OKC Thunder Preseason Results Hold No Weight to Start of Season

The Oklahoma City Thunder's results in the preseason will hold no weight when it comes to the start of the season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder is preparing for an electric NBA season. All the hype is back. The young squad is going to be able to make waves in the new NBA season, but that's not without a process of immersing the new talents into the squad.

Despite having more continuity than the team has seen, the Thunder will still need time to bring talents like Chet Holmgren, Vasilije Micic and Cason Wallace into the lineup and get a consistent flow as a squad. 

On top of this, the Thunder also had plenty of guys playing in the FIBA World Cup, assuming different roles on the basketball court than they'll see in Oklahoma City.

Bringing all these talents back to the court together while meshing new talents won't be an instantaneous process, even with the pickup games the Thunder was playing before the start of training camp. 

Now, this won't even be the biggest takeaway from preseason matchups. There are 21 rostered guys, and they'll all see playing time. This will take away from the main core being able to build additional chemistry as the end of the bench guys will have a key opportunity to show why they should be played. 

So, not much weight should be held with preseason games. Of course, this should go for any team. The preseason truthfully doesn't matter and what coaches are looking for isn't determined by a stat line or in the win column, but even more so for the young Thunder who have plenty of worthy guys that deserve a chance. 

It'll be interesting to see what the guys look like as a unit in the exhibition matches, though. They run a unique system that could allow for some of the end-of-the-bench guys to perform well. For example, Ousmane Dieng with improved opportunity will look incredible, though it won't be in a position he'll see much during the season. 

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