Continuity Should Help OKC Thunder Remain Atop Standings

The Thunder made some offseason moves, but their roster is still full of familiar faces.

Sep 28, 2026; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder center/forward Chet Holmgren (7) poses for a photo during Oklahoma City Thunder Media Day at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Oklahoma City is set for another season, and one of its greatest strengths hasn’t changed.

As the Thunder prepare to tip off another season in a couple of weeks and begin preseason action on Tuesday night, they’ll have a different look this season. Over the offseason, the Thunder traded Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins, all of whom had been key contributors over the past few seasons and were instrumental in the Thunder’s championship run.

Those departures largely dominated the headlines surrounding the Thunder all offseason. While those departures will certainly have an impact on what the team looks like across the next 82 games, they’ve still got one of their greatest strengths to rely on: continuity.

Although it might not be quite as strong as it has been in previous years with Dort, Joe and Wiggins out of the picture, the Thunder are still set to come into the season with largely the same roster. While most teams would see some semblance of their continuity go out the window when players of that caliber move on, the Thunder are still returning 10 players from their postseason rotation. 

Although departures can have a negative impact on a team’s continuity, the Thunder are still bringing back more of their core than most teams around the league. And perhaps most importantly, the Thunder aren’t bringing in any significant pieces that could disrupt the chemistry or cause some significant changes to the rotation.

Instead, the Thunder will get to tip off the season with roughly the same group it finished last season with, or at the very least, enter the season with almost exclusively players who finished last year in Oklahoma City. That type of chemistry that’s been built over the past few years should also be a point in the Thunder’s favor as they look to earn the No. 1 seed in the West once again.

Hoping to earn the conference’s best record for a fourth year in a row, the Thunder know they’ll likely have to overcome the Spurs team that just beat them in the Western Conference Finals. With Tobias Harris joining the Spurs, they may have even more talent this season, but it could come with a cost of adjusting to new talent that Oklahoma City won’t have to pay.

There’s no denying that the Thunder lost some key pieces over the past few months, but bringing back most of the core from last season should still be incredibly beneficial for Oklahoma City’s quest for the league’s top record.