Controversial NBA personality names Mavericks, Rockets as top threats to Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the team to beat in the NBA currently, and will defend their 2024-25 title this season in a stacked Western Conference. Winning 68 games last season, they return nearly their entire roster, as well as adding two pieces in their 2024 draft pick Nikola Topic and 2025 pick Thomas Sorber.

Though they will be the outright favorite to repeat and capture their second championship in a row, they will have to compete against other talented teams on the way. Recently, Stephen A. Smith had some opinions on two of the teams that could stand in their way, both of which happen to be from the state of Texas.

The first team is the Houston Rockets, but the second team, according to Smith, is the Dallas Mavericks. He said the following on Gilbert Arenas' show "Gil's Arena."

Dallas Mavericks forward P.J. Washington laughs after a play against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Alex Caruso during the second half at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

“I view Dallas as a pre-eminent threat because they’ve always got OKC’s number...If you look at them last year, even when Luka was down, they still beat them. Oklahoma City running through everybody except Dallas. They run into Dallas without Luka.

"Dallas beat them. They run into Dallas with Kyrie, Dallas beats them. For some reason, Dallas has their number. And they know how to play against them. And I think because of that reality, you cannot dismiss the Dallas Mavericks as a threat."

Smith isn't wrong about that fact – the Mavericks were 3-1 against Oklahoma City last season, even with the Thunder's impressive regular-season record. Of course, these games were before the February 2 Luka Doncic trade, but Doncic did not play in three of these games.

Still, taking down the defending champions is a tall task for any team, especially one that will be relying heavily on a rookie in Cooper Flagg and will be down a superstar in Kyrie Irving for a good portion of the season. The "defense wins championships" mindset will have to come to fruition for Dallas to be a contending team this season.

Fans may still be upset about the Doncic-Anthony Davis swap, but this Mavericks team does have upside on the defensive end. They will have to get lucky with their health this year after the disaster of last season, where they had so many injuries they nearly had to forfeit games, but if their front court can play the majority of their games, they will be a difficult team against which to score.

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