The brand new youngsters within the neighborhood, the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder The crew exploded onto the title contender scene final season, because the youngest seed in league historical past and led by MVP finalist Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The Thunder’s fast rise took everybody without warning. After failing to make the playoffs the earlier three seasons, OKC made a exceptional comeback. They misplaced to the Dallas Mavericks in a decent, back-and-forth sequence within the second spherical.
Though the Thunder seemed to be a title contender all through final season, it seems that Boston Celtics wasn’t essentially fearful a few potential 2024 NBA Finals matchup in opposition to the younger crew. Jayson Tatum mentioned The Boston Globe he had an instinct Boston Celtics would win an NBA championship as soon as the Denver Nuggets had been eradicated within the second spherical by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The 26-year-old believes Denver would be the hardest matchup Boston may face within the championship sequence. He pointed to their expertise as three-time MVP Nikola Jokic led the then-defending NBA champion Nuggets to the title in 2023.
“Individuals all the time ask me, ‘When do you know you had been going to win a championship?’ When Minnesota beat Denver. I felt like Denver was the one crew that was proper for us,” Tatum mentioned. “I assumed we had been going to play Denver within the Finals and it was going to be a great Finals.”
Tatum’s response leaves out the Thunder, who beat the Timberwolves and Nuggets for first place on the ultimate day of the 2023-24 common season. He additionally lately predicted the 2025 NBA Finals There will likely be a rematch of final June’s recreation between the Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks.
It has been a pleasant offseason for Tatum, who has lastly gotten over the hump. He is now an NBA champion with a great probability of repeating, provided that the Celtics introduced everybody again. He reached the highest of the league with a dominant season and earned the fitting to have a good time. However that being mentioned, he had no drawback offering scoreboard materials to different title contenders just like the Thunder this offseason.
Time will inform how his current feedback will age.
This text was initially printed on OKC Thunder Wire: Jayson Tatum extra fearful about Nuggets than Thunder in 2024 playoffs
