Should OKC be afraid of KD’s Suns?
The Oklahoma City Thunder sit favorably as the 2024-25 NBA regular season gets closer. With arguably the most talent-rich roster in the association, the Blue and Orange are no longer an underdog story; they are the talk of basketball with lofty expectations.
From the higher-ups to the last guys off the bench, everyone in the organization will feel pressure unlike ever before. Welcome to the reality of being a top-three championship-contending team. And let's not forget that this is just the Thunder's first of what could be many years of title expectations placed on their shoulders.
The true team to beat in the West?
The offseason didn't change the direction OKC was headed in. All it did was help the franchise speed toward the mountaintop, which is why the NBA world's perspective changed so rapidly. Think back to this time last season. No one would've been willing to bet that the Thunder would have secured over 55 wins, much less the top seed in the Western Conference.
Considering that the team's best player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is just 26 years old and the other two best players, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, are 22 and 23, respectively, it puts into greater perspective just how surreal the Thunder's turnaround has been.
It is supposedly so surreal that some aren't completely ready to buy in on them. It's almost like watching someone go through so many triumphs that you feel they are bound to fail at some point.
That's perhaps the idea an anonymous NBA executive has in mind. In fact, he has faith in arguably the league's most disappointing team from a season ago.
"The team to beat in the West is Phoenix, believe it or not," he told Sportskeeda. "I think their top-end talent is just ready to make a move. KD [Kevin Durant] and Book [Devin Booker] are really, really good. They had an outlier year last year with trying to get everything working together. I think Mike Budenholzer and Tyus Jones are great additions. ... Denver, Dallas, Oklahoma City are options. But I think the one-two punch in Phoenix is better than the one-two punch anywhere else."
The Suns were a mystery entering the offseason. Year 1 of the Kevin Durant-Devin Booker-Bradley experiment failed miserably, as Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves easily swept the team in the first round.
While the Thunder only made it one round further in the end, no one then - and, quite frankly still - put OKC and Phoenix in the same breath, considering the teams with the brightest future. The Durant-led Suns could, however, have the best immediate future if they can figure out how to best implement their star trio and maximize No. 35 while he is still elite.
That said, virtually everyone is willing to submit that the Thunder are going to be the better team this season and moving forward. If last season was a sign, it's that KD is no longer able to lift a team to a deep postseason run and Oklahoma City has only begun its ascent to the top.
Related: ESPN expert puts OKC near top of 'Tower of Power' in NBA offenseThis story was originally published October 17, 2024, 6:00 AM.
