How the Thunder’s Championship Affects the Sun Devils

The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 to claim the franchise's first championship earlier this week.

Initially, it may seem like the Thunder and Sun Devils do not have a ton in common. They are from different states and play in different leagues. However, even though they share a lot of differences, the way that the Thunder's roster is built could affect the future of many Sun Devils players.

The whole NBA Champions are built way differently than they used to be. The Thunder and last year's champions, the Boston Celtics, were constructed very similarly. Gone are the days of building a super team à la the Miami Heat in the early 2010s with LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade; or the Golden State Warriors in the late 2010s with Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant.

Nowadays, teams are built with an emphasis on stacked depth charts and a strong defense. The Thunder had the number one ranked defense, allowing 107.5 points per game and the Celtics last year had a rating of 111.6.

A huge part of playing great defensive basketball is getting defensive rebounds. This is important so the opposing team doesn't get the ball after they miss a shot. The Sun Devils have some players with some good defensive rebounding skills, transfers Allen Mukeba and Marcus Adams Jr. especially.

Before diving into Mukeba, let's look at the Thunder's second leader in rebounds, Jaylin Williams, who had 4.6. Their leader, Isiah Hartenstein did not go to college. Williams attended Arkansas, where as a Razorback, he averaged 3.5 defensive rebounds as a freshman and 8.3 as a sophomore.

That led Williams to be the 34th pick in the NBA draft. The giant leap Williams had from his freshman year to his sophomore year reminds me a lot of Allen Mukeba. Mukeba from his past three seasons has collectively averaged 3.4 defensive rebounds, with his high coming when he averaged 5 his freshman year.

Mukeba hit his lowest average in his sophomore year with 2.3, but last year averaged 4.6. If he can increase it to say, 6 or 7 rebounds, that can hugely help Mukeba.

In terms of Adams Jr., he averaged 2 defensive rebounds his freshman year, but increased it to 3.3 his sophomore year. Another jump for Adams is surely waiting in the wings for the Cal. State Northridge transfer coming in.

Not only does NBA Champions going defensive help the current Sun Devils roster, but we are also seeing teams have a deeper pool of players. The aforementioned Isiah Hardenstein was drafted with the 47th pick to the Houston Rockets.

Even a player like Luguentz Dort, who had a great finals series against the Pacers was undrafted. So this shows that more and more college players with a shot of making an impact on a championship.

Wrapping it, the blueprint laid down by the Thunder and other NBA champions should give hope to current Sun Devils players. Think that the Sun Devils and Thunder have other connections, please let us know your thoughts on this story when you like our Facebook page when you click right here.