Sam Presti and company have seemingly done everything within their power to keep the majority of the core that won the OKC Thunder their first NBA Championship together heading into next season.
From extending all three of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren to new max deals to re-upping with role players like Jaylin Williams and Ajay Mitchell to cost-controlled contracts, this front office did all they could to reduce rotational turnover rates this summer.
In fact, even with the free agency departure of Adam Flagler and the Dillon Jones trade, Oklahoma City still finds itself heading into 2025-26 with a roster that accounted for a whopping 99.2 percent of their playoff minutes last year, according to ESPN's findings.
Now, while there are many who believe this continuity with rotation construction should be seen as a positive -- after all, they did just have one of the most dominant seasons in league history --, there's a rather strong case to be made that the club's insistence on remaining the same could actually prove to be their downfall, as the rest of the West has focused their attention on changing for the better
Lack of change may actually be downfall for Thunder in improved West
This summer, the Thunder opted to retain a large part of their roster and refrained from making any significant additions along the way.
Though seeing the defending champions stay intact may appear to be a positive on the surface, the fact that they didn't improve upon their talent pool while direct conference rivals did could, in theory, wind up becoming something of a problem as they look to win back-to-back titles.
While the organization made efforts to run everything back, the Houston Rockets, the reigning number two seeds out West, went out and pulled off a blockbuster trade to bring on superstar Kevin Durant.
The always troublesome Dallas Mavericks added top-pick Cooper Flagg to their arsenal that already includes battle-tested players like Anthony Davis.
Perhaps most harrowing is the fact that the Nuggets, who even Thunder guard Lu Dort admitted were "the ones that had us shaking a little bit" as they were constructed last year, found a way to add even more talent around their star-studded core with the acquisitions of Cameron Johnson, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Jonas Valanciunas.
Denver's improvements are so impressive, in fact, that Wosny Lambre of The Ringer is already predicting that they'll end up thwarting Oklahoma City's pursuit of becoming the first repeat winner since the 2018 Warriors.
There's an old saying that goes, "If you're not getting better, you're getting worse," and, while keeping the status quo may have seemed like the right move to make at the time, with the splashy shakeups pulled off by their direct conference foes, the Thunder run the risk of being living proof of the aformentioned phrase.