The Thunder and Pacers, this year’s NBA Finals squads, have provided a new roadmap for winning teams in the league, writes Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports.
O’Connor argues that the three-and-D role player may not be enough anymore for the highest levels of basketball. As perhaps a next evolutionary step, both of these thoroughly modern clubs have built rosters loaded with handling ability and fast decision making among role players — in addition to the long range sniping and defense. O’Connor opines that Boston employed that formula to win it all last summer, as well.
O’Connor praises the ability of most of Oklahoma City’s top players to dribble, move the ball expediently, shoot at a high level and defend. Even Thunder big man Isaiah Hartenstein, though not a long range shooter, is a solid distributor from the post. O’Connor observes that all of the Pacers’ top players are similarly equipped to thrive on both sides of the ball with versatile skillsets.
There’s more from the NBA Finals:
- At 24.7 years old, the Thunder have the youngest average age of any Finals team since 1977, notes Lev Akabas of Sportico (subscriber link). The Pacers’ average age of 26.2 years old, would make Indiana the youngest for a champ since 1980 if the club beat Oklahoma City. Akabas observes that 2025 marks the first time in two decades that neither NBA Finals club has paid into the league’s luxury tax. Indiana’s $169.1MM team payroll ranked 18th in the league this year, and was below the $170.8MM tax threshold. Oklahoma City’s $165.6MM payroll was just the 25th-priciest this year. The two teams’ youth is a feature, not a bug, as both boast multiple young talents — including 2022 lottery picks Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and Bennedict Mathurin — still on their rookie-scale contracts, making their deals all extremely valuable in the league’s punitive CBA.
- Devout fans of the now-defunct Seattle SuperSonics are all-in on the Pacers in this year’s Finals, writes Andrew Destin of The Associated Press. Under then-new owner Clay Bennett, the SuperSonics abandoned Seattle for Oklahoma City in 2008, and rebranded themselves as the Thunder. “A lot of Sonics fans that I know I’m sure never got over the wounds of what happened here 17 years ago with them leaving (for) Oklahoma City,” SuperSonics fan Eric Phan said. “All of the Sonics fanbase (is) rooting for the Indiana Pacers.”
- Despite Seattle fans’ rooting interest against the Thunder, they have emerged as the heavy favorites to win this year’s impending Finals clash, which tips off on Thursday. 29 of 32 ESPN experts recently picked Oklahoma City to best Indiana.
- Alongside All-Defensive wings Luguentz Dort and Alex Caruso, second-year Thunder guard Cason Wallace is embracing his own role as a reserve perimeter stopper, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Although Wallace was the No. 10 pick out of Kentucky in 2023, he has accepted his current place in Oklahoma City’s hierarchy. “Being a guard and the guy your whole life and then coming in and having to be a role player, you have to change your mindset,” Wallace told Slater. “But once you come in every day and you see everybody buys into their role, you find out that being a role player isn’t bad. You can be a high-level player, but as long as you do your job, then that’s what it takes to win.”