Bettor’s Guide to NBA Betting in 2025

Chet Holmgren was instrumental in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s bid for a league title in the 2024-25 season. Despite missing a full year and then nearly half of the previous season, Holmgren proved to be pivotal in impacting OKC’s offense and defense, which led to the team to eventually push to sign him for more years to come.

This comes as a timely extension after the Thunder have also signed superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to a four-year, $285 million deal. The KIA MVP, WCF MVP, and Finals MVP have earned it well after a majestic season in which he also finished as the league’s scoring champion among many accolades, as well as being recently named the cover athlete of NBA 2K26.

Holmgren averaged 15.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.2 blocks per game for the Thunder last season. Despite what can be seen as his worst season, it only gets better from there. Oklahoma City’s plan to run it back rests on having its big three core intact together, and now it is going to be one heck of a push to make them all stay for more years to come.

OKC has ticked two, now there’s only one left.

The Holmgren Deal

With SGA finally done with his extension and guaranteed to stay until the 2030-31 season, it definitely made sense that Oklahoma City would now move to its next stars at hand for a chance to keep them together. With the deal, Holmgren is now slated to make about $41 million per year starting the 2026-27 season, which is the start of the extension.

Next year, however, the Thunder big man will make $13.7 million – which is the final year of his rookie deal. This should be a landmark season and a chance to improve his numbers before entering the prime years of his career with OKC.

Holmgren has already proved his worth on the big stage when he averaged 15.2 points and 8.7 rebounds in 23 playoff games – never missing a single one when it mattered most. OKC capped off a massive run where they managed to beat Indiana in a seven-game clincher.

For what it is worth, Holmgren had his ups and downs, and yet he managed to come back strong for OKC when it mattered most, and that says a lot about his value for the team.

Facing Adversity with Grit

Holmgren was selected as the no. 2 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft behind Orlando Magic’s Paolo Banchero. Had it not been for his foot injury, he may have ended up winning Rookie of the Year. Instead, he redshirted the entire season while also paving the way for the breakout of fellow 2022 pick Jalen Williams.

“They went through a fair amount of adversity during the season,” Presti said last month in his end-of-season meeting with reporters. “In reality, a lot of that adversity forged us into the team that we were, playing different lineups and being without certain players and then getting those players back, and the selflessness and humility that the players coming back had to have in order to fit into a team that was really cooking without them. Chet is one example of that, but we had many others.”

The Thunder center then returned in the 2023-24 season and played all 82 games to showcase his ability to stay on the court when healthy. OKC reached the semis in that run but was eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks. Holmgren also had a great start in the 2024-25 season, going as far as being the top three in MVP talks before his hip injury.

After a massive buyout with the Portland Trail Blazers, Deandre Ayton is now moving his sights to the California scene as he is slated to join the Los Angeles Lakers in their pursuit of a league title this season. With the center position being a huge concern for the 2020 champions, Ayton’s addition is expected to be a huge boon for their winning chances now more than ever.

It can be remembered that the Lakers moved on from Anthony Davis when they pulled the trigger to make a blockbuster trade that sent the Los Angeles big man to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Luka Doncic. This left the Lakers bare in the center position – with Jaxon Hayes, a power forward, filling in for the void left by Davis’ absence. That lack of positional depth in the center spot has led to the team’s first-round exit at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

With Portland committing to its young core, Ayton’s exit comes as a timely move for both teams. Now the big man is going to play alongside LeBron James and Doncic as the main trio for the squad while also hoping to reposition themselves in the Western Conference for a massive finish once more.

A Lakers Redemption

The Lakers were heavily criticized for not being able to bring in a center by the trade deadline of the 2024-25 season. Sure, they ended up as the third seed in the rough Western Conference, but then they lost in five games to the Timberwolves – who fielded a double big lineup of Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle.

It can be remembered that it was Gobert’s massive performance and dominance in the paint in that Game 5 loss for the Lakers that was led to the team’s strong need to find a massive big man who can prove to be a huge force in the paint.

In the 2024-25 season, Ayton averaged 14.4 points and 10.2 rebounds in 56.6% shooting per game, which says a lot about his efficient impact on the Lakers, provided that he plays the same way. It all means that the former Blazers big should fit in well moving forward as Los Angeles now eyes to see a new hope to prove that they are still one of the biggest teams to watch in the league.

Domin-Ayton in LA?

Ayton is one of the top players who is still just entering his prime years. At the age of 26 – he is of the same Draft Class as his teammate Luka Doncic, who is another young prodigy who is even pegged to become the face of the league at this point in time. We all know how Ayton has been able to prove his worth over the years, especially in his 2021 Finals run.

Considering the fact that he plays the same way as he did with the Blazers, the Lakers are getting a pivotal piece now more than ever. The former Phoenix Suns big man agreed to have his contract bought out by Portland, which means he will be paid more than $25 million by the Blazers while playing for the Lakers next year.

Without Davis, the Lakers ran pretty much the second half of the 2024-25 season without a true big man who could grind his way in the paint and come up with impressive runs on the boards. That’s the same level of expectation that Ayton will find his way in moving forward.

A first-time All-Star in his third season, and an NBA Champion as well, Jalen Williams has a lot to be happy about in the offseason. However, the guard is planning to undergo surgery on his right wrist, which he injured heading into the final stretch of the 2024-25 season. All this time, the Thunder guard was playing through injury after all and is now set to have it fixed.

Williams did not miss a single game in the 2025 Playoffs, playing all 23 postseason games and helping Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren lead the way for a promising championship in the 2025 NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers. The Thunder eventually finished with a wire-to-wire victory in Game 7 to claim their first league title in OKC.

In an end-of-season presser, Thunder GM Sam Presti discussed how the Thunder played through a lot of injuries for most of the season – and yet still managed to win 68 games. He also claimed that Williams was inactive for the final two games of the season after playing 36 minutes in a 125-112 victory over Phoenix on April 9. He opted to rest his wrist, but had to play through pain in the playoffs.

An Injured Williams Performing

Williams kept a brace in his wrist – which also happened to be his shooting hand at times in the playoffs. It was even taped during games, and that may have been one of the reasons why he shot poorly from three at 30% in the postseason – which is 6% off his season percentage.

There were also a lot of times when Williams had a very rough game, especially against the Denver Nuggets. He was criticized well for not being able to show up in multiple closeout games against the Nuggets and the Pacers in both Game Sixes.

“The part that I’m most impressed with is in our modern era, when someone has a poor performance or they’re not playing to their capability in a game and there’s a lot of attention on it, you often see a little birdie make sure that everybody knows that the player is not 100%,” Presti said during his season-ending meeting with reporters. “Never happened with this guy, not one time. He powered through. He showed incredible mental endurance and security in himself.”

If you are not impressed, Williams also powered a massive 40-point burst in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to help the Thunder take a 3-2 series lead. He was even in the conversations for the Finals MVP alongside SGA before Game 7.

Thunder Injuries Addressed

OKC was one of many teams that didn’t play at full strength for the 2024-25 season. Isaiah Hartenstein injured his finger before the campaign while Chet Holmgren was out after just 10 games and missed a huge chunk of the season.

There’s also multiple injuries to SGA and even Williams himself, but the Thunder still found ways to win, which is such an impressive way to talk about a team that eventually ended up winning the championship.

As the 2025-26 looms ahead, the Thunder seek to stay healthy and in shape as they also gear up for their first title defense and prove that their win was not a fluke, but rather a hope that they can start a dynasty of winning and the continuation of the arrival they’ve been looking forward for years.