This season, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the heavy favorites to win the highly-contested Western Conference. After a 57-win season last season, the Oklahoma City Thunder won their first playoff series since 2016 in impressive fashion—they earned their second playoff sweep in franchise history—the Thunder were eliminated in six games by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round.
A strong season led general manager Sam Presti to make two winning moves to significantly improve his roster Josh Giddey trades for Alex Caruso and ink New York Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein to the highest free agency contract in the history of the club.
The trades give the Thunder newfound attacking depth and a perfect fit in Giddey’s place, allowing Oklahoma City to double down on last year’s success. On Monday, Chet Holmgren was named Paul George Podcast to discuss all things basketball, including the new Hartenstein.
“I think Hartenstein coming in is great. I think it opens up more possibilities to play different styles. Last year we had a pretty defined style of play. It worked. Now we have more possibilities for different styles of play.” Sam [Presti] “I say it all the time, we’re never married to one thing… I just think this approach is about pushing the boundaries of what we can be. Whether I’m out there in fourth or fifth, I’m trying to win,” Holmgren said.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will see their season is open Oct. 24 against the Denver Nuggets on TNT. It will be an interesting away game against a massive interior threat like Nikola Jokic to get a first look at how Mark Daigneault will deploy this new rotation that includes Holmgren and Hartenstein.
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