Ira Winderman: How the Thunder came to own the NBA (and the Heat's draft future)
MIAMI — Salt meet wound.
Not only will the Oklahoma City Thunder be playing in this year's NBA Finals, but so will a team holding a considerable stake of the Miami Heat's draft future.
In this case, it's one and the same.
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When the 2025 NBA Finals open Thursday at Paycom Center, the team in the home colors will be the team in possession of the Heat's 2025 first-round pick, the Heat's 2027 second-round pick, the Heat's 2029 second-round pick and the Heat's 2030 second-round pick.
To say the tables have been turned since the Heat's Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh defeated the Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals would be an understatement, with the Thunder having supplanted the Heat as a touchstone franchise.
Yes, the Heat went on to win not only those 2012 NBA Finals but also the following NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. And, yes, the Heat since have made another pair of visits since to the NBA Finals.
But it's not as if the Thunder fell off the face of the playoff race in the interim, with trips to conference finals in 2014 and '16 and then all the way back up to the conference semifinals a year ago, before this 68-14 roughshod run through the regular season and then this playoff success.
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And, along the way — perhaps in a lesson worth heeding by the Heat in their current state — offering a lesson that there is nothing wrong with taking a break.
Prior to this OKC revival, the Thunder were 22-50 in 2020-21, 24-58 in 2021-22 and 40-42 in 2022-23, before the jump back up to 57-25 a season ago.
Stepping back to step forward has never quite been a Pat Riley gait, admitting just weeks ago he had been complicit in a pair of tanks over his three-decade stewardship, otherwise pedal to the metal, even when all the gears weren't necessarily aligned.
And unlike with the Thunder's trove of draft picks, the Heat consistently have instead dealt many away in the hope of something closer to instant gratification (hello, Terry Rozier).
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But as much as anything is the type of move made by the Thunder that Riley arguably has never made over his 30 seasons, selling high to set up the future. Exhibit A (or, more to the point, non-Exhibit A) stands as holding on a bit too long with Jimmy Butler and realizing February's middling return.
This, of course, also is where the drawing of parallels needs to be allowed to breathe, because the Thunder's franchise-altering trade was once-in-a-decade stuff, or even beyond.
On July 10, 2019, days after the Heat had wrapped up their acquisition of Butler from the Philadelphia 76ers in yet another of Riley's win-now moves, the Thunder swung the deal that now again has Oklahoma City as a center of the NBA universe.
On that date, the Thunder dealt Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, the 2021 first-round pick that turned into Tre Mann, the 2022 first-round pick that turned into Jalen Williams, a 2023 first-round pick that turned into Dillon Jones, the No. 15 pick in this year's draft that will come from the Heat, a pick swap this June from the Clippers (moving up from No. 30 to No. 24) and the Clippers' 2026 first-round pick.
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As in 2025 NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
As in 2025 third-team All-NBA selection Jalen Williams.
As in enough remaining draft capital to trade for another star, if need be.
No, the Heat were not getting for 35-year-old Jimmy Butler in February what the Thunder in 2019 got for 29-year-old Paul George. And for those who believe the Heat should have acted sooner, they also weren't getting anything close to that for 34-year-old Jimmy Butler last summer, either.
About as close as you can find to that in this millennium arguably was the Celtics' 2013 trade of what remained of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets for what turned into the draft selections of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
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As for those future Heat picks now held by the Thunder, the selection at No. 15 in this year's draft traveled to Oklahoma City from the Butler trade in 2019; the 2027 second-rounder due came from the Heat's 2021 acquisition of Trevor Ariza from the Thunder; the 2029 second-rounder due from the Heat came from the 2023 salary dump of Victor Oladipo to the Thunder, which also cost the Heat their 2030 second-round pick.
So as good as it currently stands for Oklahoma City, and for as ominous as it currently stands for the Heat, while watching the 2025 NBA Finals keep in mind ... the Heat also are funding the Thunder's future.
(Or simply watch the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final instead.)
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