West Notes: Thunder, Warriors, Stephen Curry, Blazers, Jrue Holiday

Yes, the Thunder can be even better than you think. That’s the view of ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, who pointed out that Oklahoma City became just the 22nd team in league history to win at least 65 games last season.

The list of teams to keep that level up the following year is short. The ’96 and ’97 Bulls did it. The 2015–17 Warriors did it. Everyone else saw their win total drop by an average of seven.

So why might the defending champs buck history? For starters, the East is weaker. Oklahoma City went 29-1 against that conference last season and several stars there are now sidelined.

Then there’s continuity. The Thunder bring back basically everyone. Add more games from Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, who missed a combined 75 contests, and the math shifts. With either one available, OKC went 59-10, which is a 70-win pace.

Bontemps is not predicting 70 wins, but he noted that Oklahoma City could absolutely own the league’s best record again and become just the third team ever to win 65-plus in back-to-back years. Coaches and executives ESPN spoke with this summer are not betting against it.

Warriors still a factor: Do not sleep on the Warriors either, Bontemps added. Their roster is older, and technically incomplete while they wait out Jonathan Kuminga’s restricted free agency. But the Stephen Curry–Jimmy Butler pairing was 22-5 in the 27 games they played together last season. That’s no small sample.

Yes, the age and injury concerns are real. Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton and Gary Payton II are all expected additions once the Kuminga situation is sorted.

Still, as long as Curry, Butler and Draymond Green are upright, Bontemps’ bet is that Golden State goes over its projection.

Blazers face tougher climb: Then there is Portland. The Blazers ended last season with 36 wins, boosted by late victories over teams more focused on the draft than the scoreboard. They turned Anfernee Simons into Jrue Holiday this summer, but it is unclear where the extra wins come from.

The plan is to blend Holiday and Jerami Grant with Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and rookie Donovan Clingan. Defensively, Portland was elite after mid-January, ranking fourth in the NBA. The first half of the season? Twenty-fifth. Which version is real is the question.

There are intriguing pieces — Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara, Clingan — and Holiday brings a level of perimeter defense Simons never did. But Bontemps wrote that in a loaded West, betting on Portland to improve is a hard sell.