NBA Writer Makes Interesting Thunder Prediction For 2025-26
OKC is still young, but how hungry will they be this season?
Will the Oklahoma City Thunder have another dominant season in 2025-26, or will human nature take over?
As impressive as OKC’s championship season was in 2024-25, the Thunder will face a more arduous road to a repeat title. Not only will Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Co. have a target on their back every night; OKC will be battling against the complacency that traditionally follows NBA championships (see: 2024-25 Boston Celtics).
Even so, if there was ever a team to rise above traditional narratives, it would be this OKC squad that is impossibly young and expected to keep improving (scary for the NBA).
On Thursday, Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes doubled down on OKC’s success, predicting that the Thunder will finish with the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference by a margin of 10 games.
“The defending champs finished an incredible 16 games ahead of the second-seeded Houston Rockets last year, marking the first time in a decade the No. 1 seed had that large of a cushion in the West,” Hughes wrote.
“With all the offseason buzz about how much more formidable the conference is this year, the safe assumption would be that OKC will coast a bit as it recovers from a championship run while threats in Houston, Denver, Minnesota and elsewhere push the pedal down a little harder in pursuit of postseason seeding. This is a bet on the Thunder’s potential to hit yet another level in their evolution. That’s not to say Oklahoma City will tax its top talent and try to win 70-plus games. It’s an acknowledgement that one of the all-time best regular season records might just arise organically as the team’s many young players keep improving.”
“Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren are the obvious upward-movers, but even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has room to get better,” Hughes continued. “Stephen Curry won an MVP and a championship, only to rise even higher the following season. A unanimous MVP is highly unlikely, but Gilgeous-Alexander could sharpen up his playmaking and passing pretty easily, which would have a positive trickle-down effect on every teammate. The top teams out West are more dangerous than ever. OKC is going to make sure the gap between itself and those squads stays historically wide.”
To Hughes’ point, GM Sam Presti has built a ridiculous roster that is designed for sustained excellence.
Gilgeous-Alexander is coming off an MVP season where he averaged 32.7 points, 6.4 assists and 5.0 rebounds, and yet it’s crazy to think that SGA is still improving (he turned 27 in July).
If OKC does win the West by another wide margin, it would solidify their status as a budding dynasty.
