As streamers rained from the sky in the American Airline Center back in May, the Dallas Mavericks punched their ticket to the Western Conference Finals by topping the Oklahoma City Thunder in six games – as the Thunder walked off the floor in sorrow, the overwhelming feeling was that this marked the beginning, not the end, in Bricktown.

This summer, that feeling was affirmed as top decision maker Sam Presti wasted no time bolstering his roster by swapping out the ill-fitting Josh Giddey for a glove-like fit in Alex Caruso in a straight-up trade with the Chicago Bulls.

The Thunder didn’t stop there, inking Isaiah Hartenstein to the largest free agent pact in team history both through a financial lens and a caliber of player lens. The New York Knicks transplant immediately addresses two of the biggest flaws last year’s roster possessed – rebounding and back-up rim protection.

These moves have catapulted Oklahoma City to contention status with FanDuel setting their over/under win total at 56.5 and the favorites to win the Western Conference, with the second-best title odds only lagging behind the Boston Celtics.

A year ago, the Mavericks punished the Thunder for having Giddey on the floor being the team that exposed the former No. 6 overall pick’s flaws within the construct of the OKC system back in a forgettable February tilt that was a nightmare-ish outcome for all parties involved in Bricktown.

That carried over to the playoffs to the point Giddey was unplayable seeing his 218-game starting streak finally snapped and his minutes nose dive. While it still wasn’t enough for the Thunder to pick up a win in Game 5 or 6, life was made easier on the first five for Oklahoma City getting off to quicker starts.

The other primary flaw was the inability to keep pace with the Dallas picks, which is trouble given the guard play of the Mavericks to spoon-feed easy buckets to anyone they put in the middle – this led to lofty numbers down-low and narratives spinning out of control.

While Jaylin Williams represents a quality basketball player who made strides, he was never accused of being a rim protector, in fact, it is his glaring weakness. Anytime rising star Chet Holmgren was off the floor the rim was less protected than a Morkie posing as a guard dog.

Oklahoma City – as evident by the projection and odds – have taken away plenty of these flaws and on paper have done enough to overtake the Western Conference after falling short against the Mavericks, but Dallas did not just standstill.

Nico Harrison made improvements to this roster while still being outpaced by Oklahoma City. Dallas has the edge given how confident you feel in their top two of Luka Donic and Kyrie Irving being more ready to shoulder the load in the postseason than the Thunder’s young core sans Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but if Holmgren and Jalen Williams progress at the level the organization thinks they will, this will be a moot point.

Still, Dallas only lost Derrick Jones Jr. who they are banking on Nnaji Marshall replacing in production with a similar bump by playing alongside Doncic – and Tim Hardaway Jr who at times last year couldn’t play dead in a Western.

The Mavericks also brought in Quinten Grimes who serves as an immediate upgrade to Hardaway Jr. and Klay Thompson who is on a downhill slide of his prime but could see a jolt during the 2024-25 season with a change of scenery and playing off Doncic and Irving.

Discounted in the discourse around Dallas is the fact the Mavericks get a full season of Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington who completely changed the trajectory of last year’s team at the trade deadline and willed them to a 50 win season when at times things looked bleak in big D – even calls for Jason Kidd’s job before the club inked him to an extension in the postseason.

Still, Oklahoma City has done more than enough to once again lap the Mavericks in the regular season – this a combination of talent and effort, if you are betting on who will take the 82-game campaign more scenarios everyone would line up to put money on OKC especially after the Dallas leaders just saw what they could do as a No. 5 seed to add to their laissez-faire attitude.

However, come April the game changes. Have the OKC Thunder done enough to overcome the Mavericks in the postseason? That comes down to your option of Holmgren and Williams. If those two youngsters are ready to be 16 game players to help Gilgeous-Alexander power a team to a title, than the rest of Oklahoma City’s roster continues to lap Dallas’.

Though, with another no show appearance from Williams against Dallas offensively and an inconsistent scoring output by Holmgren – somewhat set up by the lackluster playmaking play of his table setters – and the results will be the same.

The Thunder – and this scribe – are betting on a leap forward from their 2022 NBA Draft class this season after getting a playoff run under their belt in 2023-24, therefore the final verdict is that the Oklahoma City Thunder have done enough to now topple Dallas.

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