OKLAHOMA CITY — In 2022, the Oklahoma City Thunder won 24 games. They were two years removed from a 2020 postseason appearance, two years into rebuilding, often referenced first within broader conversations about the league’s tanking epidemic. Other franchises lost more, and for longer, than them. But they were losing, even as they wheeled and dealed for draft picks and temporarily homed celebrated veterans. And it appeared they would keep losing, at least for a few more years, even while discovering promising prospects and realizing they had a franchise player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
And yet, after a 135-86 win in Sunday’s regular-season finale against a resting Dallas Mavericks team, Oklahoma City has clinched the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed.
The Thunder accomplished it this season with five starters all aged 25 or younger, including 21-year-old rookie Chet Holmgren, who missed the entirety of his first year due to injury after being selected second overall in 2022. Holmgren played in all 82 games, as did rookie Cason Wallace, a 20-year-old rookie guard who served as the team’s sixth man. Gilgeous-Alexander is still 25, Lu Dort 24, Josh Giddey 21. Second-year Jalen Williams, a candidate for Most Improved Player who averaged the team’s second-most points, is only 22.
When Oklahoma City made its first leap last season, improving by 16 wins and losing in the Play-In Tournament’s second game, it piqued the league’s interest. The Thunder, after several seasons cycling through youngsters, had started to assemble a core group with enormous potential and future picks galore. But it seemed too soon for another such leap, too soon to add another 16 wins upon its 40-42 record.
And then, this season, Oklahoma City topped that, winning 17 more games than it did last year. One year removed from a Play-In Tournament appearance, it’s the Thunder atop the West, waiting for that same tournament to confirm their opponent.
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It was a moment that should be celebrated. In the locker room, they did, acknowledging the accomplishment and passing out shirts that said “Northwest Division Champions,” which happened to be the division from which all three of the conference’s top seeds came. When asked about what the team had done in the locker room, Holmgren unzipped his hoodie to reveal he was wearing that shirt underneath. “Like this,” he said, saying the team took a team photo wearing them.
It was a muted celebration, then, but an acknowledgement of what they had achieved nevertheless. Even if not every player left wearing them.
“This leather jacket’s expensive,” Williams explained with a smile, asked why he wasn’t wearing one of the same shirts when he arrived for his postgame news conference. “But I’ve got four or five of them in my bag.”
Oklahoma City, with an average age of 23.9 years, has become the youngest team in NBA history to secure a No. 1 seed. But the Thunder, who bull rushed into existence less than two decades ago to earn their place within the league, have been here before. They’ve had a young core punching above its expectations, even if Williams and Gilgeous-Alexander now wear designer sunglasses during postgame news conferences rather than Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook’s lensless frames. They have built a young roster that seemed destined for dynasty success and watched it fall short.
But experiencing history is the only way to avoid being frightened by it. There’s no question this iteration of the Thunder has the franchise-borne humility, even if most of the pieces have been changed.
“When we wake up Tuesday morning, we’re 0-0,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “It’s a new season. Everything that we did in the regular season doesn’t matter except opponent and seeding. … We’ll go into it with great respect for our opponents, but great respect for ourselves.”
Oklahoma City has earned that respect. More important than the No. 1 seed, which seemed unlikely before the Denver Nuggets’ unexpected defeat Friday to the San Antonio Spurs, the Thunder have the league’s third-best offense and fifth-best defense this season. While the top seed is important, if only for the home-court advantage it provides through the West bracket. It’s not the team’s youth, but its ability that has Oklahoma City confident about what’s to come.
“I don’t care how (young or) old we are,” Daigneault said. “Our advantage is how our guys compete in the way they do and how committed they are to doing that. It’s not an advantage or disadvantage. It’s really about how your team performs.”
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Sure, the Thunder might be ahead of schedule. This team might not have expected to be first in its conference, topping last year’s improvement in total wins. It might have a cadre of starters who came of age when cell phones were ubiquitous and social media had already snaked into society’s lifeblood. But these players, age aside, have proven what is expected of No. 1 seeds without any age-related qualifiers. And that’s the team, and the confidence, they take into the postseason, no matter which opponent the Play-In Tournament presents to them.
In 2021, Sam Presti, the team’s general manager and architect of the franchise’s entire history, addressed the 22-win season that had just concluded. The team’s No. 1 seed now accomplished felt awfully far away. In a lengthy news conference, before almost any of the players who brought them here had even arrived, he said, “When we do get back to the postseason, we want it to be an arrival and not an appearance.”
Three years later, the Thunder have arrived. And no matter what the postseason brings, they’ll be here for a lot longer still.
(Top photo of Jaylin Williams and Jalen Williams: Alonzo Adams / USA Today)
