Oklahoma City Thunder: A Historic NBA Season Overview

Watch Oklahoma City Thunder: A Historic NBA Season Overview - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Now let's talk about Oklahoma City. 84 total wins, regular and postseason DRS. As I mentioned,

00:06one of four teams to ever pull off that feat in NBA history. The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors,

00:11who had 88. The 95-96 Bulls, they had 87 combined. And the 96-97 Bulls, who also had 84. This

00:20Oklahoma City team was an NBA favorite throughout a good majority of this season, and they capitalized

00:27on that. They made some history along the way as well, so don't just throw in the asterisks because

00:34Tyrese Halliburton did go down early in game number one. As I mentioned, a home point differential on

00:42average of 19.9 points per game in their 13, plus 259 in total, that an NBA record. Best turnover

00:51differential in a single playoffs. They forced a ton from Indiana last night, plus 131 in total.

00:5719-2 all year long, DRS, following a loss. They bounced back and did so in a big way. Plus 1247,

01:061,247 points. The best overall point differential in a single season in NBA history. And again,

01:13we anoint a champion and then immediately ask, okay, so what's next? What about next season?

01:19This Thunder team was the youngest in the NBA. Look at the ages of their starting lineup.

01:24Last night, Shea Gilgis-Alexander, the NBA MVP, he's 26. Lou Dort, the ferocious defender,

01:31he's 26. Jalen Williams is only 24. Chet Holmgren is only 23. He had 18-8. J-Dub had 20 after a slow

01:40start. Isaiah Hartenstein, the big offseason acquisition for the Thunder, is only 27. The oldest

01:46guy on the team is Alex Caruso, and he's just 30 years old. And oh, by the way, Sam Presti,

01:53the general manager in Oklahoma City, has accumulated 13 first-round picks in the next

01:58seven NBA drafts, including two on Wednesday night, this week, in the 2025 NBA draft. Those

02:05two picks in the top 24 selections as well. DRS, this Thunder team seems as though they will be here

02:11for a long time to come. Exactly. The only question it's going to be is you play in OKC,

02:17not the largest market, certainly by any stretch in the NBA. When these guys are young and they're

02:21coming up for contract renegotiations in their contract seasons, they are going to get a lot

02:26of money, and that's what happens. But you do have those bird rights, as we like to say.

02:29If you want to pay that payroll with your current guys, you can keep this team together for a long,

02:34long time. But as we saw in the past, the Boston Celtics go, hey, we got a championship here.

02:39We have an unbelievably talented team, but a massive high payroll because everybody got paid.

02:43The ownership group's like, now's my time to get out at this point. That's the only thing that could

02:48be a downfall for OKC. But as we pointed out with that graphic, they're young, they're hungry,

02:52they're talented, and we no longer have to say, it's the regular season. I want to see how this

02:57team actually provides that strength here in the playoffs as well. They're through that. So if

03:01they're the number one seed band entering into the playoffs next year, we don't even have that

03:05question. The expectations would be, yeah, they're going to win it again.