Oklahoma City is expected to make some impressive strides in the coming season after a promising 2023-24 campaign, and it cannot be denied that there are certain expectations to the team’s chances of winning. However, it seems that there are still certain analysts who believe that the team still lacks enough experience to actually win in the NBA this year.

From addressing its rebounding issues by signing Isaiah Hartenstein, trading away Josh Giddey in exchange for Alex Caruso, all the way to signing Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins to bigger contracts, it does seem that OKC has had its way for a promising season to come with a promising tweak in their respective rosters, and one can say that it is a good move for the team.

Still, the talks of not having enough experience in the playoff stage seem quite to be a bummer at this point, with many critics claiming that the Thunder are expected to be early-round exits once more. However, it can be argued that experience plays a factor as much as team composition does in their chances of winning now more than ever.

Arguing the Thunder’s Case

Looking at the teams with the best championship odds this season, Oklahoma City does have a strong case heading into the season, considering the fact that they are indeed, a championship contender now more than ever. According to some writers from Bleacher Report, however, the Thunder is still quite inexperienced in contending at a high level in the coming season.

“It's difficult to argue against the Thunder, who finished (via tiebreaker) as the No. 1 seed last year in the West and have since improved,” Eric Pincus wrote. “But this is still a very young, inexperienced team. Caruso has a championship with the Lakers, and Hartenstein was vital to the Knicks in their run last season. The Thunder's core players added experience in last year's postseason, but the team may be a year away when it comes to having the "know-how" to close out later rounds of the playoffs.”

The Thunder did make a run in the playoff stage last season, and they got eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks in six games in the West Semis, but they did show that they can make changes and find success in some key points that would determine their chances of winning next season.

Not a First for OKC

Whether you believe it or not, it is actually a running theme that OKC is an inexperienced team whenever it reached the playoff stage in its years with the first core of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook. So far, that iteration of OKC really did enjoy some promising strides, even reaching the NBA Finals in 2012 that time. This just means that there are more expectations for the current Thunder team – one that is deemed to be better than the last.

OKC has struggled, made changes, found success, and even went through the highs and lows of the playoffs, and now they should be geared well to be ready for a promising playoff run – contrary to what most people think, including the critics who claimed that they are not ready for the playoffs.

At this point, Oklahoma City is definitely hungry enough to bring the best of its games to the big stage, and one can say that this is their big break to make the most of their chances in the game.