The OKC Thunder are the new "It" team of the NBA.
Following their record-setting top-seeded finish in the Western Conference standings last season, and their hard-fought semifinal series against the Dallas Mavericks that ultimately went to six games, Oklahoma City is heading into 2024-25 with some serious hype and attention surrounding them.
Not only are they being labeled one of the deepest teams in the association what with their summer shakeups that saw them address many of their rotational weaknesses from last year, but, based on the mentality of the odds-makers, coach Mark Daigneault's squad boasts the second-best odds of claiming the Larry O'Brien Trophy come season's end.
Of course, their view of being next-in-line for the league's illustrious crown isn't unanimously shared, as ESPN's Tim Legler suggested on a recent episode of NBA Today that the Thunder still may be a couple of years away from accomplishing such a goal.
NBA Insider lower than most on Thunder championship odds in 2024-25
While speaking on whether OKC should be considered "favorites to win the Western Conference" this coming campaign, the NBA Insider revealed that while he is confident in their abilities to repeat as the number one seed heading into the playoffs, in the end, he feels they will also once again fall short of representing the conference in the NBA Finals.
As Legler alluded to throughout the segment, the Thunder are indeed incredibly talented and sport a ferocious core rotation consisting of superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, rising studs like Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, and a slew of top-flight role players like Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Cason Wallace, and Aaron Wiggins.
However, being they are still so young, the seasoned ESPN pundit is of the belief that they are still "a year or two away" from being considered a legitimate favorite to win an NBA Championship, and specifically noted that the club's two future stars in Williams and Holmgren "need to get more ripe" and that they have not yet molded themselves into being "what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander needs next to him to make a legitimate run through the Western Conference."
While the odds and betting enthusiasts may say otherwise when it comes to such commentary, Legler's words do hold some weight, as both J-Dub and Chet clearly showed that, though extremely talented, they were in over their heads at times during the 2023-24 season.
For the former, he was a tad too inconsistent of a second-option offensive creator next to SGA, especially during their second-round bout against the Mavs where he would find himself dropping 18 points on 40.0 percent shooting from deep one night and then would go for 14 points on 0-for-2 shooting from distance and shoot 26.3 percent from the field on another.
The latter, meanwhile, still needs to add a few more things to his arsenal before taking that next step forward in his promising career, with perhaps one of the more glaring areas in need of addressing being his size and strength, as his lacking 207 pounds at 7-foot-1 proved to be a bit too featherweight when going up against the stronger and bulkier bigs out West throughout his debut season.
Because of these factors, Legler says that Dallas, Denver, and Minnesota, in particular, should all be looked to as "favorites ahead of Oklahoma City to represent the West for a championship."
As things currently stand, the Thunder hold +700 odds of making it to the NBA Finals, while the Nuggets, Mavericks, and Timberwolves register in behind them all at +1100.