established what's at stake for SGA in terms of stamping his name as an all-time great point guard at just 26 years of age.

We've established what's at stake for Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren -- SGA's co-stars, who both had a less-than-stellar showing in OKC's defeat to Dallas last postseason.

They have what it takes across the board to win the title, no question. They may have been too young to make a run last season, too inexperienced, too soft. The additions of vets like Caruso and Hartenstein should pay immense dividends in each of those categories.

But in today's NBA, to appease today's fan? Not a modicum of respect is given until you finally go ahead and win.

Whichever way it shakes out for OKC during these playoffs, though? I urge you -- pay them some mind. Teams like this don't come around often. Watch and appreciate the camaraderie, the competitiveness, and the kinship.

And like I said earlier: they're built to be around for a long, long time. No time like now to get acquainted.