Stiles Points: Regular Season Still Important for OKC Thunder

Welcome to the dog days of the NBA offseason. The Calendar will soon flip to August, the quietest month in the NBA cycle, with only the eventual schedule reveal serving as a crumb of content from the league before Media Day and training camps open up at the end of September.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are in unfamiliar territory entering a season as reigning champs for the first time in franchise history.

Typically, the defending champs enter the following season with nothing to prove. With few exceptions, they often go on cruise control during the course of the 82-game season and await the finish line to defend the Larry O'Brien trophy in the playoffs.

However, things are different in Bricktown. Even without pointing to the 0-0 rallying cry that the Thunder have clung to for five seasons now, the regular season still matters a lot.

The OKC Thunder rattled off 68 wins a year ago, going for back-to-back No. 1 seeds in the Western Conference while grabbing the best record in the NBA, the best point differential in league history and the best cross-conference record in NBA history.

This season, the expectations remain high for Oklahoma City. Everyone is penciling in the Thunder to grab the No. 1 seed for a third consecutive campaign in part due to how much value the Bricktown ballers must place on the 82-game marathon.

Despite winning a championship and earning max extensions this Summer, the developmental track for Rising Stars Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren isn't complete. Holmgren, in particular, has played in a season and a half of NBA basketball. Seeing those two continue to climb the ladder of the NBA player rankings and reputation will be worth the price of admission on its own.

Add into the mix that the Thunder have two top-15 picks in Nikola Topic and Thomas Sorber debuting this season, the need to figure out just how good Ajay Mitchell can be and one of the best young players in the league Cason Wallace entering a contract year that group will continue to be eye-popping during the course of the monotonous regular season.

The Western Conference is also bolstered entering the 2025-26 season. It would be truly shocking if the winner of the NBA Championship didn't reside on the left side of the NBA's map.

Denver and Houston, in particular, will be hunting Oklahoma City all season long. Clinging to the No. 1 seed ideally secures the right to only have to play one of those top two foes and delay that matchup until a potential Western Conference Finals trip for each club.

That is without mentioning the far-out theory that the deepest and most talented NBA team could threaten the win's record this season, easily eyeballing the Warriors' gaudy 73-9 record before things get real in the coming months.

OKC should be able to survive any championship hangover, there won't be any glazed over eyes donning Thunder blue on a Tuesday night in Charlotte. The Bricktown ballers will remain 0-0. The regular season will maintain its importance.

Song of the Day: Why You Been Gone so Long by Eleven Hundred Springs