On Wednesday evening, the Oklahoma City Thunder punched their ticket to the NBA Finals with a dominant Game 5 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals. The series victory gives the Thunder their first NBA Finals berth since 2012 and also erased any doubts about how legitimate their 68-win regular season was.

The Thunder now await either the Indiana Pacers or the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. The Pacers currently lead that series 3-1, but it's safe to say that whoever comes out of the East, Oklahoma City will be the heavy favorites to win the Finals.

Making matters more impressive is that the Thunder are doing this with the youngest roster in the NBA and with a boatload of assets at their disposal moving forward, potentially setting the stage for a long run of success.

Recently, former NBA Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford spoke on how he views the Thunder going into the future.

“They have the runway to do it,” said Crawford of the Thunder potentially winning multiple championships, per NBA on ESPN on X, formerly Twitter. “… It's really unusual to see a younger team like this and a young coach kind of peaking at the right time.”

The stars align for the Thunder

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Perhaps the only question left on Thunder fans' minds is how in the world the team let the Denver Nuggets take them to seven games in the second round considering how dominant they have otherwise been throughout this playoff run.

Oklahoma City has already set the record for most 30-plus point wins by a team in a single postseason run, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has more than backed up his recent MVP win with his play over this playoff stretch.

The Thunder now sit just four wins away from hoisting an NBA championship, which would be quite the accomplishment considering their youth and relative lack of experience.

The NBA Finals are slated to begin on Thursday, June 5 in Oklahoma City at 8:30 PM ET against either the Pacers or Knicks.