{"id":1964959,"date":"2026-05-31T12:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1964959"},"modified":"2026-05-31T12:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:15:18","slug":"the-spurs-caught-up-to-the-thunder-and-reshaped-the-nbas-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1964959","title":{"rendered":"The Spurs caught up to the Thunder \u2014 and reshaped the NBA\u2019s future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Sam Presti knew this might happen.<\/p>\n

The architect of this Oklahoma City Thunder team had a dynasty in the making, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander having remained so patient during the rebuilding years en route to the 2025 NBA title.<\/p>\n

But Victor Wembanyama happened. These San Antonio Spurs happened. And after this season, in which a special rivalry was born, with these two teams facing off 12!<\/em> times from December through the end of May, the NBA landscape was dramatically changed in this 111-103 Spurs win in Game 7<\/a> win Saturday night.<\/p>\n

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This, at its core, was about Wembanyama ascending into superstardom quicker than expected, while also getting the kind of help around him that the Spurs\u2019 foes \u2014 Oklahoma City chief among them \u2014 hoped would never come. Hit the rewind button to February 2025, when De\u2019Aaron Fox forced his way from the Sacramento Kings to the Spurs with the expressed intent of becoming the veteran co-star who helped this young phenom, Wembanyama, get to the next level.<\/p>\n

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There was always a remote chance this could happen, even if it went against every historical marker in the near-80-year history of the NBA. Wembanyama would elevate. Fox, who had suffered in Sacramento for so many years before deciding to hit the eject button, would add a level of legitimacy that sped up the Spurs\u2019 process. And if the young players hit \u2014 from Stephon Castle to Dylan Harper, Julian Champagnie, Keldon Johnson on down the line \u2014 then the Thunder might find themselves with the kind of threat that could shorten their runway to relevance.<\/p>\n

Now here we are.<\/p>\n

To see Wembanyama gush about the Spurs\u2019 greatness after punching his ticket to the NBA Finals was to wonder if this might be the new way in the league. He\u2019s only 22 years old with a Spurs team that just reached the NBA\u2019s grandest stage and looks capable of doing this sort of thing for many years to come. Fox, who struggled to be at his best while dealing with a ankle injury in this series, picked a perfect time to make his mark (15 points, five assists and three steals in Game 7). And just one season after winning 34 games, with Wembanyama\u2019s second season cut short because of a blood clot that compelled him to contemplate the bigger picture at hand, they\u2019ve sped up this Spurs timeline in the kind of way that could go down as one of the most remarkable rebuilds we\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"Victor<\/p>\n
\n
\n Victor Wembanyama finds true self in cocoon of pressure, leading Spurs to NBA Finals\n <\/div>\n
\n “I saw it coming”: Victor Wembanyama faced the greatest hurdle of his career and cleared it, leading the Spurs to the NBA Finals.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWinning the Larry O\u2019Brien, it\u2019s a childhood dream,\u201d Wembanyama said afterward of this finals challenge ahead against the New York Knicks. \u201cAnd having a real shot at it, having a chance \u2014 a tangible chance at winning it \u2014 realizing a dream, you know, it is a chance. It\u2019s a lifetime chance. You never know when it is going to happen again.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut the day we win it, speaking for myself, it\u2019s going to be an amazing day of realization of a dream. It\u2019s hard to put into words. It\u2019s almost like the meaning of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The plot twist, the thing that might force the Thunder to reconsider how they build their roster going forward, is that the Spurs are already so great that extreme measures might be necessary to combat the counterpunch they just endured.<\/p>\n

Take a moment to process the perspective that Wembanyama shared after Game 7. He finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and just one block, but \u2014 as was the case with Fox \u2014 it was as deceiving of a stat line as you\u2019ll ever find.<\/p>\n

He made a ghost out of Thunder big man Chet Holmgren<\/a>, his longtime foe who is clearly terrified of this particular matchup and finished with the kind of line that will haunt him in the months, and possibly years, ahead: four points on 1-of-2 shooting, four rebounds, two blocks and two turnovers in nearly 33 minutes. There was no better indicator of how uniquely impactful Wembanyama is already proving to be, and this severe contrast of performances is sure to spark a conversation about how the Thunder might respond.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI found resources inside of me (in this series),\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cRelentlessness. I already knew that, but doing it at this level (was different). I mean, this is the best basketball on the planet that\u2019s being played right now. And the crazy thing is \u2014 maybe I\u2019m crazy \u2014 but I want to do that 15, 20 more times. Let\u2019s hope it doesn\u2019t become an addiction. Maybe it is already.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s the part that the Thunder, and the other teams in the league, have to worry about now. Oklahoma City lost to these Spurs four times in five tries during the regular season, with the most memorable defeat coming in the NBA Cup semifinal that sent such a powerful message about the potential hierarchy<\/a>. And then, they fell to them four times in seven games in this series, giving San Antonio an overall mark of 8-4 since that first December meeting.<\/p>\n

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When it comes to trying to figure out who\u2019s going to dominate the West in the years to come, that\u2019s a substantial sample size to go by. Even if the Thunder can claim that the injury woes played a significant part in this series.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"Thunder<\/p>\n
\n
\n Thunder chase of history fell short because repeating is \u2018hard.\u2019 Just ask Steve Kerr\n <\/div>\n
\n “The mental fatigue, emotional, spiritual fatigue, along with the physical aspect” wears down potential dynasties, Kerr said. What now?\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The fact that All-Star guard Jalen Williams and rising talent Ajay Mitchell were gone for the vast majority of the series left Gilgeous-Alexander, the back-to-back MVP, lacking the kind of support he\u2019d been used to. Not to mention the Holmgren struggles compounding it all.<\/p>\n

If anything, that means this matchup is about to become one for the ages, even if the Thunder don\u2019t make any material changes. Celtics-Lakers. Pistons-Bulls. Cavs-Warriors. That level of hoops theater.<\/p>\n

When Gilgeous-Alexander and Thunder coach Mark Daigneault were asked to break down the end of their season, they were quick to give credit to the Spurs while being sure not to reach for excuses. Still, Gilgeous-Alexander referenced the reality that Presti isn\u2019t one to stand still. He analyzes. He innovates. He corrects. If he learned anything from the legendary Gregg Popovich and famed Spurs executive R.C. Buford during his early years with the Spurs that led to his Thunder rise, it was that.<\/p>\n

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\n Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 35 points against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7, but the Thunder as a whole found themselves looking for answers against the Spurs all season. (Christian Petersen \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

League sources have long maintained that Oklahoma City would not take part in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes that will dominate the summertime conversation, but this sort of stunning finish is enough to re-spark that conversation. Nothing should be off the table when the end goal wasn\u2019t reached. There has long been chatter about the Thunder having interest in Cleveland big man Evan Mobley as well, but Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman insisted in an end-of-season news conference that Mobley wasn\u2019t going anywhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The answers won\u2019t come overnight for Oklahoma City. As Spurs big man Luke Kornet shared postgame, when he was waxing poetic about his late-game block on Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a> that helped save their season, would-be dynasties have died on the vine plenty of times before.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"Knicks-Spurs<\/p>\n
\n
\n Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals mega-preview: Predictions, odds, must-reads and more\n <\/div>\n
\n Here is everything you need to know about this 1999 finals rematch between the NBA’s largest market and its fifth-smallest.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI was in that position in Boston, (where) everyone likes to kind of anoint you, and think that you\u2019re going to be unstoppable,\u201d said Kornet, the 30-year-old who won a title with the Celtics in 2024 before that team was torn down. \u201cThey\u2019re an incredible team, but \u2026 the road to even winning a championship is filled with losses, and it\u2019s full (of) things being a lot harder (than you expect).\u201d<\/p>\n

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This was nothing if not that. There was Wembanyama going nuclear in Game 1, when the Spurs\u2019 double-overtime win gave them the early edge. Every game from there felt consequential, with a teeter-totter feel along the way. The Spurs\u2019 confidence, though, was built in all the games that came along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe instilled the thought in our minds that we can beat them,\u201d said Champagnie, the fourth-year small forward who had 20 points, six rebounds and a plus-16 mark. \u201cThere\u2019s no team that\u2019s better than us when we\u2019re locked in. I still feel like that\u2019s just a true statement, and that\u2019s what we live by, what we\u2019re living and dying by. Young or not, experienced or not. That\u2019s just how we\u2019re moving.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2014 Sam Presti knew this might happen. The architect of this Oklahoma City Thunder team had a dynasty in the making, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander having remained so patient during the rebuilding years en route to the 2025 NBA title. But Victor Wembanyama happened. These San Antonio Spurs happened. And after this season, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1964959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1964959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1964959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1964959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1964959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}