Rachel Nichols Questions Thunder’s Hype in ESPN Survey, Says They’re Not at Steph Curry-Kevin Durant Warriors Level Yet

The Oklahoma City Thunder might be the defending NBA champions but what are the odds that they actually go ahead and defend it successfully this season? Interestingly, the prevailing sentiment around the league, at least according to the cross section of scouts, coaches and executives that ESPN recently polled in an anonymous survey, is that nobody is going to stop OKC from doing it again.

Eighteen of the 20 people polled had the Thunder defending their title, and this survey was done before the Houston Rockets got the devastating news that Fred Van Vleet would be out for the year with a torn ACL.

Rachel Nichols and Chris Mannix discussed the poll results on the latest episode of Sports Illustrated’s Open Floor, and though they agreed that the Thunder have earned the rights to be the favorites, they questioned if OKC is getting too much respect.

“They think that the Thunder are so high, on the highest pedestal, that it doesn’t matter what the rest of the West does, it doesn’t matter who the best player is, that they are still going to win,” Nichols said.

“The last team that kind of had that juice was the Kevin Durant-Steph Curry Warriors teams,” she noted.

Those Warriors definitely had an invincible aura, to the point that the rest of the league and fans around the world were actually angry at Durant for leaving the Thunder for Golden State and tipping the scales of power so dramatically. Durant is still dealing with the fallout of that decision a decade later.

Still, as a basketball decision, it can’t be argued that Durant did the wrong thing. He won two rings and deservedly was named Finals MVP twice as he proved himself on the biggest stage.

This OKC team is great, as they proved by winning the title with such a young roster, but Nichols has a point. All that matters is winning, but it should be noted that both the Nuggets and Pacers took the Thunder to a seventh game, so it’s not like they coasted through the playoffs unscathed.

Nichols pointed out that in this same poll, 19 out of the 20 people surveyed named Nikola Jokic as the best player in the league. None had reigning MVP Shai-Gilgeous Alexander. The Nuggets also finished second behind the Atlanta Hawks when the question was, ‘Which team had the best offseason?’

Theoretically, that means the Nuggets have closed the gap between themselves and the Thunder, and yet they’re getting no love in this poll despite being a game away from eliminating the Thunder with a lesser team last year.

“I’m not sure that the Thunder should get that level of designation,” Nichols said. “They’ve earned the right to be the favorite this year, but I don’t know if they are ‘Golden State Warriors in their prime’ level of a team.”

Mannix took it a step further by saying, “I’m with you. I hesitate to say that Denver should be the favorite going in, because Oklahoma City is the defending champ, and they are so good, but I keep going back to the second-round series. And yeah, the Nuggets got annihilated in Game 7, but that has as much to do with fatigue and lack of depth.”

With new arrivals Cam Johnson, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas to take the pressure off of Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, the Nuggets will be better equipped to be the one left standing if these two teams meet again.

With Van Vleet’s injury in some ways negating the Rockets’ trade for Kevin Durant, the Thunder and Nuggets are the clear favorites in the West. The regular season is still nearly a month away, but it’s going to be can’t-miss TV to see which one reigns supreme.