As the top seed in the West with the second-best record in the NBA, the Oklahoma City Thunder should be considered favorites to win the championship this year. Instead, NBA insider Brian Windhorst says they are the most disrespected team in the league because nobody believes in their title chances.
“I hear it implicitly from other people I talk to in the league, I hear it implicitly from players out there who are like, ‘Yeah, yeah will be fine on the same side of the bracket as OKC.’ They just don’t respect them,” said Windhorst on First Take.
The Thunder achieved prosperity in the Kevin Durant era, even making it to the NBA Finals in 2012. After Durant left to sign with the Warriors, the Thunder spent years building around Russell Westbrook before finally trading him and Paul George to start a new rebuild.
In one of the fastest turnarounds in modern NBA history, the Thunder went from bottom-feeders to one of the best teams in the West. Thanks to the contributions of stars like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jaylen Williams, they have a star-studded core that can compete with the best of the West.
This season, through 65 games, the Thunder are 53-12 at the top of the standings. The only team with a higher win percentage is the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are first in the East at 54-10.
Despite their dominance in the regular season, however, there are serious doubts that the Thunder can make a championship run this year. Besides youth and inexperience, recent history is enough to convince critics to pick against the Thunder.
Even though they finished first in the West last season, they lost in the second round to a Mavericks team that got destroyed in the NBA Finals against Boston. The series exposed some major problems for the Thunder, especially on offense.
The biggest issue was OKC’s three-point shooting, which fell off a cliff at 33.5% shooting against the Mavs (compared to 38.9% in the regular season). On the other end, the Thunder had no answers to Luka Doncic, who averaged 24.7 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 8.7 assists in the series.
After that brutal playoff defeat, the Thunder became an afterthought in the West. For them to earn the respect and recognition they feel they deserve, Oklahoma City must deliver where it counts the most: in the NBA playoffs.
This year, as the first seed, the Thunder are set to play whoever comes out of the play-in, but it won’t be an easy path from there. With teams like the Nuggets, Thunder, and Lakers lurking as contenders, winning the West will be a difficult endeavor.
Until they get it done, the NBA community will continue to doubt and question their status in the league. With a superstar like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a worthy second option in Jalen Williams, and a deep cast of role players, this team has all the tools they need to make a deep playoff run this spring, and that’s what it will take before fans are ready to give them the benefit of the doubt.
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