Only weeks remain until training camps across the league start. Before you know it, the 2025-26 regular season will kick off on Opening Night as the Oklahoma City Thunder drop their championship banner and are handed their rings.
It gets said every year, but the Thunder are truly equipped to be back-to-back champions. They’re the consensus favorite as they run it back with mostly the same roster that produced one of the most dominating seasons ever.
After celebrating with the Larry O’Brien trophy, the Thunder did their homework early when they signed their star trio to contract extensions. While the rest of the roster might go through changes in the near future, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren guarantee a lengthy title window.
Hoping to be a rare repeat winner, the Thunder will lean on their double-big lineup once again. Expect Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein to log more minutes together. That could be the starting lineup they go to in the regular season, as it led them to their championship quest.
Holmgren and Hartenstein have worked out together this offseason. A recent social media post showed them at the same gym together. While the 2024-25 regular season seldom saw them play together due to injuries, they showed in the playoffs what the Thunder envisioned when they landed Hartenstein in free agency.
The Thunder had the league’s best defense last year. There were no weak points the opposition could attack. At all three levels, they had high-end defenders. At the rim, Holmgren and Hartenstein provided some of the best rim protection in the league.
Let’s see if they can repeat that formula for next season. Heck, maybe there’ll be room to grow. Especially on the offensive end. Holmgren has some leaps left in him to make on that end of the floor. Being an offseason removed from his hip fracture should help him gain a scoring rhythm.