Bad News, NBA Fans, The Oklahoma City Thunder Will Be Good For A Long Time
The Oklahoma City Thunder are fresh off an NBA Championship and are showing no signs of slowing down.
Sunday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder took down the Indiana Pacers in seven games to capture their first NBA Championship since moving from Seattle in 2008.
It was a fitting end to a dominant season by the Thunder, winning 68 games and tying the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls for third-most regular-season and playoff wins (84) in NBA history.
If this core of players sticks together, though, this could be just the beginning of a terrifying reign in OKC.
Starting with next season, the Thunder are already heavy betting favorites to repeat as champions, according to DraftKings' title odds.
That's a great indicator that the Thunder will at least be at the top of the conversation for the 2026 title, but let's look even further beyond that.
Oklahoma City's core of key players, consisting of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams, are 26, 23, and 24 years old, respectively.
SGA is one of the best players in the league, winning league MVP, Finals MVP, and the scoring title this year, while Williams made the All-NBA third team this season, and Holmgren was named to the All-Rookie first team last year.
The Thunder possess possibly the brightest young nucleus of star players in the NBA, are coming off a championship-winning season, and have room to grow as well.
Just look at the embarrassment of riches this organization has in terms of draft picks over the next several seasons.
Even if they don't use a single one of these picks to draft a player, they still have a ton of capital to use in case they want to add more talent to this roster through a trade.
Thunder GM Sam Presti should win NBA Executive of the Year for the next five years alone based on this masterclass of a future he laid out for his organization.
Even coach Mark Daigneault deserves special mention, who, at the ripe age of 40 years old, has an NBA Coach of the Year award and an NBA Championship to his name.
They have the coach, the GM, the draft picks, and the core, so it's hard to see anything slowing this Oklahoma City team down anytime soon.
If you traveled back to the summer of 2012 and told the average Thunder fan that the core of Durant, Westbrook, and Harden would never win a ring together, but a different core would win it 13 years later, you would have been summarily laughed out of the Sooner State.
Enjoy this, Oklahoma City.
Your future is bright and the league, for the foreseeable future, belongs to the Thunder.