The Thunder s road to defending the title is full of fog: The Rockets reinforcement becomes a roadblock?

Since the Warriors successfully defended their title in the 2017-2018 season, no championship team has been able to achieve the feat of defending their title in the past seven seasons. Now, the curtain of the 2025-2026 season is about to kick off, and the Thunder has become the focus of everyone's attention. Can they break this curse and successfully defend the title?

Judging from the Thunder's own player composition, the thickness of its lineup is really enviable. In the regular season, Caruso, who scored 9th in the Thunder, averaged 7.1 points per game, compared with Lakers No. 9 Goodwin, averaged 5.6 points per game, and Pacers No. 9 Tony Bradley, only 4.4 points. Such a sharp contrast highlights Thunder’s profound lineup heritage. If all the players can stay healthy in the new season, the probability of the Thunder defending their title will undoubtedly increase greatly.

However, external factors cast a shadow on Thunder's path to defending the title. The Celtics' successive trades between Holiday and Porzingis seem to indicate that they are not the primary goal in the new season. But it has to be said that if Tatum was not injured, that fully-body Celtic would indeed be a strong opponent on the Thunder's road to defending the title. Now, the Rockets' series of operations have increased the pressure on the Thunder to defend their title. The Rockets got Durant from the Suns trade at a relatively low cost. Durant's joining brought the Rockets hard-solving ability at critical moments. At the critical moment of the 2024-2025 regular season, Durant scored 100 points, ranking 9th in the league, shooting 47.7%, ranking 5th in the league. This means that at a stalemate in the game, Durant can complete the task with quality and quantity. In addition, his singles ability, which he has proved to be independent of the system, will greatly enrich the Rockets' offensive tactics.

At the same time, the Rockets also signed a five-year, 122 million contract extension with Jabbarri Smith Jr. This contract is a full score for the Rockets. On the one hand, judging from Smith's own progress, although the basic data growth is not obvious, on the offensive end, he averaged 9.9 shots per game in the regular season, and his real shooting rate reached a career-high 56.2%; on the defensive end, he averaged 10.9 shots per game and interfered with opponents' shooting, and his blocking rate also reached a career-high 3.0%. This shows that Smith has a good trend of progress in the finalizing ability and basket protection ability of the inside players. On the other hand, from the contract comparison, the average salary of 122 million yuan for 5 years is 24 million yuan, while the Cavaliers' Jaart Allen averaged 12.8 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks in his career, and his average salary in four years is as high as 28 million yuan. Even if Smith eventually grew into a top inside blue-collar worker like Allen, the Rockets' contract will never lose money.

To sum up, the Rockets achieved significant reinforcement by introducing Durant and renewing Jabbarri Smith Jr., and this reinforcement involved more than one year. As a result, the Thunder's road to defending their title is becoming more and more difficult. In the new season, let's wait and see whether the Thunder can successfully defend their title.