Brian Windhorst on why the Thunder can be dominant for years to come: "Two of their three best players are really young"

Brian Windhorst on why the Thunder can be dominant for years to come: “Two of their three best players are really young” originally appeared on Basketball Network.

It hasn’t been almost a week since the Oklahoma City Thunder won the Larry O’Brien trophy with a scintillating Game 7 win over the plucky Indiana Pacers in the 2025 NBA finals. Yet, there are already talks about their ability to keep this successful run going. As always, money matters in the pursuit of a title in professional sports.

However, according to ESPN’s veteran reporter and broadcaster Brian Windhorst, the Thunder have nothing to worry about as the team’s makeup allows them some wiggle room financially to still contend for more championships in the future.

A young and talented core

A significant reason the Thunder core will not be broken up anytime soon is the age of its star players. The team’s three best players, league and Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, All-Star Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, are all under the age of 26.

Most importantly, Chet and Jalen are still on their rookie contracts, which means they will be with the Thunder for a few more seasons at reasonable salaries.

“The big thing that the Thunder have going for them is that two of their three best players are really young,” Windhorst explained on “The Rich Eisen Show.” “I mean, Shai is young too, but Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams are on the first year of their contracts. It’s almost like having, in the NFL, a quarterback who’s on his rookie deal who’s great. You don’t have to spend a big portion of your salary cap.”

As the legendary Pat Riley alluded to, one thing that prevents teams from capturing more success is the “Disease of Me.” This means that as players become more successful, they often prioritize their individual accomplishments over team success. This often results in players seeking larger salaries or even more significant roles on the team.

But for the Thunder, Windhorst doesn’t see this as an issue, as general manager Sam Presti has done an exceptional job navigating the team’s salary cap.

“So next year, the Thunder are not going to have any salary stressors because Chet and Jalen Williams are going to be on their rookie deals,” Brian continued. “And even after they extend their contracts — which I expect to happen this summer — those numbers will start off relatively low. So they’re not under the same stress as some of these other teams, where they have to break up the team because they’re facing second-round pressure.”

Plenty of draft capital

Another thing that will keep the Thunder’s train going is their deep cache of draft assets. The team picked big man Thomas Sorber and Nique Clifford in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft, but traded the latter to the Sacramento Kings.

“The Thunder have 15 first-round draft picks over the next seven years,” Windhorst shared. “And by the way, they have a player who sat out this year that nobody knows about unless you’re Serbian or you’re a big Thunder fan — (Nikola) Topic — who basically got drafted last year. He slipped to the Thunder in the back of the lottery because he had a torn ACL. So he’s a guy who can come in next year and contribute.”

Topic is a 6’6″ point guard from Serbia who’s oozing with potential. He was named the Adriatic League’s Top Prospect after averaging 17.9 points, 6.8 assists and 3.6 rebounds for Crvena Zvezda. Despite suffering a torn ACL, the Thunder recognized his prodigious talent and picked him 12th in last year’s draft.

The presence of Topic and Sorber, a 6’10” big man who played one season at Georgetown, gives OKC a few more options to plug into their rotation should they lose a few of their role players in free agency.

As the Boston Celtics are showing with the trades of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, trying to do salary cap gymnastics to avoid heavy-handed financial penalties is no small feat. However, the Thunder have done well so far, placing themselves in a position to do something special in the coming seasons.

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 26, 2025, where it first appeared.

Brian Windhorst on why the Thunder can be dominant for years to come: “Two of their three best players are really young”

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