Stiles Points: NBA Teams Should Learn From Finals Matchup

Every year, as the NBA world turns its sights to the NBA Finals, teams around the association look at the path each franchise took to get to this point. It's a copycat league after all, what lessons can be learned from the path the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers traveled to land in the 2025 NBA Finals?

Each team has gotten here in similar ways, with subtle differences. Perhaps the biggest through line is the team's depth. The Rolodex of a roster each head coach has been able to flip to in an attempt to win the three series required to get to the biggest stage the league has to offer.

For Oklahoma City, they have called on the likes of second-round big man Jaylin Williams to help them solve the Nikola Jokic problem and get over the hump of the Denver Nuggets in Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs. Throughout that series, the Thunder showed Jokic multiple different looks, including defending him with Alex Caruso in Game 7 to throw yet another curveball at him and earn a blowout win.

Had Oklahoma City been one-dimensional in that series, Jokic and company likely would have won the series, and this run never would have happened. This happened again in the Western Conference Finals, as Julius Randle was on a heater in Game 1, Kenrich Williams earned his first true minutes of the series to put an end to that and start the series off on the right foot. In that best-of-7 set that was wrapped up in five games, the Thunder primarily played with a single center on the floor compared to its usual double-barreled big men lineup of Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein.

The same can be said for the Indiana Pacers. Take the Eastern Conference Finals, for example. Where would Indiana be without Thomas Bryant's contributions in Game 6? Or Ben Sheppard's 3-for-3 outing from beyond the arc in Game 2? Or Aaron Nesmith's 8-for-9 3-point showcase in Game 1? Likely playing a game 7 Monday night in the Garden rather than preparing for the NBA Finals.

"I was watching Myles Turner's interview yesterday and he made a really good point. I think teams that get along well and actually have really good chemistry are starting to show more," Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams said after practice Sunday. "I think the NBA is just naturally getting younger. I think we're in that transition now. I think it's cool we have two small-market teams playing in this big stage."

These two teams rely on everyone in their rotation. From the top names such as the Santa Clara product and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam, to Tony Bradley and Kenrich Williams. The trust each coach puts into their rotation and the work they do throughout the season to develop and/or maximize every roster spot pays dividends in the end.

Far too often, the NBA world takes the phrase "star-driven league" at face value. Of course, without a Gilgeous-Alexander or a Haliburton, you will not get far. But if adversity strikes and things are going against your team, all you can do is twiddle your thumbs and hope your trusted six-to-seven guys can "figure it out," you are behind the eight ball.

The Pacers and Thunder share a unique ability to change the tone and tenor of a game by the number of players and archetypes they can toss on the floor. From going super-sized, to tradition, to small ball all during a 48-minute game.

"This is the new blueprint for the league man. The year's of the super teams and stacking [talent] is just not as effective as it once was. Since I have been in the league, the NBA is very trendy and trends shift. The new trend now is just kind of what we're doing. OKC does the same thing. Young guys, get out and run, defense and use the 'power of friendship' is how they call it," Pacers big man Myles Turner said Saturday night.

To Turner's point, it is the power of friendship. You don't get this far without the total support and buy-in factor of every member of that locker room. Winning requires too much sacrifice and a selfless nature in the modern NBA. Everyone is talented, the sport has grown to a point where it is impossible to hoard all the good players on one roster. The chemistry team's share is a difference maker.

"I think the greatest quality of this team is we do everything together. It starts with off the court. We're a really together team. We support each other. If you're playing a lot of minutes or not a lot of minutes, that's what makes it special. We're very supportive of each other," Hartenstein said on Sunday.

Calling that the best quality of a 68-win team that posted a historically great defense in the regular season (which only got better in the postseason) should put into perspective how important chemistry is. Take it from the seven-footer that has now on his sixth different club.

"We have a lot of respect for them from a far, a lot of respect for the program that they'd built, the way that they play, the identity that they've built on the court, the way their guys play together, the whole is better than the sum of their parts which I think is the sign of a good team," Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said of the Pacers Sunday.

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers have plenty of similarities on the court as well. But off the court, it is the roster construction of two teams that have developed rosters good enough to reach the Finals (without being in the tax) that maximizes and leverages every single spot available that is the next wave of NBA basketball.

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