The Oklahoma City Thunder are perhaps the most promising teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) right now. The Thunder recently secured the number one seed in the Western Conference with a 57-25 regular season record. They were led by young stars Chet Holmgren and Shai-Gilegious Alexander who averaged 16.5 and 30.1 points per game respectively in the regular season. This gives them a lot of potential with two young stars along with other young talent for the future and also not to mention that they have an absolute treasure chest of draft picks for the next several seasons. This leads many to speculate that the Thunder can create the next superteam and dynasty due to these factors.
First, as mentioned earlier, the Thunder has a lot of young potential. Another young gun that has been emerging is Jalen Williams, averaging 19.1 points per game to go along with 4.5 assists per game in the regular season while being only 23 years old. Furthermore, this was supposed to be a year to rebuild for the Thunder, but the emergence of star Shai-Gilegious Alexander as an offensive threat and defensive star has led to an unexpected one-seed appearance for the organization. Another contributing star is Chet Holmgren, who has proved as a rookie to be one of the best defensive rim-protectors in the league and as one of the most athletic big men. This dynamic duo has proved lethal to other franchises as they torched teams with the Thunder averaging 120.1 points per game, third in the league being the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers. The Thunder’s age will be a huge asset to them in the future as these players now will turn into stellar veterans to mentor and help the young players the Thunder brings on with all of their draft picks.
Next, the Oklahoma City Thunder have an absolute war chest of draft picks that they will collectively use to create the NBA’s next dynasty. Even though the Thunder just went from four first-round picks to likely 1-2, they used them to increase their roster potential and talent by trading for picks in later years as this draft class is considered weak and not as strong as the ones to come. As for next year though, the Thunder have four first-round picks with one guaranteed top-six pick along with two second-rounders. This is a lot of picks, but it doesn’t even come close to their arsenal for the 2029 draft class where they have two first-round picks, one being guaranteed in the top five adding on to their six, second-round picks where the best players might not be avaliable, but there have been diamonds in the rough in round two such as Nikola Jokic and Dennis Rodman. Clearly, the amount of draft capital and future assets that the Thunder have in store will be able to further elevate them to win their second NBA Championship and hopefully more as there is quite a superteam brewing in Oklahoma.
To conclude, the Oklahoma City Thunder will become the next NBA dynasty as they have all the draft picks and young stars to do it. Some young stars that have already secured the Thunder the number one seed in the west are the dynamic trio of Shai-Gilegious Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams. The Thunder are already a good team now with their current, young team, but just imagine how much more they can stack their roster will all of the draft capital that they have stored up. The Thunder have 35 picks over the next seven years, with 15 of them in the first round which has them bringing on a lot of fresh, raw talent. Due to these two main contributing factors, the Thunder can become the NBA’s next dynasty.
