{"id":696101,"date":"2026-05-26T17:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696101\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T17:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:28:09","slug":"why-nba-teams-arent-afraid-of-the-thunder-and-spurs-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696101\/","title":{"rendered":"Why NBA Teams Aren\u2019t Afraid of the Thunder and Spurs Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA<\/a>NBA<\/a>\u201cThe notion that everyone is just gonna accept it is insane.\u201d \"\"Getty Images\/Ringer illustration\"\"<\/a>By Howard Beck<\/a>May 26, 1:08 pm UTC \u2022 9 min<\/p>\n

There are moments, during this epic clash between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder, when it feels like we\u2019re all watching basketball on psychedelics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moments when Victor Wembanyama looks 10 feet tall, with a 20-foot wingspan\u2014swatting every shot, swishing every 3 from the logo, dunking from half court with those Mr. Fantastic arms. Moments when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander seems to hover above the hardwood, virtually weightless, effortlessly sinking jumpers while absorbing a random assortment of elbows, forearms, and knees. Moments when the Thunder\u2019s starting five seem impossibly in sync and the Spurs\u2019 sprightly stars look like 10-year vets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are moments, in these deadlocked 2026 Western Conference finals, when even a certified NBA legend can only gasp at the staggering wealth of talent, youth, and depth and proclaim, with a fair degree of certainty: No one else stands a chance. Not now. Not next year. Not for years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to break the news to the rest of the Western Conference, but they may not have a chance to win the Western Conference finals for the next 5-7 years. The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are just that good!\u201d<\/p>\n

That was Magic Johnson, he of the five NBA championships, in a tweet posted<\/a> a short time after Wemby\u2019s Spurs completed a riveting 122-115 double-overtime victory over SGA\u2019s Thunder in Game 1 of the series<\/a>. And Johnson was hardly alone. Across social media, fans and pundits and former ballers all joined in the gasping and proclaiming (and, in some cases, despairing) as they processed the collective dominance of Wembanyama (age 22), Stephon Castle (21), and Dylan Harper (20) on one side, and the brilliance of Gilgeous-Alexander (27), Chet Holmgren (24), and Jalen Williams (25) on the other.<\/p>\n

The Thunder already have a championship in hand, a back-to-back MVP (SGA), the deepest roster in the league, and a massive cache of draft picks to keep replenishing as they go. The Spurs\u2014the second-youngest team<\/a> to make the conference finals this century\u2014have the reigning Defensive Player of the Year (Wemby), an MVP finalist (also Wemby), two other rising stars, and an equally enviable stash of draft picks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can almost feel the existential angst spreading across the NBA map.<\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t just the two best teams in the West\u2014and arguably the entire NBA\u2014this season. No, the Spurs and Thunder are positioned to be elite for many, many, many years to come. This would be remarkable in any decade, but even more so now, in an era of unprecedented parity. Last June, the Thunder became the NBA\u2019s seventh different champion in seven years. No team has won back-to-back titles, or even made back-to-back Finals, since the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n

The NBA\u2019s collective bargaining agreement is engineered to thwart superteams, to render dynasties virtually extinct. But the Spurs and Thunder are threatening to break the system.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re a fan of any other team and find yourself shuddering and fretting and muttering about the hopelessness of it all \u2026 well, you have our sympathy and support. You\u2019re right to be freaked out. But history suggests that things won\u2019t be quite so predictable. That visions of a Spurs-Thunder hegemony will prove faulty. And, critically, that the other 28 franchises will not cower in fear.<\/p>\n

Yes, the conversation among rival GMs and coaches right now is much like the public conversation\u2014filled with awe and respect for Wemby and Shai and for what the Spurs and Thunder have built. But it\u2019s tinged with defiance. No one is conceding the next half decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe notion that everyone is just gonna accept it is insane,\u201d said an executive from an Eastern Conference playoff team. \u201cEverybody that are in these jobs are competitive. They\u2019re not just gonna accept it. A team like San Antonio, who have gotten lucky to get generational talent multiple times [in the lottery], people take that shit personally, and they have a drive to beat those guys. They\u2019re not gonna sit back and take a beating for the next 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the message and the tone were consistent among a half dozen executives and coaches who spoke to The Ringer. No one can say exactly how they\u2019ll dethrone the two Western Conference powers\u2014just that they\u2019re committed to finding a way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I watch the game, I\u2019m not watching it with any fear; I\u2019m not watching it with a level of like, \u2018We\u2019re in a lot of trouble,\u2019\u201d said a coach with a Western Conference playoff team. \u201cI’m watching it going: This is the standard. We’re going to have to find ways to compete against these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, as one NBA team exec put it: \u201cThere\u2019s no time spent like, \u2018Oh, fuck.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a daunting challenge but not a unique one. NBA coaches, players, and fans have been hand-wringing over one impervious force or another for decades. In the 1980s, it was the twin dynasties in Boston and L.A. In the \u201990s, it was Michael Jordan\u2019s Bulls. In the early 2000s, it was the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers. And in the 2010s, it was Stephen Curry\u2019s Warriors and whichever team had LeBron James.<\/p>\n

But someone always breaks through. Moses Malone and the Philadelphia 76ers seized the title in 1983, temporarily interrupting the Lakers-Celtics stranglehold. Age and attrition eventually took down both powers. Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons ended the Lakers\u2019 reign in 1989. Hakeem Olajuwon and the Rockets sneaked in for two titles in the mid-\u201990s, between Bulls three-peats. Tim Duncan\u2019s Spurs prevented a Shaq-and-Kobe four-peat in 2003.<\/p>\n

The last time the NBA was this angsty about a single team was in 2016, when the Warriors\u2014already champions and two-time Finalists\u2014signed Kevin Durant to play alongside Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. And that angst was justified. The Warriors put together a modern-day record of five straight Finals appearances, facing James\u2019s Cavaliers in four of them. For a full half decade, it felt like no one else had a chance.<\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t stop rivals from trying. The Spurs signed LaMarcus Aldridge in 2015, just after the first Warriors title, to flank Kawhi Leonard. Two years later, the Rockets acquired Chris Paul to play alongside James Harden and unleashed a playing style that stressed out the Warriors for seven games of the 2018 conference finals.<\/p>\n

The Warriors, of course, repelled that challenge and won their third championship that June. A month later, the Toronto Raptors\u2014clearly undaunted\u2014acquired Kawhi Leonard to make their own Finals run. Eleven months later, Toronto took down the battered and broken Warriors to claim its own championship.<\/p>\n

The specter of a prolonged Spurs-Thunder era might induce some bad teams to stay bad longer, or at least to build more methodically, in the hopes of rising when those teams fall, league executives said. But any team with immediate playoff aspirations has to at least consider San Antonio and OKC in its roster construction.<\/p>\n

And any current team with a top-10 talent is almost obligated to follow the Raptors\u2019 and Rockets\u2019 example from a decade ago and go all in. The Lakers, now built around an in-his-prime Luka Doncic, can\u2019t afford to stand idle. Ditto the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic. The Minnesota Timberwolves, powered by 24-year-old Anthony Edwards, have been consistently aggressive in recent years, regardless of whom they\u2019re chasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know our competition is not gonna sit still\u2014nor will we,\u201d Tim Connelly, the Wolves\u2019 president of basketball operations, told reporters last week. But he also acknowledged the unique challenge posed by the Spurs and Thunder. \u201cI think the equation changes when you see the two teams playing in the Western Conference [finals] right now and how good they are,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got smacked by Oklahoma City last year, we got smacked by San Antonio. We know they\u2019re \u2026 the gold standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

How will rivals actually respond? Will they load up on 7-footers to rough up Wembanyama? Will they splurge on rangy defenders to try to contain Gilgeous-Alexander (and Castle and Harper)? Will challengers be even more aggressive in pursuing a trade for Or Kawhi Leonard? Or Jaylen Brown? This offseason will provide the first real glimpse into how other GMs view their chances of pulling an upset.<\/p>\n

The wiser path, said the Western Conference coach, is to build patiently, \u201cjust be really good and focus on yourself, and then make sure you feel like you have a game plan that you’d be able to compete against them.\u201d But, he quickly noted, \u201cI do think some teams are going to make some mistakes this summer\u201d in their zeal to defeat Wembanyama or Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n

One strategy you should not expect: anyone trying to build a roster in the Spurs\u2019 or Thunder\u2019s image. And it\u2019s not just because you\u2019re unlikely to find another 7-foot-4 center with an 8-foot wingspan, with the shooting range of Damian Lillard and the shot-blocking instincts of Dikembe Mutombo. The map the Spurs followed\u2014a multiyear commitment to losing in pursuit of high draft picks\u2014will soon be erased by the NBA\u2019s coming lottery It will soon be extremely difficult (if not impossible) to acquire three young talents like Wembanyama (the no. 1 pick in 2023), Castle (no. 4 in 2024), and Harper (no. 2 in 2025).<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to replicate Wemby,\u201d said a Western Conference GM. \u201cGenerational talents like him come along once every quarter of a century. But I think our job as competitors, and I think the majority of the league would say it, is, \u2018OK, they\u2019re special, they\u2019re great, but it\u2019s our job to figure out: How can we put up a team that can compete against that and give us at least a fighting chance to unseat them?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Nor is the Thunder\u2019s model easily replicable. They landed Gilgeous-Alexander via trade, before he blossomed into a star. They acquired the future pick that turned into Williams (no. 12 in 2022) in that same deal. And they tanked the year they landed Holmgren (no. 2 in 2022)\u2014a gambit the NBA hopes to eradicate with flatter lottery odds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would never try to build a roster specific to an Oklahoma City or a San Antonio,\u201d Connelly said. \u201cYou can\u2019t match up with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, as one talent evaluator for an Eastern Conference team noted, there are lessons to be gleaned from both powerhouses. Both teams scout, draft, and develop young talent at an elite level. Both teams invest smartly in analytics and sports science.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou try to find an advantage in the margins,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not gonna be able to stop Wemby, but if we can manage to not let them get 25 points from a rookie in Dylan Harper, maybe we have a chance to win. It\u2019s not gonna be easy, obviously, but people found a way to win around LeBron\u2019s dominance, they found ways to win around KD and Steph Curry\u2019s dominance. There\u2019s always going to be somebody that\u2019s going to challenge them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Failing any other solution, rivals can hope that a string of deep playoff runs will wear down the wunderkinds and leave an opening for someone else. No one is rooting for injuries to marquee stars, but the recent surge in soft-tissue injuries<\/a> (especially Achilles ruptures) is an ever-present factor in the championship race. The NBA\u2019s current economic system\u2014featuring punitive luxury taxes and \u201caprons\u201d that punish the highest spenders\u2014could also theoretically force the Thunder and Spurs to break up their cores at some point, or at least shed some key role players.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are gonna figure it out, how to beat them,\u201d said the first Eastern Conference executive. \u201cWith the rules the way they are, San Antonio may not be able to keep all those guys. So a window opens up again. You have to be prepared for when that window is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, barring injuries or salary-cap issues, it\u2019s hard to see how the Spurs or Thunder will falter anytime soon. But we\u2019re reminded of another leaguewide freakout, some 16 years ago, when a once-in-a-generation player left Cleveland for South Beach to play alongside two other stars in their primes and threaten to win every title for the next decade. \u201cNot one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven,\u201d James proclaimed<\/a> on that Miami stage in July 2010.<\/p>\n

The history books show that the Heat made four straight Finals, winning two of them, before James returned to Cleveland. Which merely proves once more that nothing in the NBA is forever and, well, none of us know anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can all try to predict the future,\u201d said a team executive. \u201cNo one is going to be right about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Howard Beck<\/p>\n

<\/a>Howard Beck got his basketball education covering the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers for the L.A. Daily News starting in 1997, and has been writing and reporting about the NBA ever since. He\u2019s also covered the league for The New York Times, Bleacher Report, and Sports Illustrated. He\u2019s a co-host of \u2018The Real Ones.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBANBA\u201cThe notion that everyone is just gonna accept it is insane.\u201d Getty Images\/Ringer illustrationBy Howard BeckMay 26, 1:08…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-696101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}