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Ranking the NBA’s small market teams

By Jonah Kubicek

Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurscredit (Robert Sullivan /AFP via Getty Images)
Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurscredit (Robert Sullivan /AFP via Getty Images) /
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Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images) /

#5: Oklahoma City Thunder

Per the rules that I made up, only the seasons in the dust bowl count. The Seattle Supersonics are dead and buried, and they were reborn in blue jerseys. The Oklahoma City Thunder had, at one point, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Serge Ibaka. They were all under 25 when the Thunder went in a different, less successful direction after their first Finals appearance in 2012.

Between Westbrook, Durant, and Chris Paul, the Thunder had an All-Star every year from 2008-2020. That’s a crazy stretch for one of the smallest sports cities in America. They boast the fourth best winning percentage of any NBA team at .565, and that comes in at second in the small market category.

The only reason they aren’t higher is that they couldn’t keep it together. I understand that they couldn’t pay James Harden, and then had injury struggles with Durant and Westbrook, but if that duo gave it a fair chance and played a few full seasons together, think of the consequences. The Spurs and Heat maybe don’t go back to back in 2013 and ‘14, the Warriors and Thunder form one of the best rivalries in all of sports, and we avoid all the drama that their alumni have stirred up since leaving. It sounds like a dream. Also, they’re held back by their short existence.