The OKC Thunder may not have won a second-straight NBA Championship this season as they had hoped, but former first-round pick, Dillon Jones, certainly did.
A two-way member of the New York Knicks, with the club's 94-90 win over the Spurs Saturday night, Jones has now earned his second championship ring in a span of just two seasons.
This feat alone certainly deserves to have a spotlight shone on it, as he now becomes the first player to go back-to-back since Danny Green did so in 2019 and 2020 with the Raptors and Lakers, respectively.
However, what makes it all the more impressive is the fact that it comes amid a historic stretch of parity in the league.
With New York's title run now in the books, there have officially been eight different teams to have won the NBA Finals in the last eight consecutive seasons, marking it as the longest streak in the league's 80-year existence.
Yet, amid this impressive stretch, the Thunder's former 26 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft has managed to set himself apart from the rest of the pack.
Thunder already projected to be right back in the title mix in 2026-27
It's been less than 24 hours since the 2025-26 season came to an official close, but, already, the sportsbooks are looking ahead at next year's campaign and, more specifically, who will be in the running to take home the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
To no surprise, the Thunder are at or near the top of virtually every odds list.
DraftKings Sports has OKC tied with the Spurs for the highest odds to win it all at plus-250, while ESPN has them standing alone atop the leaderboard in their own power rankings.
If any of this comes as a shock to you, perhaps you weren't paying all that much attention during this past season.
Let's not forget that the Thunder finished the year with the fourth-most wins in a single season in league history (68) and clinched the number-one seed in the Western Conference for the third straight year.
On top of this, despite not having two of their key players, Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, available due to separate injuries, OKC still managed to take the Spurs to seven games in the Western Conference Finals.
With J-Dub set to make a full recovery heading into next year, coupled with the fact that the vast majority of this title-tested core, headlined by Williams, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Chet Holmgren, are locked in for the foreseeable future, there should be no doubt that, if they manage to stay healthy, the Thunder will be back in the mix for a title run as soon as 2026-27.
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