Oklahoma City Thunder: 2023-24 Season Preview

The 2023-24 NBA campaign has officially kicked off, but most teams around the league won’t play their first contest of the season until today. This includes the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are one of the league’s quickest rising and most interesting teams.

While the franchise has made it clear that external expectations mean nothing to them in-house, there’s no question that those external expectations are high. The Thunder is coming off of a fantastic season and has an extremely bright future.

What can be expected in the 2023-24 season for Oklahoma City?

Schedule

The Thunder will open their season tonight on the road against the Chicago Bulls. Later this week, the home opener in Oklahoma City will be against the reigning champion Denver Nuggets on Sunday night.

Over the course of the 82-game season, the Thunder will play 13 nationally televised contests including four games on ESPN, four on TNT and five on NBA TV. The team will play 15 home weekend games and will host five homestands of at least three games or more.

Oklahoma City’s month-by-month breakdown includes four games in October, 14 games in November, 11 in December, 17 in January, 11 in February, 15 in March and eight games in April.

The Thunder’s New Year’s Eve tradition will continue as OKC hosts the Brooklyn Nets at Paycom Center. Right before that happens, the franchise will have a five-game home stretch during the holiday season in late December.

Oklahoma City will face 14 back-to-back sets during the season, which will prove to be difficult. There’s quite a few significant milestones along the way this season, but the young Thunder roster will take things day-by-day.

Final Roster

It was another October in which the Thunder carried more than the maximum 15 full-time players into training camp. As such, cuts and trades had to be made in order to finalize the final 15-man roster ahead of opening day. This team has quite a few returning players, but also several new faces.

• Aaron Wiggins
• Aleksej Pokusevski
• Cason Wallace
• Chet Holmgren
• Davis Bertans
• Isaiah Joe
• Jalen Williams
• Jaylin Williams
• Josh Giddey
• Kenrich Williams
• Lu Dort
• Ousmane Dieng
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
• Tre Mann
• Vasilije Micic
• Keyontae Johnson*
• Lindy Waters*
• Olivier Sarr*

^{*indicates two-way player}

Predicted Starters

For the first time in several seasons, Oklahoma City has a clear starting five for opening night.

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
2. Lu Dort
3. Josh Giddey
4. Jalen Williams
5. Chet Holmgren

While these will be the opening night starters, that doesn’t mean it’s set in stone for the entire season. There will always be injuries as well as players that could slip to the bench during a slump or to mix things up during points in the 2023-24 campaign. Furthermore, certain matchups could results in a different starting unit to align better to the opposing team in that situation.

Projections and Expectations

After exceeding expectations last season and getting better on paper this summer, the Thunder will have the opportunity to make the postseason once again this time around. However, the team will look to make the true playoffs and get through — or even skip — the play-in tournament.

With that in mind, the NBA is a tough league and development isn’t always linear. As such, it’s fair to enter the season with realistic expectations.

While it wouldn’t be another huge step forward, a 41-41 season feels like it would be a solid campaign for Oklahoma City on the conservative side of things. Although the roster should be better, injuries could arise and the Western Conference as a whole has also improved. This would be a one-win improvement from the 2022-23 season and a step in the right direction.

In short, this Thunder team is set up for short and longer term success. Its one of the most interesting young teams in the league and external expectations will be high, although Oklahoma City is staying patient.