Photo courtesy of Forbes.
For decades, the NBA had a dynasty problem. No matter how hard the league tried, superteams that would dominate a five or ten year stretch kept popping up like weeds. This pattern of one team winning it all or getting upset was fun for a while, but fans got tired of seeing it over and over.
So the NBA wielded its might and implemented changes to taxes and penalties for going over the salary cap in their most recent collective bargaining agreement — CBA. Until recently, these changes had their intended effect. Out with the dynasties of old, in with the parity of new.
Then the Oklahoma City Thunder won it all — not just their first NBA Finals, but seemingly the next five to 10 NBA Finals as well. It’s all because the Thunder did what the league intended when they implemented the changes to salary cap penalization.
Until the most recent CBA, the Thunder were like most other contending teams in the NBA. They got lucky in drafting a superstar player — or three — and as a result were seemingly always threatening a run to the finals.
When superstars got tired of coming up short, they would leave and then be replaced by other superstar talent. When James Harden and Kevin Durant left the team, Paul George was brought in to fill the void.
They were spending money left and right trying to fill in holes via free agency so they could outduel bigger market teams.
Then, a few years before the new CBA was written, the Thunder decided to start doing things differently.
They tore everything down, trading away Paul George, Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul and came away with more first-round picks than a team could ever use.
In these trades they also acquired a young, supposedly budding superstar by the name of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — and the first round pick that they would later use to draft Jalen Williams.
Once the league announced the new CBA in 2023, many teams scrambled to get under the cap — or just decided to suck it up and pay hefty taxes on their bloated rosters.
The Thunder however, were poised perfectly to take advantage of the situation. They didn’t have to manage their cap, their team was young and they were out for blood. Now, two years later, it seems to be paying off as they have won their first NBA Finals.
The team was then promptly able to sign its core of three superstar players to contracts totaling a combined value of $822 million through the 2030-31 season.
This type of signing is reminiscent of other superteams forming across the history of the league, but with one key difference — the Thunder developed all this young talent themselves.
Superteams such as the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics of the late 2000s and early 2010s were built on one homegrown superstar player being surrounded by outside talent brought in to supplement the team. The Thunder didn’t have to bring anyone else in, all they had to do was draft and develop players on the cheap.
With teams around the league still focused on trying to sign a superstar that will get them over the edge of contention to a championship, they’re only continuing to put themselves behind the Thunder.
There is only one team in the NBA that has a young roster, savvy cap management and enough draft capital to make any team blush. The Thunder aren’t going anywhere now that they’ve won their first championship as a team. Barring injury, they’re the league’s newest dynasty, and no one can stop them.
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