The Oklahoma City Thunder defied the odds this season. After getting knocked out in the play-in last year, OKC bounced back this season, winning 57 games, and becoming the youngest one seed in NBA history.
Despite their lack of playoff experience, the Thunder swept the New Orleans Pelicans and lost in six hard fought games to the Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving led Dallas Mavericks in the second round. The bottom line is OKC has nothing to hang their heads about.
OKC was led this season by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was the runner-up for the NBA MVP award and was an All-Star starter this season. He is flanked by Jalen Williams, who has already become one of the NBA’s most efficient scorers in his second season and Chet Holmgren, a versatile big man on both ends of the floor. Their young core is set, now they just need to improve around the margins.
One of the Thunder’s weaknesses this season was rebounding. They were in the bottom five of the league in rebounds per game, and rebounding chance percentage. In their series with Dallas, OKC lost all four games in which they lost the rebounding battle. Holmgren and his slender frame are not enough to deter opponents from attacking the boards.
Luckily for the Thunder, they have a litany of first round picks and young players that they can offer in order to fix their rebounding issue. That leads us to an interesting trade proposal with OKC and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are looking to shake up their roster this summer.