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When you win an NBA championship, expect several other teams to try to play copycat. That even includes front offices in different leagues. The Oklahoma City Thunder have experienced that firsthand after they capped off one of the greatest seasons ever with the Larry O’Brien trophy.
The Thunder have shown front offices across the league that you can still build a contender through the draft and development. Headlined by Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, they mostly had homegrown talent on their roster. While Shai Gilgeous-Alexander technically doesn’t fit into that category, he blossomed into an MVP in OKC.
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The rest of the rotation is filled with homegrown talent. Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins and Jaylin Williams. Others took advantage of their second chance. Isaiah Joe and Kenrich Williams are a couple of names. And even when they brought in outside help, they were part of savvy moves with Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso.
The Thunder are living proof that if a GM has enough patience to burn from ownership and is a forward-enough thinker to do so, they can collect a pile of draft assets and accelerate a rebuild to a title contender by hitting on all of their premium draft picks.
The WNBA’s Dallas Wings hope to emulate the Thunder. GM Curt Miller recently discussed with NBA and WNBA reporter Grant Afseth their seller moves as they continue to go through a rebuild. That said, it looks like they nailed the most important piece with Paige Bueckers. She’s had a Rookie of the Year campaign that compares to some of the all-time greats. If we’re sticking with the Thunder comparisons, she’s easily the Wings’ Gilgeous-Alexander.
“It almost feels like we’re playing an All-Star game from the 2023 draft class — we’ve got five players from that class on this team,” Miller said via DallasHoopsJournal.com. “A lot of players with a lot of runway ahead of them. We’re taking a little bit of the OKC model — building with youth and picks.”
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The Wings have made three trades as they sit near the bottom of the WNBA standings. Two were long-term moves for draft capital. They traded NaLyssa Smith to the Las Vegas Aces for a 2027 first-round pick. They also sent DiJonai Carrington to the Minnesota Lynx for a 2027 second-round pick and former 2023 No. 2 pick Diamond Miller.
Let’s see if the Wings can skyrocket into contention as quickly as the Thunder did. If Bueckers continues to dominate in the way that she’s done this season, she’ll give Dallas plenty of runway to build a contender around her for the foreseeable future. It’s now about filling out the rest of the roster.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: WNBA’s Dallas Wings hope to model rebuild after OKC Thunder
