After enjoying a season of unexpected success with the youngest team in the league, the Oklahoma City Thunder have caught the attention of the national media.
The recent return of Chet Holmgren — who missed the entire 2022-23 season due to a Lisfranc injury — has put OKC in the spotlight once again over the last week in summer league.
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons took the opportunity to talk about the Thunder in his latest podcast episode, where he praised the best young core in the league in his opinion and then offered an interesting take about the franchise.
Simmons threw out the idea that perhaps Seattle can swoop in and regain the franchise after previously losing the Thunder to OKC in 2008. He cites the recent arena talks as a reason why this could happen, believing OKC is not willing to fund a new arena with taxpayer money.
“I was thinking if Chet is as good as some of our Ringer people thought he was — potentially — but also just how he’s looking in these clips. Can you think of what OKC had last year, where they just were like super small-ball? They had no big guys. But everybody played (really) hard and everybody rebounded and they were able to still go .500 somehow and SGA was unbelievable.
But now they have SGA, Jalen Williams, Josh Giddey and hopefully Chet — which is the best young nucleus in the league if Chet’s good. It just is… (If I can) have any four under-27 (year old) guys on one team, you’d probably pick those four. There’s a chance he might be as impactful as Wemby in the first couple of years anyway.
I hate to start (crap), but you know, OKC did steal a team from somebody else. This is the smallest market in the league. They have the smallest arena in the league… Google ‘Oklahoma City Thunder arena lease.’ Go Google all that stuff. It’s been a story there for a couple of years. They want the taxpayers to pay for a new stadium. They want to keep the team and the lease I think was up this year. They did a little three-year short lease extension.
But I just wonder — again, I hate starting (crap) — but I just wonder, you had the Bucks being valued at $3.5 billion (and) you have Phoenix at $4 billion. What happens to this team when they have all these young assets?
Like if I’m in Seattle, and I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to get an expansion team anytime soon, because you know, I still think Seattle and Vegas are gonna be the expansion teams if/when it happens, but what if you get a little (anxious) in Seattle? You look at that OKC team with the assets they built, you have the lineage of they played in Seattle once upon a time anyway.
What does Clay Bennett, who owns that team, they have a couple of other owners — one of them the Chesapeake, whatever the hell that was, they’ve fallen on some hard times, to say the least. What does Clay Bennett do if Seattle just offers him like $5 billion for the team? ‘We’ll take it, here’s $5 billion.’ What does the NBA do? And what happens if OKC wants to do it? What is the value of that team in a small market vs. a big market? And what if somebody just says (screw) it and overpays?
That’s how you get stuff. That’s how Ballmer got the Clippers, remember? Back in the day, it was like, ‘Oh my god. Ballmer, the Clippers are probably worth $1-3 billion and he’s like, ‘No they’re actually worth two.”
That’s how it played out and what happens if somebody comes at them? If I was a rich dude — like a crazy multi-billionaire, I would just want to go buy a team (type of) guy — I would start kicking the tires hard with OKC.”
Bill Simmons suggests that Seattle should look into buying back the Thunder from OKC due to how bright their future is
Mentions the arena situation as a reason why the Thunder could possibly relocate
“If I was a rich dude… I would start kicking the tires hard on OKC.” pic.twitter.com/E7jTjS1Z1e
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) July 7, 2023
OKC Mayor David Holt first brought up the possibility of the Thunder getting a new arena last July, citing it would secure the long-term future of the franchise.
“Here’s the bottom line — the NBA has changed our city forever. The vast majority of our residents know that and want that relationship to continue,” Holt said. “That facts speak plainly that we can never rest on our laurels and must always be proactive. I am extremely optimistic that we can and will secure a long-term relationship with the NBA because we have great partners in the Oklahoma City Thunder and the time to open that dialogue is now.”
In his end-of-season press conference in April, Thunder general manager Sam Presti deferred the new arena conversation to Holt, essentially saying the ball is in their court for the next steps.
“I commend him because he’s thinking forward about the future of the city, and I think that’s what’s driving his focus on that,” Presti said. “But I don’t want to talk about that without — he’s the one that needs to speak about it, I think.”
The Thunder’s current short-term lease with Paycom Center ends in 2026.
