The Thunder are going to their first NBA Finals since 2012, when a young Kevin Durant fell to LeBron James and the Heat.
They could be regulars there for years to come.
While the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement is designed to create parity, the Thunder are perhaps the best team equipped to challenge the notion.
The Thunder have a combination of youth and frugality on their side, in addition to numerous assets to help them as the team gets older and more expensive in the future.
Defensive specialist Alex Caruso is the team’s oldest player at 31, and they have the fourth-youngest roster in the league at an average age of 24.7, according to Elias.
If the Thunder win the title, they will be the second-youngest NBA champion trailing only the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers (24.2), led by 24-year-old Bill Walton. The most recent NBA champion to rival the Thunder’s youth was the 2015 Golden State Warriors, who were an average age 26.3 years old. That core of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson went on to win three more.
The Thunder are led by league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is a year younger than Curry was when he won his first title. After Monday’s Game 4 win, Gilgeous-Alexander acknowledged how the Thunder are working with a similar young trio with Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren alongside him.
“We still have so much more room to grow, which is the scary part,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after Monday’s Game 4 win against Minnesota. “I’m 26, which seems old compared to the other two. They’re 23 and 24. They haven’t even hit close to their prime yet. Both of them are out there just playing off of feel and their talent. I’m excited for the future.”
Because of their youth, the Thunder aren’t in the financial race against time the way teams like the Celtics, Nuggets, and Cavaliers are.
Despite boasting the league MVP in Gilgeous-Alexander and a fellow All-Star in Williams, the Thunder will finish this season roughly $5 million below the luxury tax, boasting the league’s sixth-cheapest roster. Like the Knicks, the Thunder can easily afford to more or less run back the same roster next year.
But pay raises are coming soon and it will be interesting to see how the organization handles it. Shortly after the Thunder’s previous Finals run, the team traded away James Harden after refusing to give him the full rookie extension. Harden went on to become an MVP and the remaining duo of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant weren’t able to win the conference afterward.
Both Holmgren and Williams are eligible to sign rookie extensions this summer, which would pay $42.5 million per season, but could increase by $9 million if either is named All-NBA next season. Gilgeous-Alexander is able to sign a four-year, $293 million extension. If he waits a year, it becomes a five-year deal worth roughly $380 million that would kick in for the 2027–28 season.
Sam Presti, the team’s longtime general manager already seems to be planning for it. Presti, who was named Executive of the Year this season, has structured the team’s books to where both Isaiah Hartenstein ($28.5 million) and Lu Dort ($17.7 million) have team options for the 2026-27 season, which would come off the cap sheet as the rookie extensions kick in. Perhaps he can convince them to pull a Jalen Brunson and take a discount to help keep the core together.
The Thunder’s rebuild started with a flush of draft picks after trading Paul George to the Clippers in a return highlighted by Gilgeous-Alexander. The team could have as many as five first-round picks next year depending on how protections shake out from the Jazz, Heat, Rockets and Sixers. Presti has the capital to swing a trade to help balance the roster, or draft and develop replacements for any possible apron casualties.
But those are problems for another day. For now, the Thunder await the winner of Knicks-Pacers to see who they’ll face for a chance at the organization’s first title moving from Seattle in 2008.
Dynasties appear to be dead in the NBA. The Thunder need to win one first, but they represent the best chance to bring them back.
