After four and a half months of basketball, the Oklahoma City Thunder have cemented themselves as the team to beat in the Western Conference. OKC is 49-11 on the season, boasts one of the best defenses in recent memory, and has identified their franchise cornerstone in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who leads the NBA in points per game and is the odds-on favorite to win the NBA MVP award.
However, the Thunder hasn't accomplished anything just yet. There is a slew of Western Conference teams looking to knock the Thunder off their throne in the playoffs. Let's rank the top seven teams who have the best chance to do so.
7. Minnesota Timberwolves
Despite a shocking comeback victory on the road against OKC on Monday, Minnesota still doesn't pose a legitimate threat to the Thunder. Minnesota's lack of established off-the-dribble creators means that Anthony Edwards garners nearly all of their opponents' attention on defense. Ant-Man is an incredible talent, but he can't carry his team alone - especially not against a defensive powerhouse like OKC.
Don't get me wrong, Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels, and Naz Reid aren't scrubs, but the Thunder have a surplus of elite perimeter and paint defenders such as Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren to combat those guys. Defensively, the Timberwolves are very long and pesky, but they are not very disciplined, which is a death sentence against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who takes advantage of the smallest of mistakes to get to the free-throw line.
Perhaps the Timberwolves would be ranked higher on this list in a different year, but given how inconsistent they've looked in the first year of the Julius Randle experiment, I don't trust them whatsoever.