The Future Is Bright For The Young Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder will once again have low expectations heading into next season, and rightfully so. Their average age last season hung around 23 years old, and they're in full-on rebuild mode.

That being said, the future is still bright long-term, and in the short-term, you may benefit betting on them this coming season.

The (Distant) Future Is Bright

Last season, OKC went 49-30-3 against the spread, which was second only to the Grizzlies (59-34-1). Sure, most of the time they were expected to lose by a lot and instead lost by a little less than a lot, but either way, you can expect that trend to continue in the 2022-23 season.

With a young core of recent No. 2 overall pick Chet Holmgren added to names like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort (team option), and walking triple-double Josh Giddey, the Thunder have some solid pieces to work with. Not to mention the length of this team, with not only Holmgren, but No. 12 overall pick Jalen Williams who has an insane 7-2 wingspan at just 6-6 (!!!), along with Aleksej Pokusevski who with Holmgren makes up the newly minted "Slim Towers" combo, coming in at 7-feet and just 190 pounds, very similar measurements to the second-overall pick.

If anything, it'll just be hilarious to see what their diets will be to help them bulk up. The best food plan is a weight-gaining plan, right?

They also have a current roster of what feels like 100 players, so this offseason will likely be more based on finding who they want to move forward with, and maybe adding some veteran pieces on the free-agent market or trades.

GM Sam Presti also has a deep well of draft assets, from their own (very likely) lottery picks to a rack of other team's first-rounders, so you can be sure this young core will only get more intriguing as time goes on, with expectations becoming more than just a solid cover bet night in and night out.

That time isn't now though, so let's just enjoy this scrappy team in the short term.

We don't have anything beyond NBA title odds and conference winners at the moment, but you can be sure their win total will come in pretty low again when the books start putting that out.

For now, just keep that ATS trend in the back of your mind, because it'll likely come in handy this coming season.