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Thunder Or Spurs: Who Really Has The Best Team In The West?
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- Thunder Or Spurs: Who Really Has The Best Team In The West?
Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images
For basically the last two years, the Oklahoma City Thunder had the easiest argument as the best team in the West. They won the 2025 championship, came back with another 64-18 season, and finished 2025-26 with the best net rating in all of basketball at +11.1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won back-to-back MVP awards, Chet Holmgren became an All-Star and finished second for Defensive Player of the Year, and they entered the playoffs looking completely set up to repeat.
Then the San Antonio Spurs wrecked their repeat. They went 62-20 themselves, beat the Thunder in all four regular-season meetings, and then eliminated them 4-3 in the Western Conference Finals, including a Game 7 win on the road. San Antonio eventually lost 4-1 to the Knicks in the Finals, but going from 34 wins in 2024-25 to 62 wins and the Finals in one year completely flipped the hierarchy of the West.
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The offseason only made this debate more interesting. The Spurs basically kept everybody and added Tobias Harris on a two-year, $31.0 million deal, while Victor Wembanyama signed a five-year, $252.0 million extension . Oklahoma City had to start paying for that ridiculously expensive young core, which pushed Luguentz Dort , Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins out of the team without adding an established vet to replace them.
ESPN's already projecting the Spurs to finish first in the entire league at 62-20, two games ahead of the Thunder. I don't think the difference is that clear, since Oklahoma City still has a championship core and was statistically the best regular-season team in basketball last year. But right now there's a real conversation here: who actually has the better team entering 2026-27?
Superstar Battle: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Vs. Victor Wembanyama
There's probably not another team comparison where both sides can legitimately say they have the best player in the league. Shai averaged 31.1 points, 6.6 assists, and 4.3 rebounds last season while shooting an absurd 55.3% from the field and 38.6% from three. He won MVP and Clutch Player of the Year, and his efficiency still doesn't make much sense for a guard taking that many difficult looks.
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The Thunder offense basically starts and ends with Shai getting wherever he wants. Tracking data had him scoring 1.18 points per possession as a pick-and-roll ball-handler, the best mark among anybody with at least 200 possessions, and he became the first player in the tracking era to shoot 55.0%-plus on 500-plus pull-up two-pointers. That's why even a Thunder offense that ranked only seventh at 118.9 points in Offensive Rating always has a simple answer late in games. Give Shai the ball.
Wembanyama's value is totally different because he can be the best player on both ends of the floor. He averaged 25.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 3.1 blocks on 51.2% shooting and 34.9% from three last year. He won Defensive Player of the Year, made First Team All-NBA and First Team All-Defense, and finished third in MVP voting at only 22 years old.
The head-to-head matchup gives Wemby a little edge for me. He averaged 27.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 2.7 blocks in the Western Conference Finals, including a ridiculous 41-point, 24-rebound Game 1. Shai still averaged 25.9 points and 8.9 assists, but San Antonio held him to 40.9% shooting and 28.6% from three across seven games.
Shai is still the better offensive player right now. That's not really debatable. But Wembanyama can dominate a series without scoring 35 because every drive, lob, rebound, and shot around the rim starts changing when he's on the floor. Against this specific opponent, that makes the superstar battle basically even.
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The Thunder Still Have An Insane Starting Five
Oklahoma City's starting group should still be Shai, Cason Wallace, Jalen Williams , Chet Holmgren, and Isaiah Hartenstein, and that's a crazy amount of defense around an MVP. Wallace averaged 1.9 steals and made the All-Defensive Second Team; Holmgren finished second in DPOY voting after averaging 17.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks; and Hartenstein gives them the physical center they need against bigger teams.
The swing piece is Jalen Williams. He played only 33 regular-season games and averaged 17.1 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.6 rebounds while shooting just 29.9% from three. That's clearly below the version of Williams who became an All-Star and All-NBA player during the 2025 championship run, so a healthy bounce-back season from him could completely change this conversation.
That's also why I wouldn't overreact and suddenly say the Thunder are finished because they lost three role players. Shai, Williams, and Holmgren are still 28, 25, and 24 entering the season, and all three are locked into enormous long-term deals. The Thunder paid Williams and Holmgren five-year rookie extensions worth around $239.2 million guaranteed each, while Shai has a four-year, $285.0 million supermax waiting.
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The expensive part is exactly why the supporting cast changed, though. The Thunder could afford absurd depth while the stars were cheaper. Now the stars are getting expensive, and the roster has to get cheaper.
The Spurs Have More Offensive Options
The Spurs don't have quite the same locked-in starting five because Mitch Johnson can go in different directions at forward. De'Aaron Fox , Stephon Castle , Devin Vassell, and Wembanyama are basically guaranteed, with Julian Champagnie and Tobias Harris both making sense for that fifth spot depending on the matchup.
That guard group is already pretty ridiculous. Fox averaged 18.6 points and 6.2 assists and made the All-Star team, while Castle jumped to 16.7 points, 7.4 assists, and 5.3 rebounds in Year 2. Castle still shot only 33.2% from three, but he became a legitimate star and then averaged 18.0 points and 7.6 assists against the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.
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Devin Vassell doesn't need the ball nearly as much, which helps make everything fit. He averaged 13.9 points on 38.4% from three and then made 39.6% against the Thunder in the West Finals. The Spurs already have Fox and Castle attacking downhill, plus Wemby pressuring defenses around the rim, so Vassell's job can stay pretty simple.
Then there's Harris. He averaged 13.3 points and 5.1 rebounds for a 60-win Pistons team and gives the Spurs another 6-foot-8 forward who can shoot, score against smaller defenders, and play 25 minutes without destroying this team's identity. Even if Champagnie stays in the starting lineup after making 38.1% of his threes, Harris becomes a really expensive and really killer bench option.
San Antonio finished fourth offensively at 119.6 points compared with Oklahoma City's 118.9, and I actually think that gap could grow. The Thunder still have the best individual scorer, but the Spurs can attack through Wemby, Fox, Castle, Vassell, Harris, Dylan Harper , and even Keldon Johnson. There are just more guys who can create something.
The Depth Gap Is Getting Pretty Serious Now
This is where the Spurs take the biggest advantage for me. Keldon just won Sixth Man of the Year after averaging 13.2 points and 5.4 rebounds on 51.9% shooting. Dylan Harper, the No. 2 pick from 2025, averaged 11.8 points, 3.9 assists, and 3.4 rebounds on 50.5% shooting as a 19-year-old rookie. Those two alone give the Spurs more bench scoring than most teams have.
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Then add whichever of Harris or Champagnie doesn't start, Harrison Barnes, Luke Kornet, and Carter Bryant. Barnes still averaged 9.9 points and shot 38.8% from three. Kornet gave them 6.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks in 21.0 minutes. None of those guys need huge roles, which is basically perfect for a bench this deep.
The Thunder still have good options, especially Ajay Mitchell. He averaged 13.6 points, 3.6 assists, and 3.3 rebounds in the regular season, finished fifth in Sixth Man voting, and actually increased to 15.1 points and 4.3 assists in the playoffs. Alex Caruso stays one of the best defensive guards around, Jared McCain gives them another young scorer, and Jaylin Williams can play either big spot.
But losing Dort, Joe, and Wiggins at the same time hurts. That's 28.8 points per game worth of regular-season production gone, plus Dort's defense and Joe's 42.3% from three. Aday Mara might eventually be really good after being picked 12th, but asking a rookie to replace three experienced perimeter players isn't fair.
The Thunder were almost stupidly deep before. Now they're just deep. The Spurs are the team that looks stupidly deep.
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Oklahoma City Still Owns The Defensive Numbers
There's one reason I still can't put much distance between these teams: the Thunder defense was historically good last season. They finished first with a 107.7 defensive rating and allowed 8.3 fewer points per 100 than the league average. According to NBA.com , that was the second-largest defensive gap from the average over the last 30 seasons, trailing only the 2003-04 Spurs. That's almost all-time defense.
The personnel is still nasty, too. Wallace can take the toughest guard matchup, Caruso can completely wreck an opposing star off the bench, Holmgren protects the rim, and Hartenstein gives them size to bang bodies with a bigger center. Shai also averaged 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks, so there really isn't an easy guy to target.
Dort leaving is still a huge deal. He wasn't scoring at 8.3 PPG, but he defended the best perimeter player basically every night. Instead of using Wallace as another luxury defender, the Thunder now need him to be the primary guy more often, which pushes everybody one spot up the defensive ladder.
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The Spurs finished third defensively at 111.3, so it's not like they're way behind. Wemby basically guarantees elite rim defense by himself, Castle has the size to defend multiple guard spots, and Harper can pressure the ball. San Antonio doesn't create the same constant chaos as Oklahoma City, but having the actual DPOY makes up for plenty. Overall, I'd still give defense to the Thunder.
The Head-To-Head Results Can't Be Ignored
If this article was only about regular-season numbers, I'd probably still pick the Thunder. They won 64 games, had a +11.1 net rating compared with San Antonio's +8.3, and finished first in both defensive rating and overall point differential. By basically every full-season metric, Oklahoma City was slightly better.
The problem is that the Spurs kept beating them, as San Antonio won all four regular-season meetings, and then they won four of seven in the Western Conference Finals. That makes the Spurs 8-4 against the Thunder across 12 games last season, which is way too big a sample to just call it luck.
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The rebounding battle wasn't huge, but San Antonio averaged 46.9 rebounds in the conference finals compared with Oklahoma City's 42.4, and Wembanyama's size constantly forced the Thunder to crash the glass and keep them off transition chances. Even with Holmgren and Hartenstein available, Oklahoma City never really found one defensive answer that made Wemby uncomfortable for seven games straight.
The Thunder also entered that series in great shape. They swept the Suns 4-0 and swept the Lakers 4-0, so this wasn't a tired champ limping in after two seven-game wars, as maybe the Nuggets have suffered in recent seasons. The Spurs were simply the first team that found a matchup Oklahoma City couldn't solve.
And now the Spurs are bringing basically the same team back with Harris added, while the Thunder lost three proven rotation players, a part of the puzzle that I can't get past.
Verdict: The Spurs Have The Best Team In The West Right Now
If I had to pick which team wins 60 games, the Thunder might still be my answer. Shai is insanely consistent, Mark Daigneault has built a regular-season machine, and their defense should still destroy bad and average teams even without Dort.
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But that's slightly different from asking which team is actually better, and right now, I'd put the Spurs at No. 1 in the West and the Thunder at No. 2. To be fair to both sides, the difference isn't huge, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Thunder won the West.
At the end of the day, Oklahoma City has the reigning MVP, the better overall defensive system, a healthy version of Jalen Williams could make their Big Three dominant, and they already know what it takes to win a championship. One playoff series doesn't erase everything they did over the previous two years.
San Antonio just has more answers now. Wembanyama already won DPOY and finished third in MVP voting at 22, Castle's ready to be an All-Star soon, Fox is still a great lead guard despite the Finals woes, Harper's only entering Year 2, Keldon just won Sixth Man of the Year, and the Spurs added Harris without sacrificing anything.
Most importantly, we already watched these teams play 12 times last season, and the Spurs won eight of them. They beat the Thunder four straight times in the regular season, walked into Oklahoma City and won Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, kept basically their entire team together and got deeper over the summer.
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Until the Thunder prove they have an answer for Wembanyama and recover some of the depth they lost, I can't put them ahead of the team that just kept beating them. For the first time in a while, the Thunder aren't the best team in the West, because the Spurs are.
