Matt Calkins: Seattle fans may hate Thunder, but they are the model if Sonics return

Matt Calkins, The Seattle Times on May 15, 2026

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SEATTLE — What if the thing you most despise should also serve as your inspiration?

What if your greatest source of hate should be what you emulate?

It seems that at some point rather soon, the Sonics are going to return to Seattle. If the projected timeline holds, the NBA will be back in this town after a two-decades-long absence.

An official announcement will be met with joy on par with one of our major teams bringing home a championship. But ... that joy will have an expiration date if the Sonics can't find a way to win.

Enter the Thunder, a franchise whose mere mention can cause a Seattleite to crush a glass with his bare hand. Eighteen years after ripping away the Sonics, they find themselves 8-0 in this year's playoffs and the heavy favorites to repeat as NBA champs.

Nobody around here wants to hear that. A 6 a.m. leaf blower is more palatable to the ear. But the hard truth is this: If and when the Sonics return, they should view that team in Oklahoma City as the model to achieve success. No team did Seattle worse than the Thunder did. When it comes to building a winner outside of a major market, however, no team does it better.

A breakdown of their current roster.

Their star is guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whom the Clippers drafted with the 11th pick in 2018. In his sole year in Los Angeles, the Kentucky product averaged 10.8 points per game and finished sixth in the Rookie of the Year voting. It was hardly a nothing season, but it wasn't particularly noteworthy, either. And yet, Thunder GM Sam Presti saw something in SGA that made him trade away established superstar Paul George to grab him, Danilo Gallinari and a whopping seven first-round picks and/or swaps from the Clippers.

Gilgeous-Alexander is now the odds-on favorite to win his second straight regular-season MVP award. There's a strong chance he'll hoist his second straight Finals MVP next month, too. As for what Presti has done in the draft since?

Well, in 2022 OKC used their Clippers pick to draft Jalen Williams (12th overall). He averaged 17.1 points and 5.5 assists per game for the Thunder this season. In that same draft, they picked Chet Holmgren No. 2 overall. Not a particularly difficult pick, but after missing his first year with an injury, Holmgren was seamlessly integrated into a thriving system. Dunksandthrees.com ranked him as the eighth most efficient player in the league this year.

Fourth-leading scorer Ajay Mitchell? The 38th overall pick in 2024. Guard Luguentz Dort, who has averaged 11.6 points in his seven-year Thunder career? He was undrafted. Guard Jared McCain? His scoring jumped from 6.6 points to 10.4 when he was traded from Philadelphia to OKC this season, and his field-goal percentage jumped from 38.5 to 46.2.

It hasn't just been about finding talent — it's about finding fit. And Presti continues to find both while stockpiling picks in a manner that has led to the Thunder holding the 12th selection in next month's draft despite having won last year's title.

No superstar free agent is going to hold a news conference saying "I'm taking my talents to Bricktown." Oklahoma City just doesn't have the cachet of an L.A. or a New York or Miami. The Thunder have to build.

Just like the Sonics will.

Presti spent one year as the Sonics GM, but was hired by an owner who had every intention of moving the team. So it's a bit of a stretch for a fan to look at what's happening with the Thunder and say "that could have all been happening here.

But something like that can happen here. It's just going to take patience. It's going to take intelligence. It's going to take a general manager who, in addition to being a top-notch talent evaluator, is willing to round up as much draft capital as possible for the long-term, even if that means suffering in the short-term.

It's a different sport, obviously, but perhaps the main reason the Seahawks have won two Super Bowls under GM John Schneider is because he, too, piled up the picks that led to some of the most dominant rosters in the past decade and a half. And those hauls will almost certainly land him a spot in the ultimate Hall. Maybe the Sonics will follow a similar trajectory.

Seattle isn't a small market, but it isn't a likely destination for the world's top free agents. Unless, of course, there's a championship foundation waiting for them. That's possible.

The Thunder are worthy of every jeer a Sonics fan can muster. They're also, as much as it may hurt to say it, worthy of imitation.