Tuesday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder will kick off their title defense campaign in a primetime season-opening matchup against the Houston Rockets.
After winning the organization's first NBA Finals of the Sooner State era, Oklahoma City seems well-positioned to run things back in 2025-26, with the odds-makers already giving them the best chance to take home this year's Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Last season, this ball club proved that, even in the modern era of offense-driven play, defense still is the key to winning championships.
With this in mind, following recent remarks made by The Athletic's Sam Vecenie, even before game one officially comes underway, their odds of repeating should unquestionably be the best the league has to offer, as the draft guru went as far as to say that they have "the best defense I've seen since I've been covering basketball.