Heading into the 2024 offseason, few fans expected to see the Oklahoma City Thunder go all-in on a massive free agency spending spree, even as one of the few teams in the NBA with cap space to burn.
Sure, the team could have been players in the Paul George sweepstakes, as there were some fans who feel very nostalgic about his time in OKC – not to mention it would be hilarious to get SGA, PG, and all of the picks from the Clippers – but considering their roster is going to become very expensive in the not-too-distant future, adding a few more quality rotation players to the team's top-8 felt far more likely.
To Sami Presti's credit, he did just that, and frankly, the Thunder are looking pretty good as a result.
Coming off a 57-win season that saw the team make it to the Western Conference Semifinals, the Thunder swapped out arguably their least effective starter, Josh Giddey, for one of the most in-demand guards in the NBA in Alex Caruso and then backed it up with the addition of Isaiah Hartenstein, who was the most in-demand center in the business after a breakthrough season in New York with the Knicks.
With a top-tier top-8 now locked in, more than a few fans have declared that the Western Conference now runs through OKC, but that thought process feels somewhat shortsighted, as we don't yet know what the Thunder's roster will even look like come playoff time.
Think about it: the Thunder still have the deepest pool of assets in the NBA and showed last year that they were willing to pay up for the correct opportunity to make their roster better, even if, again, the Hayward deal really didn't work out well at all. If the team's around the Thunder get better to come February while OKC stays the same, or if the team suffers a serious injury at a position of need and opts against trading for a premier replacement, who knows, maybe the Thunder will disappoint versus their sky-high expectations.
Then again, considering they have more assets than any contender in the West, if any team projects to be better at Game 82 than Game 1, it should be the Thunder, so cautious optimism is totally fine with that in mind.
Chet Holmgren is excited about the OKC Thunder's new additions
While the Thunder may not be a complete team just yet, and rightfully so, considering it's only August, when discussing OKC's moves so far with reporters earlier this offseason, All-Rookie center Chet Holmgren had nothing but nice things to say about the big prizes of Presti's summer, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein.
While only time will tell how the newest members of the Thunder will fit alongside the team's core, especially Hartenstein at the five, Holmgren is excited about the prospects of adding a pair of top-tier, two-way players to the Thunder's roster heading into the fall.
“I'm extremely excited. Both very good players with great skill sets. Both have skill sets that complement other skill sets that we have. And we have skill sets that complement what they do too. I think it's great fits all around. I feel like the addition of them opens up more to what we can do,” Holmgren told reporters via Inside the Thunder.
“Obviously, what we did last year works so I don't expect us to try to rewrite the whole book this year. But you're always searching to push for your ceiling and just continue do what we did. Our organization always wants best… We're not married to one thing, and we always looking for the best possible outcome like who we can become, and we always kind of reach for that, and I feel like those moves are kinda examples of that.”
If there's one minor complaint fans can send the Thunder's way last season, it's that they were a bit too willing to stick with what they were doing, with the team running a deep rotation into the playoffs when most teams are trimming things down to just a few players with expanded workloads. While some of that could have come down to inexperience or to the fact that Gordan Hayward really didn't contribute much as a combo forward who could shift on and off the ball with ease, if the Thunder are wise, they will start settling on their 16 game players versus their 82 game players after the trade deadline, as having a lean, mean, positive points differential machine heading into the playoffs could be the difference between representing the West in the NBA Finals and a disappointing end to the season.
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