The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors have grow to be one thing of a cautionary story inside the NBA. They’re the one workforce in NBA historical past to win 73 video games, however have grow to be a little bit of a joke as a result of they could not seal the best season in league historical past with a championship. It is a disgrace in case you give it any actual thought. 

Why does profitable a championship really matter? What’s the championship apart from an arbitrary aim that the league units and an ending to a season? I might argue {that a} championship issues as a type of historic validation. It is a means for a workforce to say, “We had been one of the best workforce that 12 months and now we have a trophy to show it.” However actually take into consideration a championship in comparison with what the 2015-16 Warriors did. Each season in NBA historical past has had a champion. Just one season, the 2015-16 marketing campaign, included a 73-game winner. What these Warriors achieved was far, far rarer. But it is derided as a result of it wasn’t accompanied by a extra frequent achievement.

The Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder should not going to win 73 video games this season, however they do have an opportunity to do one thing almost as uncommon. The Thunder, as of this writing, are 64-12. Meaning they’re six wins away from changing into the third 70-win workforce in NBA historical past. Check out their schedule. The following three video games are, a minimum of on paper, pretty tough. On Friday, they journey to Houston to face the Rockets. Then they’ve consecutive residence video games towards the Lakers. 

These will not be simple wins, in fact, however the Thunder will likely be favored in all three video games as long as the vast majority of their roster performs. They’re 1-0 towards the Lakers this season and 2-1 towards Houston. In the event that they handle to make it via these three video games unscathed, the trail to 70 is obvious. Their last three video games come towards a Suns workforce seemingly lacking Kevin Durant adopted by two tankers in Utah and New Orleans. 

They’re, a minimum of for the second, mathematically motivated to proceed attempting to win. They maintain a three-game lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA’s finest report, which might matter in figuring out home-court benefit within the NBA Finals, and Cleveland holds the tiebreaker via its superior convention report. That locations Oklahoma Metropolis’s magic quantity for one of the best total report at 4, and with Cleveland about to start out a cupcake schedule stretch, there may be nonetheless a minimum of nominal strain for the Thunder to win a number of extra video games.

What now we have here’s a remarkably uncommon convergence of circumstances. We virtually by no means attain April with a workforce mathematically able to reaching 70 video games. After we do, that workforce is normally to date forward within the standings that it focuses totally on relaxation for the playoffs. Even when the workforce goes all out, the scheduling stars do not align to offer them simply beatable opponents. All of that has lined up for the Thunder. In the event that they win three tough video games, they need to in all probability need to win after which three simple video games, which might be exhausting for them to lose, they get to 70. In order that leaves a reasonably simple query for the Thunder: Do they really need to win 70 video games?

It is a difficult query. They’d absolutely go for it if Cleveland hadn’t dropped as many latest video games because it had, and 70 was a vital win whole, however the Cavaliers have misplaced 15 instances, so the Thunder solely have to get to 68 wins to clinch home-court benefit within the Finals. There is not an inherent benefit to profitable 70 vs. 69, and the instance Golden State set in 2016 confirmed the hazards of pushing for a report that does not finally have an effect on the championship.

The conditions should not completely analogous, thoughts you. Draymond Inexperienced, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson all ranked within the prime 22 within the NBA in minutes that season after they in all probability did not have to. Oklahoma Metropolis has been much more considered in relation to minutes. MVP frontrunner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ranks fifteenth as of this writing, however no different Thunder participant is within the prime 50. That is partially as a result of accidents, nevertheless it’s additionally the character of their dominance. Oklahoma Metropolis has 50 double-digit wins. Thunder gamers have missed time as a result of damage, sure, however even after they’re out there, they do not play too many minutes as a result of they need not. The Thunder are so deep and win so convincingly that they have not wanted to push their roster so far as the Warriors did. There is a threat related to ever placing your gamers on the ground, certain, however the Thunder aren’t going to lose within the playoffs as a result of they received drained.

The concept of Warriors-esque ridicule deterring the Thunder appears a bit farfetched as nicely. This can be a franchise that traded away its two finest gamers with a number of seasons left on their contracts after profitable 49 video games. They had been, for a quick interval, the face of tanking within the NBA. They’ve handled skepticism and derision earlier than. It would not hassle them. If the Thunder fail to win the championship this season, no one goes to recommend that their win whole is the rationale why. Extra seemingly, blame will likely be positioned on their youth because the NBA’s youngest workforce in addition to their choice to not attempt to improve on the commerce deadline. It helps that Oklahoma Metropolis would not invite scorn the best way that the Warriors did. They do not make use of anybody who trash talks fairly like Inexperienced. Their proprietor is not giving interviews wherein he claims his workforce is “lightyears forward.“

If the Thunder elect to not critically pursue 70 wins, it will not be for the explanations Golden State regrets doing so. The reason will likely be easier: They really don’t care about their regular-season win whole, regardless of how historic it is perhaps. This notion is supported by virtually each choice they’ve made since this rebuild started in 2019. Look again to 2023, as an illustration. At that time, the Thunder had been in the midst of a Play-In race. Their video games had real aggressive stakes. But they remained cautious when it got here to Gilgeous-Alexander’s well being, holding him out of a key sport towards the Hornets that they finally misplaced due to an ankle damage he’d been taking part in via. When requested after that sport concerning the workforce’s motivations, head coach Mark Daigneault defined that whereas making the playoffs can be good, nothing would distract the Thunder from their course of or long-term ambitions.

“I believe whether it is an end result that’s downstream of our course of and the best way that we’re attempting to do issues it will be nice as a result of it will simply be form of a marker alongside the best way, nevertheless it’s not so necessary that it is gonna distract us from our means of doing issues,” Daigneault said of the Play-In Match on the time. “We have to guess on that, day over day over day, we have carried out that for 2 or three years. That is what’s put us ready to compete for the play-in, so for us to desert that at this level can be hasty, and fairly frankly, we have to double down on this mentality previous this season. That is why we’re doing what we’re doing.”

The Thunder will not deliberately toss a sport simply to keep away from 70 wins, however their historical past means that they will not actively pursue that little bit of historical past, both. Their sole ambition, it appears, is to win championships. They don’t seem to be precisely alone in that regard. Championships are the first motivator for many NBA groups. Pursuing 70 wins on the expense of relaxation carries threat to that pursuit. That may particularly be true in the midst of this last six-game stretch when their second sport towards the Lakers varieties a back-to-back with their matchup towards Phoenix. These two video games can be an apparent event to relaxation gamers for the sake of maximizing these championship odds.

The Thunder are greater than able to beating any workforce within the NBA in a single sport, even with solely their bench out there. They’re that deep and that cohesive. No matter who performs, it isn’t assured that they’ll win six straight or that they may lose to any single opponent, even with key gamers resting. It’s simply the likeliest, among the many potential outcomes, that the Thunder relaxation key gamers, let the chips fall the place they could, and finally lose a minimum of one in all their final six.

It would not precisely be honest to name {that a} disgrace, however it’s a minimum of a minor disappointment. Championships are sacred and alternatives to win them are uncommon, however they are not the one achievement that ought to maintain historic weight. Doing one thing that solely three groups have ever carried out ought to imply simply as a lot, if no more than doing one thing that 78 groups have carried out. It is an extremely significant achievement, one which any workforce ought to be happy with, no matter what different achievements accompany it. Whether or not or not they get there might not be related to what occurs in June, however talking purely as a fan of the NBA, I hope they make an trustworthy try to achieve 70. There are extra methods to matter traditionally than simply to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy.