A cautionary tale for the OKC Thunder and developing teams

This evening, the OKC Thunder will play their last road game of 2022 as they travel into Charlotte to face the Hornets.

A victory would draw the team to 16-19 and position them in 11th just one position away from the play-in seeds. The Thunder would have an identical record to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Let’s pause for a second to consider that fact.

A cautionary tale for the OKC Thunder and restructuring teams to ponder

With the Wolves finally getting into the playoffs last season, fans in Minnesota were over the moon that their team could finally be a player in the Western Conference.

No one will ever forget how the Wolves celebrated winning a play-in game to cement their postseason berth. There was towel-waving, jerseys thrown into the crowd, jumping on the media table, and tears — and that was just Patrick Beverley. All kidding aside these are the type of celebrations typically reserved for winning a title.

In fairness, Thunder Nation has been spoiled for most of our 15-year existence. Ten of those years featured postseason trips, including four Conference Finals, and one glorious trip to the NBA Finals. Even as the team is earmarked to tank, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Mark Daigneault decided to edit that memo.

In contrast, the Karl-Anthony Towns era in Minny has only resulted in two postseason trips (their only trips in the last 18 seasons) both resulting in first-round exits.

When you consider how difficult tanking can be it’s understandable why a fanbase would get amped believing their fortunes had turned.

But, the saga of this past offseason and its resulting effects is a cautionary tale for every young team who is in a restructuring or rebuilding mode.