Oklahoma City made serious waves this offseason with outside acquisitions. The Thunder brought in Alex Caruso from a trade and Isaiah Hartenstein through free agency. The incoming duo adds to the Thunder’s sky high expectations and opens up the title window in a completely different way.
While the offseason acquisitions push the Thunder over the top, those two players aren’t the sole reason why the Thunder will be favored to make the NBA Finals. Oklahoma City’s season and future relies on its core three players, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. The Thunder will go as far as those three players go.
In a recent Bleacher Report article, Dan Favale ranked the NBA’s best big three’s across the league. Oklahoma City came in at No. 4 behind the Bucks, Sixers and Celtics.
“Inserting the Oklahoma City Thunder’s trio into this exercise is not a rush to coronate,” Favale wrote. “SGA just finished second on the MVP ballot and secured back-to-back All-NBA First Team selections. He is him, and he is here.
“Holmgren and Williams are lightyears from finished products. That complicates this process. It’s also part of the point. If you came away from Chet’s rookie romp and J-Dub’s sophomore soiree thinking these dudes aren’t both on an All-Star track, I’m not really sure what to say.”
Gilgeous-Alexander is clearly the closest of the three to a finished product. At 26 years old, he’s just now heading into his prime. He has established himself as a Top 5 player in the NBA and is the engine behind this big three. But Williams and Holmgren have unbelievable potential too. Both players could be All Stars in the near future.
Having three All Stars on the same team would put the Thunder in rare air. It’s certainly a possibility in the near future, though.
“At any rate, Oklahoma City’s Big Three is a unique combination of incredible and incomplete,” Favale wrote. “That’s a pretty terrifying notion when you look at where they’ve landed here.”
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Publish date : 2024-07-14 19:30:00
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