Did the 2022 NBA Draft accelerate the OKC Thunder rebuild?
By Rylan Stiles
Sure, the 2022 OKC Thunder draft class has a chance to be special, but what does the Western Conference look like in 2022-23?
The Oklahoma City Thunder have won below 25 games each of the last two seasons, however prior to the 2021-22 season the last time the Thunder won 25 or fewer games their win total spiked to 55 wins. Of course, that was courtesy of three future Hall of Famers and MVPs and was still barely good enough to get into the playoffs in a tough Western Conference, but they gave Bricktown its first taste of playoff basketball.
Now, color me a pessimist, but the Thunder are not going to leap into the 50-win category this year. History often repeats itself, but this will not be a redux of the 2009-10 season. Though, I would still bet on an improvement from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Sure the Western Conference is littered with Talent, teams like the Nuggets, Clippers, and Pelicans getting healthy and looking dangerous,and the Warriors are not set to cool off, despite the embarrassing second-round exit the Suns will have one of the best records in the league again, and that is not to mention the Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Mavericks, Lakers, and Trailblazers.
Safe to say, there are hardly any gimme games, outside of Utah (pending a Donovan Mitchell trade) and San Antonio, who can OKC just roll over? Houston feels like they have just as good of a young core and the Kings are selling their souls just to get a taste of that sweet playoff nectar.
That creates a dog fight each and every night within the Thunder’s own conference. Plus, the rest of the league understands the improvements Sam Presti has made and has to respect Mark Daigneault’s coaching ability after two straight seasons of outperforming projections. With more talent on the roster, the rest of the NBA will be apprehensive to sleep-walk in Bricktown as they have the last few years. That is of course unless the hotel room ghosts keep them up at night.
So before we go off expecting a massive jump in the win total, we have to realize just how tough the majority of their games will be. With that being said, how good can this team be if the Thunder rookies splash onto the scene?