Durant stares at the new generation of Thunder: Will the ring taken away by the Heat finally arrive in Oxford?

Durant's evaluation was underestimated, but he revealed the secret: "The Thunder team in 2025 can be regarded as a historically strong team... I highly recognize their way of playing."

When Thunder players gathered around their teammates in 2025, listened quietly and returned to the locker room to the Internet, and a long-lost team cohesion shocked the basketball world.

This youth team, with an average age of only 23.6 years old, has just stepped through the corpse of the defending champion Nuggets and returned to the finals stage after 13 years.

History is like a cycle of reincarnation. In 2012, the same young Thunder Three Young Masters - Durant, Westbrook and Harden - swept the Western Conference to the finals and finally broke into the flames of the Three Miami. The suspense of the new and old thunders confrontation across the air even ignited a public opinion storm before the finals started.

The era of talent explosion, the rise and fall of the 2012 Thunder, the 2012 Thunder, is the most talented young core group in NBA history.

Durant has just been crowned the third consecutive scoring champion, and his indiscriminate singles ability has reached the level of transformation; Westbrook is like a shell out of a barrel to break through the tearing defense line; Harden is the best sixth man, controlling the bench like a regulator.

The playoffs are legendary: swept the defending champion Mavericks 4-0, defeated the Lakers led by Kobe 4-1, and reversed the experienced Spurs 4-2.

23-year-old Durant led the team to the finals, setting the youngest record at that time. The finals stage has become a mirror of gorgeous style of playing. The Heat's targeted tactics are as accurate as a scalpel: James and Battier use their bodies to press Durant, cut off their catch route, Wade blocked Westbrook's passing vision, forcing him to fall into a singles, Bosh's long-distance shooting pulled Perkins out of the penalty area, making James and Watel's breakthrough unimpeded, and what's more fatal is the Thunder's own structural defects. Perkins and Collison, two traditional centers, were useless before the Heat's whirlwind; Harden averaged only 12.4 points per game in the finals, with a shooting percentage of 37.5%, and was completely lost on both ends of offense and defense.

"Miami's giant butt girl is so addicted to Harden of Kuyao Oshi City, and she is lost in the whole series." A fan's joke tells the abnormality of the Thunder Sixth Man.

When Battier made a three-pointer with a rain of rain (3-point shooting percentage of 57.7% in the series), the Thunder's single offensive system and loose defensive rotation collapsed in front of the Heat Precision Machine. Behind the score of 1-4 is the cruel generation difference between youth talent and mature system.

Reborn, the 2025 Thunder's steel transformation

Thunder thirteen years later is no longer a reckless young man who relies on talent to play singles. In the 2025 Western Conference Finals, this team showed completely different championship genes.

defense became the stamp of the new Thunder.

The first in the league in the regular season defensive efficiency, facing Jokic, who had three consecutive MVPs in the playoffs, the mobile Great Wall built by Homgren made the Serbian Magic suffer a lot - when Jokic faced Caruso in the second round of the series, he made only 4 of 12 shots and made 4 mistakes.

Alexander's evolution is the core driving force for the qualitative change of Thunder. Behind the scoring data of 30.8 points per game is his killer's character who has a sword at the critical moment. In the G4, the Western Conference semi-finals against the Nuggets, he scored 8 points in the final quarter, and the director reversed, showing the superstar quality.

Unlike the three young players in 2012, the 2025 Thunder has created a three-dimensional combat system:

double star Jaylen Williams in the front line, offense and defense, Homgren averaged 2.9 blocks per game to protect the penalty area, Dort transformed into an iron gate on the outside, locking the opponent's Arrowhead figure

full firepower, against the Nuggets G4 Wallace, Caruso and Wiggins, scored 32 points, and substitutes scored 35-8 to crush the defending champion

head coach Mark Degenot, making the offense like mercury.

What's more amazing is the team's salary structure - the bench averaged 42 points, far exceeding the Nuggets' 27 points, but maintaining the most cost-effective lineup in the league.

The old and the old are in the air duel, where is the balance of victory or defeat?

When Durant was asked which of the two Thunders was stronger, his answer was intriguing: "I tend to avoid discussing hypothetical situations... But it is undeniable that the Thunder team in 2025 can be regarded as a historically strong team." This evaluation has implied the code of the change of times.

The gap in tactical literacy

2012 Thunder's offense relies on superstar singles (Deweyden accounts for 62.1% of the team's score), and lacks system support for the defense; in 2025 Thunder builds a modern basketball machine - reduces inefficient three-pointers on the offensive end (33.6% of the three-point shooting percentage in the playoffs), focuses on attacking the basket and middle distance, and has precise rotation on the defensive end and strict discipline.

The generation difference of deep configuration

The Thunder gave up Harden due to the 6 million difference, exposing the short-sightedness of lineup construction; now the Thunder averaged 15 points per game, and role players such as Caruso have become winners and losers many times. The scene of adaptability in the era

The scene in which Perkins was tortured by the Heat's small ball tactics in 2012 is a cruel contrast with the ease of Homegren's defense switch to the outside and the coordination of the protective frame in 2025.

The only doubtful thing is the superstar hardness. Durant averaged 30.6 points per game in the 2012 Finals and Westbrook scored 27 points. The explosive power of this top talent is still not fully proven by the 2025 Thunder. But when Alexander hit a decisive victory in the Western Conference Finals G7, the throne of the new era was already looming. The judgment of history will eventually be crowned by the champion. In 2012, the Thunder disintegrated under salary pressure, Harden went away from Houston to become an MVP, and the talented army became a footnote to "if"..

2025 Thunder showed the confidence to continue to compete for the championship: Alexander was 25 years old, Homgren was 22 years old, Williams was 23 years old, the core framework was in the rising period, and the team's salary structure was healthy.

Durant stared at this junior team, perhaps seeing the unfinished dream of that year - when youth talent is tempered into the Iron Legion, and when personal heroism is sublimated into a precision system, the championship ring that was once taken away by the Heat finally arrived at the Oklahoma horizon.