NBA Expansion No Concern For OKC Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the premier brands of the modern NBA. They get lumped into each league-wide story. Most recently, NBA expansion. The panic over this move is vastly overblown. How expansion actually helps the Bricktown Ballers.

Oct 21, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti and owner Clay Bennett stand next to the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy during the ring ceremony before the start of a game against the Houston Rockets at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Since relocating to Oklahoma City in 2008, the Thunder have transformed into one of the best brands in basketball during this modern era. Against all odds, the Bricktown Ballers have built two different sustained runs of title contention basketball in one of the league's smallest markets.

Currently, the OKC Thunder reign atop the NBA as defending champions who foster the deepest and most talented roster in the league. Every time a league-wide talking point comes up such as tanking and expansion recently, the Thunder have been shoe horned into these conversations.

The worst kept secret in the NBA is that the league is set to expand to 32 teams, likely approved this summer. People have taken that anecdote and stripped away all context fear mongering that this means trouble for the league's best roster.

One of the first things to remember is that even if the NBA board of Governors vote to approve expansion in July, the league would still be year's away from running an expansion draft and implementing these two new teams –– likely in Seattle and Vegas –– into the NBA.

By then, every roster around the association, including Oklahoma City's, will look much different.

Though, for the sake of argument and out of the boredom that arrives while awaiting the league to restart post All-Star break, even if the Thunder had this exact same talent-rich roster at the time of the expansion draft it still would not dampen the team's title contention chances.

If the NBA follows the same rules as their previous expansion drafts, each team gets to protect eight players from their 15 standard contracted roster. Of the players left unprotected, you could only lose one. For example, if Seattle used the top pick in the expansion draft on a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, even Vegas could not dip back into the Thunder's well of talent. OKC would be completely off the board.

The Thunder could also use their treasure trove of assets to give away a first round pick in the NBA draft in lieu of losing a player.

It is accurate that Oklahoma City would lose the best player in the expansion draft, in all likelihood, but it would just be one piece –– and not even a top eight piece –– of this loaded roster.

In fact, expansion actually works out in the Thunder's favor. As the team is only set to grow more expensive, something the organization is prepared for, the fees and revenue generated to existing teams actually eases that burden of a highly paid team is made lighter by expansion.

"Simultaneously, we are at a point where there will be some significant financial benefits for our team going forward as a result of things happening kind of outside of the team itself. You have a brand new television contract that was just signed, which is a remarkable achievement and sign of the strength of the product. That benefits all teams," Sam Presti said back in September. "You have a new arena opening, which will be a significant driver in revenue for our organization. You have potential expansion down the line, both in Europe and potentially domestically. Obviously that's a decision that Adam and the Board of Governors are reviewing presently."

While many are using expansion as a reason to discuss a Thunder downfall, the real context behind the league growing to 32 teams, is that it helps Oklahoma City's sustainability.

"So we're positioned well to have a significant influx of capital going forward, during a period of time where for sure our team is going to get more expensive," Presti detailed. "...All that to say, we understand what's coming, but it would be really fruitless for us to predict what's going to happen because we'd be missing the most important information, which is this season. What happens this season, what happens next season...But our ownership group is fiercely committed to supporting the team, as we talked about, the mutual commitment component to a small market franchise. I think it's extremely important that everyone is mutually committed and everybody understands this is coming."

Yes, expansion is fun to talk about. Though, it is important to do it right.

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