Opinion: NBA team under the most pressure this postseason

The NBA playoffs begin on Saturday, April 19 and 16 teams begin their journey towards hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy following the NBA Finals in June. Every year, many players enter the playoffs under a ton of pressure to deliver big performances.

But it’s not just players that feel that pressure, teams do too. Many teams need to go on long playoff runs to meet expectations for their season, to save their coach and general manager from getting fired and sometimes to prevent the owner of their team from trading away core players.

This year, the team under the most pressure to go on a deep playoff run is the Oklahoma City Thunder. In theory that sounds wrong, especially because the Thunder are in the playoffs for the second straight year following a four year rebuild.

However, the Thunder need to go on a deep run this year for a few reasons.

The biggest reason the Thunder need to go on a deep playoff run is because of how last season ended. It was their first playoff appearance since 2020 in the bubble. They secured the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, the first time they had done so since 2013.

They went on to sweep their first round series against the Pelicans before losing in the second round to the No. 5 seed Dallas Mavericks. The series was the first real playoff test for the young core in OKC made up of guys like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams and Lu Dort.

Head Coach Mark Daigneault also got his first postseason experience with this group. Now that the Thunder have been tested in the postseason, they know what to expect and what they have to do to be successful.

They got punched in the mouth by the Mavericks, and now understand how to rebound this postseason.

The Thunder did not rest on their laurels following the playoff loss to the Mavericks however. They went out and made big changes. They traded away Josh Giddey for one of the best defensive guards in the league in Alex Caruso.

They needed to fortify their rim protection on defense after the Mavericks series, so they went out and signed Isaiah Hartenstein to a three year $87,000,000 dollar contract.

General Manager Sam Presti spent years acquiring draft capital and creating cap space and put some of it to use this past offseason. The Thunder want to see a return on those investments.

Many people will argue the Thunder should not be under significant pressure this postseason because they have their aforementioned young core and draft capital to lean on.

What those people forget however, is that the young core wants to get paid. They not only want to get paid, but get paid a lot. After next season, Williams and Holmgren will be RFAs and Cason Wallace and Hartenstein become eligible for new extensions.

Gilgeous-Alexander is also extension eligible after next season and currently in a two-horse race with Nikola Jokic for the MVP trophy.

The Thunder need to win a title before this core gets too expensive, especially with the new second apron tax serving as a hard salary cap.

Overall, the Thunder need to bring home a title in the next couple of seasons, especially with the season to season volatility of the NBA. This team has the pieces to win a title, and they will want to do it sooner rather than later.

Nate Johns is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jzn5275@psu.edu.