The Oklahoma City Thunder: From the tank to the title - a masterclass in roster construction

Despite being stuck in a rebuild, the Oklahoma City Thunder quickly reemerged from the ashes to cement their status as NBA champions. In reality, their title win was over a decade’s worth of meticulous roster management in the making. 

(Image Credit: Getty Images/Justin Ford)

The 2011 NBA Finals saw a young Oklahoma City Thunder squad, led by its Big Three of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook, poised to challenge for its first NBA title since relocating from Seattle. Their opponent? The LeBron James-led Miami Heat. Despite taking the first game, the Thunder would drop the next four to lose the series 4-1. 

Losing that series marked the beginning of a change in the organization. Despite locking Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant into contract extensions, the Thunder were forced to trade James Harden to the Houston Rockets due to luxury tax issues. Even then, the signs of decline were not there yet - the Thunder would still make the Western Conference Finals in two of the next four seasons. 

It would be after the last Conference Finals appearance that the wheels of change would begin to turn. Despite surrendering a 3-1 series lead to the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant still decided to join the Warriors in free agency, leaving Russell Westbrook as the lone Big Three member still on the roster. 

Two years later, he would be gone too. In what was a transformational summer for the Thunder even after winning 49 games, 2019 would see Thunder GM Sam Presti trade Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets for Chris Paul, two first-round picks, and two pick swaps; this enabled Oklahoma City to enter a rebuild within the next year. On top of that, Presti gave up Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (remember this name, he will be important later on), Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks, and two pick swaps. The Thunder would also sign undrafted rookie Luguentz Dort, who would develop into a key cornerstone for the Thunder’s future contender.

Despite a looming rebuild, the 2019-20 season was still a good one for the Oklahoma City Thunder. But after having himself an All-Star season, mentoring Shai Gilgeous-Alexander through his breakout season, and helping the Thunder to 44 wins and a playoff appearance, Chris Paul found himself traded to the Phoenix Suns for Kelly Oubre Jr., Ricky Rubio, Ty Jerome, and other pieces including a 2022 first-round pick. Alongside the Dennis Schroder trade, the Thunder now had enough picks and pieces to truly begin their rebuild. 

That rebuild began in earnest during the 2020-21 season, which saw the Thunder hit rock bottom, finishing in fourteenth in the Western Conference with just 22 wins. Despite the poor season, the breakout of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did continue, and the 2021 Draft would see the Thunder select Josh Giddey, who would play a major role in the Thunder’s future resurgence.

On the court, 2021-22 was much of the same compared to 2020-21. Despite slight improvements in the win column, the Thunder still found themselves in the development stages. However, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander truly cemented himself as a centerpiece in the Thunder’s plans by averaging 24.5 points per game and almost 6 assists per game. The Thunder would build around their young superstar in the Draft by using two of their first-round picks on Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, who would both evolve into major players in the Thunder’s future championship aspirations. 

2022-23 saw the “future resurgence” truly come into play. Despite sitting at 11-18 on December 16th, 2022, the Oklahoma City Thunder would finish 40-42 on the season, qualifying for the play-in tournament as the tenth seed. In the play-in tournament, the Thunder upset the nine-seed New Orleans Pelicans in the 9-10 matchup, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander recording 32 points and Josh Giddey recording nine rebounds and ten assists. Despite the upset, the Thunder would fall in the eight-seed game to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Despite the shortcomings in the play-in tournament, 2023-24 would see the Thunder truly break into the NBA’s contender tier. The Thunder’s young core continued to grow and put up big numbers, earning Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams spots at the All-Star game. The Thunder would end up finishing the season with 57 wins and the one-seed in the Western Conference. In their first-round matchup with the New Orleans Pelicans, the Thunder dominated in a four-game sweep, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring the most points of all players in each of the four games and Jalen Williams playing a big role in terms of depth scoring. Despite losing in six to the eventual Western Conference champions in the form of the Dallas Mavericks, the Thunder’s young core still showed up to try and win the series. 

The team’s playoff experience in 2023-24 would be vital in what was to come next. During the following offseason, the Thunder signed Isaiah Hartenstein to a three-year contract in free agency as a means to respond to rebounding issues. And with Jalen Williams’ emergence, the Thunder were able to offload a now-inconsistent Josh Giddey to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Alex Caruso, who provided the Thunder’s roster with an important two-way style of play. 

Once again, Oklahoma City dominated in the regular season, the emergence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams as a new Big Three helped the team finish with the NBA’s best record at 68-14. Like in the regular season, the Thunder opened the playoffs with a dominant display in the first round against Memphis, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading in scoring and Chet Holmgren leading the rebounding effort. The relative inexperience did show in their second-round series against a Denver Nuggets team with plenty of playoff experience and a championship to their name. Despite the Nuggets pushing Oklahoma City to the brink, the Thunder responded with a dominant display in Game 7, effectively ending the series at halftime. 

The Thunder’s dominant Game 7 display inspired the team to another dominant series, this time against a Minnesota Timberwolves team making its second-consecutive Western Conference Finals appearance. Once again, it would be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the way in scoring, but Jalen Williams was arguably the next-best contributor in a five-game series victory against Minnesota. 

All of this led the Oklahoma City Thunder back to a place they last found themselves before this journey began, before the breakup of the original Big Three, and even before the acquisition of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: the NBA Finals. The cycle was now complete; after 14 years of roster retooling and rebuilding, Oklahoma City was back on the NBA’s biggest stage. 

But their path to four more wins would not be easy. Despite avoiding a matchup with the Boston Celtics or the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Indiana Pacers were no easy foe. Led by longtime Pacers like T.J McConnell and Myles Turner, and with Tyrese Haliburton emerging as a key scoring piece, Indiana was poised to fight for its first NBA Championship. And they came out swinging; despite being down 57-45 at halftime of Game 1, they fought back to steal the opening game of the Finals on Oklahoma City’s floor. But the Thunder fought back, dominating Game 2 on the back of big performances from Alex Caruso and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Despite getting punched in the mouth again in Game 3, Oklahoma City fought back to win Game 4 and 5, putting themselves on the brink of their first NBA title since their Seattle years. 

The glory would have to wait at least another game, as Indiana punched back once again in a dominant Game 6 victory to force a deciding Game 7, the first Game 7 in the NBA Finals since 2016. Even with Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers punched hard, but Oklahoma City was only down by a point at halftime. And they started the second half strong; they would ride a 9-3 run to open the third quarter all the way to a Game 7 victory. With that victory, the Thunder could now celebrate an NBA title. 

After reading a summarized version of 14 years of roster transactions, in-season performances, and storylines, you may be asking me the following question: why? Why invest all of this time in analyzing 14 years of team history when the past four years directly led to the Thunder’s championship? What’s so important about the Chris Paul trade? Why even bother with Josh Giddey?

I will answer by saying this: without the last Big Three in OKC, there is no New Big Three. Every single move made by Sam Presti since that Finals loss to LeBron James and Co. in 2011 leads directly to the Thunder’s Game 7 victory over Indiana in 2025. From acquiring the necessary picks to select key cornerstones to filling roster spots with key depth, every trade made pre-2020 still has significant value today. As for Josh Giddey, despite the inconsistency as a result of Jalen Williams’ emergence, his performance with the team was crucial to getting it out of the Western Conference basement and into playoff contention. And without him being traded to Chicago, OKC doesn’t get a key piece in its championship run. 

All this said, the Oklahoma City Thunder are perhaps the prime example of the importance of staying true to roster construction and investing in young assets and farm teams. This meticulous blueprint that has been built, tried, and tested over the course of two decades of basketball is one that is unique and that will certainly keep Oklahoma City atop the NBA hierarchy for years to come. 

And who knows. Maybe when the time for this current Big Three is up, we will see the wheels continue to turn and immediately produce another new Big Three in Oklahoma City. 

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Article written by Noah Guttman