Bleacher Report ranks OKC Thunder at No. 23 in future power rankings from 2022-2025

In a recent future power rankings, Bleacher Report writer Andy Bailey ranked all 30 NBA teams in terms of how successful they’ll be in the next three years.

The criteria for the rankings include wins, cores and playoff success. It also takes into consideration recent performances that can foretell future success and player movement.

The Oklahoma City Thunder landed at No. 23 in the rankings.

“News that Chet Holmgren will miss all of 2022-23 with a Lisfranc injury puts a damper on the Oklahoma City Thunder’s three-year prospects, but they should still be one of the league’s most interesting teams between now and 2025.

Though he hasn’t made an All-Star team, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has All-Star-level talent. That alone probably puts OKC around Charlotte’s level for this exercise, but it also has plenty of long term talent beyond SGA.

Josh Giddey already looked like one of the 10-15 best passers in the NBA as a rookie. Aleksej Pokusevski averaged 13.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 5.9 assists over his last 10 games of 2021-22. And rookie Jalen Williams will add even more playmaking on top of that.

What really boosts the Thunder above some other recent rebuilders, though, is that it’s still sitting on a massive trove of future draft picks. They can use those to supplement the core already in place by taking promising talent in the draft (duh), or by packaging them together with some salary filler to land a star.”

Initially, this ranking was pretty shocking. The Thunder have a decent start to their rebuild despite Chet Holmgren’s injury. Expecting the Thunder to be a bottom-10 team for the next three years is a little surprising.

Bit diving deeper into it, the reasoning is understandable. The Thunder will be one of the worst teams in the league this season, and if all things break right, they’ll be a fringe playoff contender for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, which is when this three-year timeline ends.