After the OKC Thunder took home the 2025 Larry O'Brien Trophy, it appears all of their direct foes are now building up their rosters to not only position themselves for a title-run in 2026, but to prevent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company from becoming the first club to repeat in nearly a decade.
The second-seeded Houston Rockets swung for the fences and struck on a blockbuster trade to land Kevin Durant this past June. The Denver Nuggets, whom Lu Dort has publicly admitted were already Oklahoma City's biggest challenger, opted to bolster their role player arsenal this offseason around cornerstones Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.
Now, it appears the LA Clippers are adopting a strategy of stockpiling proven and highly experienced veterans around Kawhi Leonard and James Harden.
From the signing of Brook Lopez to the addition of Bradley Beal following his buyout with the Suns, Los Angeles has clearly been active in pursuing residents of the past-prime All-Star community.
On Monday, team president Lawrence Frank further added to this polarizing collection by snatching up Chris Paul in free agency via a one-year, $3.6 million deal.
Considering the price-tag and his familiarity with the Clippers organization (played for the team from 2011 to 2017), many are viewing this signing as a true steal, and, in many regards, they may be right.
However, for the Thunder, Paul's return to La-la land gives the team an edge that could actually wind up benefiting them when it matters most.
OKC Thunder are quite familiar with Chris Paul's style of play
While Paul may be best known for his stints with both the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) and Clippers, to those residing out in Oklahoma City, his tenure with the Thunder is one that won't soon be forgotten.
Though he may have played just one season with the club in 2019-20, his short-lived experience serving as their cornerstone didn't just provide the fanbase with a Cinderella Story for the ages, but also helped rejuvenate the 12-time All-Star's career in the process, as he guided a projected bottom-feeder to a 44-win, fifth-seeded finish and into the postseason.
Without his stop in the Sooner State, there's a legitimate chance that CP3's career could have ended well short of his, now, 21 season in the association.
However, even though he may now be joining a legitimate title contender in the Clippers, because of his ties to the Thunder, there's a strong case to be made that he's still very likely to ride out into the sunset of his playing days without that coveted championship ring.
Even outside of the fact that he's well past his MVP-runner up and All-NBA days, and has publicly noted that 2025-26 will be his last year in the association, what makes him fall short of being a real difference-maker for Los Angeles is the fact that the team will most likely still have to go through the Thunder to advance to the NBA Finals.
Let's not pretend that OKC doesn't fully understand how Paul operates on the floor and, in turn, how to effectively game plan against him.
On this team's roster are two core players in Gilgeous-Alexander and Dort who have a well-documented, close-knit relationship with the future Hall of Famer.
Both have extensive experience playing against and with him, as all three were members of that 2019-20 squad and have worked out during the offseasons since the Point God departed.
It should come as no surprise that, when coupled with his clearly regressed on-court production, this familiarity with his game has helped the Thunder register a 5-2 record against Paul over the last two seasons, with the veteran even boasting the fourth-worst on-off net rating (-20.3) for the Spurs last year in matchups against OKC.
While having someone who is as well-versed in the art of basketball and who possesses as high a basketball IQ as Chris Paul may prove to be rather beneficial for the Clippers next season, based on recent trends, don't expect these benefits to shine when facing the Thunder.