For the first time in a long time, the Oklahoma City Thunder will enter a season as the hunted instead of the hunters. A team with this much youth rarely earns recognition as a serious championship contender — but OKC is beyond that. According to the majority opinion, the Thunder already rule a tough Western Conference. And at their pace, it is almost a matter of time before they stand at the very peak of the NBA mountaintop.
The hot take
Spearheaded by a trio of quickly improving players, you don’t have to look past Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams to understand the tremendous ceiling of the Thunder. They won 57 games last season — when nobody expected they would get even close to that number — and saw incremental improvement from nearly every player on the roster.
For a team this good, a team that is this rich in talent, virtually no take is too “hot” for it to handle. From the youngest players on the roster like 20-year-old Cason Wallace to the 26-year-old SGA, stars on this roster have well-defined roles. That said, next season could be a different monster, with Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein ready to slide into their respective roles.