There are hundreds of words to describe how players and fans felt when the Thunder’s title defense ended at the hands of the upstart San Antonio Spurs on the last Saturday in May, 2026. Hurt. Confused. Nauseated. Disappointed. To look over at the jubilant Spurs players, a young group that had never even appeared in the playoffs before this season, and be confronted with the reality that they’d dispatched the supposed generational OKC threat on their first attempt—well, it is a feeling many of us aren’t in a hurry to relive.
Which is exactly what makes it great television on opening night. The first locker room the Thunder check into this new NBA season is the visiting team’s in San Antonio, and the first faces they’ll see on the court are those of Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs players who knocked them out less than five months ago. Nothing like the first day of school for remembering you have enemies.
Get used to the tension, because the book on the SGA Thunder vs. Wemby Spurs rivalry isn’t even halfway written yet. It’s just getting started between these franchises positioned to battle for Western Conference supremacy over the next five or more years, and each new season will provide its own twists and turns. The first adjustments are already underway.
“We could have a really exceptional basketball team if we stay healthy,” Thunder general manager Sam Presti said of this year's team during his preseason address to the media in September. “But we're going to be different.”
What exactly is different about this year’s team? Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, and Isaiah Joe are all gone, having together accounted for about a quarter of the team’s allocable playing time the past two seasons.1 In Dort specifically, the Thunder is losing, on paper, a former first-team All-Defense player, as well as the psychic comfort in knowing no matter which perimeter ace the other team employs, Oklahoma City could sentence them to the Dorture Chamber—to the terror of the opponent and the shrill delight of Thunder fans.
Wiggins and Joe were, at their respective peaks, offensive threats contributing well above their draft grade. Between the departed trio, none were drafted above the second round, nor expected to have much of an NBA career at all. That shoulder chip actually might be the team’s biggest loss. Dort, Wiggins, and Joe represented the crux of that championship team’s underdog, self-made ethos. It’s odd to consider OKC as a team that has outgrown their services when those same services helped deliver the franchise to its summit.
And yet, this new iteration of the Thunder might provide a better answer to the unique challenge the Spurs present. Namely, the 7’4”dude with the eight-foot wingspan guarding the basket.