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Jul
Team Profile
Oklahoma City Thunder: Five things you need to know
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Highlights
Oklahoma City Thunder: where one Australian won a ring and another was traded away
- Oklahoma City drafted Josh Giddey sixth overall in 2021 and traded him to Chicago in 2024.
- Alex Ducas won the 2025 championship on a two-way deal, the eighth Australian NBA champion.
- The Thunder went 64-18 in 2025-26 and lost Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.
Two Australians have had their careers defined by this franchise, in opposite directions.
Josh Giddey was the sixth pick of the 2021 draft, given the ball immediately and asked to run an NBA offence at 18. Three seasons later Oklahoma City traded him to Chicago for Alex Caruso, and won a championship the following June without him.
Alex Ducas took the other route. An undrafted forward from Geraldton on a two-way contract, he played 21 games in 2024-25 and finished the season an NBA champion, the eighth Australian to manage it.
Neither is on the roster now. Both stories start here.
Australians who have played for the Oklahoma City Thunder
Josh Giddey is the most significant Australian in franchise history.
Born in Melbourne, Giddey was selected sixth overall in the 2021 draft out of the NBL, where he had played a season with the Adelaide 36ers as a Next Star. Oklahoma City handed him the offence as a teenager and he responded with triple-doubles in his first season.
He spent three years in Oklahoma City before being traded to the Chicago Bulls in 2024 in the deal that brought Alex Caruso to the Thunder. Caruso started at guard on the team that won the 2025 title.
Alex Ducas got the ring instead.
The forward from Geraldton in Western Australia went undrafted out of Saint Mary's and signed a two-way contract with Oklahoma City in July 2024. He appeared in 21 games during the 2024-25 season and was on the roster when the Thunder beat Indiana in the Finals, becoming the eighth Australian to win an NBA championship.
Ducas has since returned home and played for the Brisbane Bullets in NBL26.
2026-27 team snapshot
Oklahoma City are the best regular-season team in basketball and, right now, not the champions.
The Thunder went 64-18 last season and held the No.1 seed in the West. They started 24-1, matching the best 25-game start in league history. Then San Antonio beat them 111-103 in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, in Oklahoma City, and the repeat was gone.
Mark Daigneault still coaches. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams remain the core, with Alex Caruso alongside them.
Isaiah Hartenstein was re-signed to a three-year deal after his team option was declined, and Kenrich Williams also returned. Aaron Wiggins was traded to Atlanta and Isaiah Joe to Detroit, both for future second-round picks.
The draft brought Aday Mara at No.12 and Bennett Stirtz at No.16, with Otega Oweh taken at No.41 and signed to a two-way contract.
Sam Presti keeps adding young players to a team that just won 64 games. That is the whole model.
Why the Thunder matter
Every NBA franchise has a story.
The Boston Celtics built a dynasty. The Los Angeles Lakers became basketball's glamour club. The San Antonio Spurs defined sustained excellence.
Oklahoma City proved a small market can do it properly.
The Thunder built a champion through the draft, through patience and through a stockpile of picks that became a punchline before it became a title. They did it in the league's smallest market, without a single marquee free-agent signing.
For Australian readers there is a second reason. This franchise took a chance on an 18-year-old from Melbourne with the sixth pick, and it gave a two-way contract to an undrafted forward from Geraldton who ended the season with a ring.
[IMAGE: Thunder By The Numbers graphic]
The Seattle years
The franchise began in 1967 as the Seattle SuperSonics and won a championship in 1979.
Seattle drafted Kevin Durant second overall in 2007, then relocated to Oklahoma City the following year, a move that remains among the most contested in American sport. The team that arrived in Oklahoma in 2008 already had its franchise player.
Durant, Westbrook and Harden
What followed was one of the great might-have-beens.
Russell Westbrook arrived fourth overall in 2008. James Harden came third in 2009. With Durant, Oklahoma City had three future MVPs on rookie contracts at the same time.
They reached the 2012 NBA Finals and lost to Miami. Harden was traded to Houston that October. Durant left for Golden State in 2016. Westbrook was traded in 2019.
Three MVPs, no championship.
The Sam Presti rebuild
The Paul George trade in 2019 brought back Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a volume of draft picks that became a running joke around the league.
Presti kept collecting. Chet Holmgren went second overall in 2022 and Jalen Williams twelfth in the same draft. Giddey had arrived sixth in 2021.
The Thunder were bad on purpose, then suddenly were not.
The 2025 championship
Oklahoma City beat Indiana four games to three in the 2025 NBA Finals, closing it out 103-91 at home in Game 7.
It was the franchise's first championship since the 1979 Seattle SuperSonics, and the first in Oklahoma City. Gilgeous-Alexander had become the best player in the league and the roster around him was the youngest to win a title in decades.
Alex Ducas was on it.
The Game 7 that ended the repeat
The 2025-26 season was better and finished worse.
Oklahoma City won 64 games, started 24-1 and entered the playoffs as favourites. They swept Phoenix in the first round. Then San Antonio, led by Victor Wembanyama, took them to seven games in the Western Conference finals and won the decider 111-103 in Oklahoma City.
The Spurs went on to lose the Finals to New York. The Thunder went home.
The greatest Thunder of all time
Kevin Durant remains the most talented player in franchise history, four scoring titles and an MVP before he left.
Russell Westbrook gave the franchise its most relentless competitor and a season averaging a triple-double.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has done what neither could. He won the championship.
Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams are the supporting pieces of a team that should be back.
And Josh Giddey remains the highest an Australian has been drafted by this club, a teenager handed the keys to an NBA offence.
Five Fast Facts
1. Oklahoma City drafted Josh Giddey sixth overall in 2021 after his NBL season with the Adelaide 36ers.
2. Alex Ducas became the eighth Australian to win an NBA championship when the Thunder won the 2025 title.
3. The franchise began as the Seattle SuperSonics in 1967 and won a championship in 1979.
4. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden all played on rookie contracts in Oklahoma City at the same time.
5. The Thunder started the 2025-26 season 24-1, matching the best 25-game start in NBA history.
Historical Timeline
- 1967: Franchise founded as the Seattle SuperSonics.
- 1979: Win a championship in Seattle.
- 2007: Draft Kevin Durant second overall.
- 2008: Relocate to Oklahoma City and draft Russell Westbrook fourth overall.
- 2009: Draft James Harden third overall.
- 2012: Reach the NBA Finals and lose to Miami.
- 2019: Trade Paul George for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a stockpile of draft picks.
- 2021: Draft Josh Giddey sixth overall.
- 2022: Draft Chet Holmgren second and Jalen Williams twelfth.
- 2024: Trade Giddey to Chicago for Alex Caruso and sign Alex Ducas to a two-way contract.
- 2025: Beat Indiana 4-3 to win the NBA championship.
- 2026: Win 64 games and lose Game 7 of the Western Conference finals to San Antonio.
Looking ahead
Oklahoma City remains the best-built team in the league.
The core is signed, the coach has a ring, the draft cupboard is still full and the roster is young enough that last season's 64 wins should be a floor rather than a ceiling. Losing a Game 7 at home hurts more than a bad season, but it does not change the structure underneath.
For Australian viewers the direct connection has gone. Giddey is in Chicago, Ducas in the NBL, and there is no Australian on the 2026-27 roster.
What remains is the record. Oklahoma City used a lottery pick on an Australian teenager and gave a championship roster spot to an undrafted Australian forward. Both bets say something about how this franchise operates, and both are worth remembering the next time an Australian is on their board.
