Are the OKC Thunder doing something historic? | The Athletic NBA Show

Are the OKC Thunder doing something historic? | The Athletic NBA Show

Everyone knows uh we’re Thunder fans Andrew just gave some Thunder stats and look we we really do try not to talk about the thunder that much on this podcast it’s true we we don’t want to be seen as homers we want it to be about the league but sometimes it is

Unavoidable and their recent run which I mentioned earlier included wins over the other top teams in the in the top of the Western Conference it’s become a moment for this team you’re hearing every NBA podcast do a segment on the Thunder and one of the big topics of conversation

Around this team right now is are the Thunder a true Contender a lot of people answering this question with a resounding yes and I get it statistically it’s difficult to look at this team and not conclude that they are a contender per cleaning the glass we are talking about the fifth ranked

Offense sixth rank defense third best point differential halfcourt offense is number one in the league half court defense is fourth in the league they are the number one three-point shooting team in the league number two mid-range team in the league every stat you find about this team is screaming at you that they

Are a contender which frankly makes me very uncomfortable Andrew I I don’t handle success well I’m bad at enjoying things I was watching poku play 30 minutes a night what seemed like a few months ago and now we’re a contender I I don’t know if I’m there yet because of

What the Thunder as a contender represent because not only are they young not only are they inexperienced but we’re talking about a team being a quote unquote contender in their first playoffs yeah even in the face of all these amazing stats it feels conceivable that this team could really be a

Contender now to put that youth and inexperience into context hispanos MBA the number one site for looking up this stat list the Thunders average age as 23.7 which is only older than the Spurs and pistons Who currently have a combined eight wins for the playoff experience here’s a quick trivia

Question for our listeners because I know you know the answer to this Andrew who has the most career playoff games on the Thunder I’ll give you a few seconds to think of a name the answer is Davis Berton with 45 career playoff games Davis is currently averaging 7 and a

Half minutes per game in OKC his role on the Thunder is sometimes coming in and shooting three threes as fast as he can and then immediately going back and sitting on the bench that is his current role all of OKC’s playoff experience and wisdom is largely tied up in that man

But okay I say that the Thunder as a contender would be a historical anomaly but is that actually true have there been any teams like OKC in the past that I could look to as an example a proof of concept that a team this young this in experience could actually be deserving

Of the contender label in their first playoffs and so that’s what I went looking for I went back to the 1983 84 season which I picked because it was the first season the playoffs expanded to eight teams in each conference I started by looking for any team that had homec

Court in the playoffs after having not been in the playoffs for at least the previous two seasons so in other words a team that was in the lottery for multiple years and then exploded onto the scene in their first playoff season the one exception to this that I made

Was the 8990 Spurs okay they did make the playoffs in the 8788 season which was only two seasons prior but they did it with a 31 and 51 record wow do you remember when they announced the play in you heard some people saying it was rewarding bad teams and that it was

Crazy to have 10 of 16 teams in a conference make the postseason back in the 80s eight teams made the playoffs when there were only 11 and 12 teams in each conference only seven of the 23 teams in the league missed the playoffs and they call us the participation

Trophy generation anyway this got me down to 26 teams as an example last year’s Kings team qualifies as one of these teams last year’s Cavs team also qualifies both had homecourt in the playoffs after having missed the play playoffs for at least the two previous Seasons then I looked at the average age

Of these 26 teams I decided to calculate the average age of the top eight players in minutes played for each team focusing on the main guys who are contributing I also looked at each team’s offensive and defensive efficiency numbers and whether they had an MVP candidate That season

Since SGA being one seems like an important aspect of OKC’s Contender argument having that top tier level of player makes it easier to say they’re a contender and I defined MVP candidate as someone finishing in the top five of MVP voting yeah and with that I started to

Whittle the list down okay first of all three of the 26 teams actually won the title and none of them have anything in common with OKC it was the bubble Lakers the oldest team on this list the 2022 Warriors another old team who really shouldn’t have made this list but did

Somehow miss the playoffs two seasons in a row and the 2008 Celtics another old team with experienced vets the only older team that I thought shared some similarities with this OKC team was the’ 08 Hornets Chris Paul was 22 his third season in the league he finished second

In MVP voting Tyson Chandler was 25 David West was 27 they won 56 games and similar to OKC great three-point shooting team not an amazing rebounding team didn’t turn the ball over and top 10 in both offense and defense they ended up losing in the second round in

That seven game series to the Spurs a great series average age was 28.6 though so not a perfect match the teams that made the finals without winning at all were all older as well with an average age of at least 26 and a half that was

The 2002 Nets the 2015 Cavs which was LeBron’s first return Season and the 2021 Suns now the 21 suns are an interesting comp for OKC obviously Chris Paul’s age brings up the average but the core outside of him was Booker who was fourth in MVP voting that year Bridges

And cam Johnson who were all 24 and Aon who was 22 and similar to the 08 hornets and probably every Chris Paul team and this year’s Thunder another good three-point shooting team that was below average in rebounding didn’t turn the ball over and were top 10 in offense and

Defense lost in the finals to the Bucks had a ton more playoff experience simply because of CP3 but otherwise not a bad comp looking at some of the younger teams on this list there’s some fun ones now the Thunder of all these teams are still the youngest team on this list but

The second youngest team with an average age of 23.9 was the’ 05 Bulls the first Bulls team to make it to the playoffs post Jordan won 47 games and lost in the first round as the four seed another really fun team that I personally loved

Was the 09 Blazers who won 54 games had an average age of 24 had guys like Brandon Roy LaMarcus Aldridge Nick patum Greg Oden Rudy Fernandez Travis Outlaw Martell Webster 25-year-old chaining fry can you remember when Ching FY was 25 just an overwhelming number of young players who you could get excited about

I distinctly remember talking myself into Travis Outlaw right around this time did you know his nickname is Mr fourth quarter did you know that Travis Outlaw I kind of remember hearing that but that that seems improbable that that would be his actual nickname that Blazers roster was not too dissimilar to

The Thunder’s current roster makeup with young guys up and down the nightly rotation so if you’re purely at roster construction I think the 09 Blazers are the best comp on this list it’s easy to forget now but that team was loaded with young Talent Brandon Roy was an All-Star

Aldr was assumed to be All-Star Odin played 61 games that season that was his second season we all know what happened how injuries kind of derailed everything but that roster was stacked with 24 and under talent and winning 54 games in their first trip to the playoffs is

Still a massive achievement they lost in the first round to the rockets in six so good comp but not if you want to believe believe in OKC as a contender another team I’ll mention which I think is a decent comp though again not necessarily as a true Contender the 2019 nuggets

Average age of 25.3 not too old joic was fourth in MVP voting That season their playoff rotation featured big minutes from joic 21-year-old Jamal Murray Gary Harris Malik Beasley Monty Morris all who were 24 under now they did have 33-year-old Paul milap he did bring their average up but pretty young otherwise

Top 10 in offense and defense they end up losing in the second round to Portland in seven that was the year that Portland went to the Conference Finals the final team I’ll mention and arguably the best comp if you really want to believe in this Thunder team is a team

Not on the list because it was a team from the 1970s the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers average age 24.8 which is incredibly low for any team but especially a team in the 70s when guys were coming into the league much older yeah their top four in

Minutes played were all 24 under led by Allstars Maurice Lucas and Bill Walton who was second in MVP voting That season in their first playoff appearance not their first playoff appearance in a couple years literally the franchise’s first playoff appearance the Blazers won the title beating the Sixers in six

Games now you can’t really compare the two teams stylistically they didn’t even have a three-point line although I will say that that 77 Blazers team is often talked about as you know example of unselfish basketball which you hear that a lot about the thunder as well but

Agewise the 77 Blazers are the best argument for a firsttime playoff team being a true Contender so if you’re buying into the Thunder as a contender I think the 21 Suns and the 77 Blazers are the teams you want to hold on to the teams that should give you some hope no

Team is going to be a perfect comp but in terms of having a young MVP candidate with a young surrounding core that was good on both ends those are the two teams that stand out so while OKC actually winning would still definitely be a once- Ina League event because

Again they’re the youngest team of all the ones I mentioned maybe it’s not quite as far-fetched as I had once assumed Andrew yeah yeah that makes sense it except for like you have to go back like 50 years you do have to go back 50 years it’s not crazy when they didn’t

Have a three-point line there were just a couple teams in the league whatever isn’t that that is amazing though about the Blazers that having an average age just having an average age of 24.8 in the 70s and then winning the championship that young of a roster I

Mean that it must have been impossible to have that many young guys on the team and if if if you’re interested in that team go read breaks of the game an amazing book there was about I think the third season after that season when things started falling apart they were

Barely making the playoffs at that point um largely due to injuries to Bill Walton but there was a ton of stuff going on with that team it’s incredible book if you haven’t read it a classic in the genre

The Athletic NBA Show discuss the history behind the Oklahoma City Thunder.