“Every single team in the NBA is gonna be gunning for you” – Udonis Haslem warns the OKC Thunder heading into the next NBA season originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Even though the Oklahoma City Thunder retained their No. 1 seed in the highly competitive Western Conference this past 2024-25 season, without their star center for most of the campaign, almost no one crowned them as the undisputed favorites to lift the Larry O’Brien trophy.
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However, Udonis Haslem believes that with this team capturing their first title in over four decades, Thunder players have shown how mature they are beyond their age. The three-time NBA champion warned the young Thunder team about the upcoming challenge in the 2025-26 season and how each team will throw the kitchen sink at them, with an intensity and motivation many of the OKC players might have never experienced before.
Udonis Haslem talks about the Thunder’s biggest challenge
The 2025 offseason has already shown how different teams are highly motivated to contend for the top spot in the Western Conference standings. On one hand, teams like the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers have added elite players around their superstar duo; on the other hand, franchises like the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks have added superstar talent to play effective roles in limited minutes under disciplined coaches.
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That added strength alone in the West will eventually test the Thunder’s depth and put more pressure on the shoulders of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams to lead the team to victory. With the opposition now having a better quality in containing the two-way efforts of Alex Caruso and Lu Dort, which often helped the Thunder in gaining momentum against the run-of-play, the pressure will now be on the Thunder’s young core to be more assertive and log more minutes on the court.
Unsurprisingly, Haslem warned coach Mak Daigneault’s team about the tougher and more competitive path they would face night in and night out in the upcoming NBA campaign.
“This team is mature beyond their years; they’ve shown that in the past. They’ll be ready when they step into the arenas, and they’ll be prepared. But what they’re gonna get from other teams is gonna be different,” Haslem said on an episode of NBA on ESPN. “Every single team in the NBA is gonna be gunning for you, every single night you walk in, that’s gonna be the other team’s championship game.”
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The OKC Thunder still has everything to prove
Interestingly, even though they won the championship, some doubts still linger about whether this young Thunder team can truly repeat its heroics. After all, their playoff run featured two series that stretched to seven games, with both their opponents having key players who were battling through key injuries and were far from peak physical form.
As a result, many in the NBA realm believe that a bit of luck was on OKC’s side in their title run, and that is why the 2025-26 season will serve as the ultimate test.
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Put simply, Oklahoma City will need to show that they are not just a one-year wonder but a team built to contend every single season, even when every other franchise is throwing everything at them. So, will Shai & Co. be able to survive this pressure, which will be unlike anything they have ever seen before? That is what remains to be seen in the upcoming months.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 16, 2025, where it first appeared.