Thunder Given Great Offseason Grade by ESPN Analyst Due to 3 Key Reasons originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
It has been a quiet offseason thus far for the Oklahoma City Thunder, which was to be expected as the defending champions have almost their entire core from last season returning.
For the Thunder, they have made only two additions to their roster this offseason as they selected Thomas Sorber and Brooks Barnhizer in the 2025 draft.
The three major moves the Thunder made this summer was signing their star trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams to max extensions, locking them all in for the foreseeable future.
These were massive moves by Oklahoma City and while they will eventually lead to some tough decisions down the line, the Thunder will enter the next few seasons as the likely championship favorite due to their young core.
With these moves, ESPN’s Kevin Pelton gave the Thunder a B+ offseason grade.
“The defending champs return every player who saw at least 50 minutes of action during the 2025 playoffs, so the real work for the Thunder front office was securing long-term extensions for stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. A supermax deal for Gilgeous-Alexander and max deals for Holmgren and Williams will force tough choices for Oklahoma City, but the Thunder did well to sign Holmgren to a deal locked in at 25% of the 2026-27 cap and avoid giving Williams a player option on his extension,” Pelton wrote.
Pelton also mentioned how the Thunder will have some tough decisions to make in the future but as of now, they are undoubtedly the favorite to come out of the Western Conference next season.
Despite this, there have been other teams in the West who have upgraded their rosters this summer but the Thunder will also be getting back Nikola Topic who missed his entire rookie campaign due to a torn ACL.
Oklahoma City’s young core will also continue to develop into next season, making them potentially an even greater force as they try to win back-to-back championships with Shai, Holmgren and Williams leading the way.
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 5, 2025, where it first appeared.
