After winning their first Larry O'Brien Trophy of the Sooner State era, the OKC Thunder find themselves heading into the 2025-26 campaign as overwhelming favorites to run it back as NBA Champs.
At an average age of 24.53, Oklahoma City has quickly gone from the hungry hunters to the satiated hunted, and, to former coach turned TV commentator Stan Van Gundy, this is a distinction that shouldn't be expected to go away anytime soon.
During a recent sit-down with ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel, Van Gundy, owner of the 12-best winning percentage in league history (minimum of 900 games), couldn't help but praise the Thunder for how "they sort of walked through" last year's postseason en route to a title run.
Because of this, the legendary headman believes them to be "the team to beat, no question," and that, because of the fact that they have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the charge, he doesn't think "there is another team close to them."
Stan Van Gundy says Thunder are virtually unstoppable with SGA
While shouting out the likes of Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, and the rest of the rotation that help make Oklahoma City the deepest team in the NBA, stating that these "other guys are good," Van Gundy acknowledged that, at the end of the day, they are capable of weathering any storm that comes with widespread injuries and player absences as a whole... so long as it's not involving SGA.
"Shai is irreplaceable, but everyone else… I mean, it’s hard, other than an injury to Shai, to see any other team taking them down," Van Gundy said.
Coach Mark Daigneault regularly saw his rotations dip into the double-digits throughout last season and during a significant portion of their 2025 playoff excursion. This luxury is a big reason why many believe the Thunder are on the verge of becoming the game's next great dynasty.
However, while this depth has certainly been vital to their success so far, without the heroics of Gilgeous-Alexander, none of this would have been possible.
We're talking about a player who, at just 26 years old, put forth a campaign where he led the league in scoring at 32.7 points a night on a highly efficient 51.9 percent shooting from the floor and 37.5 percent shooting from deep, paced all players in plus-minus (+12.1), and became just the fourth player to win the scoring title, regular season MVP, and NBA Finals MVP in the same season.
Though his supporting cast is unequivocally enviable, over the years, there have been concerns over just how reliant this Thunder team is on Gilgeous-Alexander to succeed.
Clearly, the club's current approach with the superstar leading the charge has worked wonders, as they've managed to reach the promised land and are looking like the clear choice to become the first back-to-back champion since 2018.
However, as Van Gundy pointed out, no matter how deep this team's bench goes, and no matter how promising guys like J-Dub and Chet appear to be, without Shai, OKC's title-favorite status quickly disappears.