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The Spurs are here to stay. Do the Thunder need to make changes?

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The San Antonio Spurs aren’t going anywhere — at least not anytime soon.

Victor Wembanyama is 22 years old and might already be the best player on the planet. Stephon Castle (21) and Dylan Harper (20) are emerging stars. And the Spurs have just dethroned the Oklahoma City Thunder after going into their house and stunning them in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.

All of which prompts the question: does Oklahoma City need to significantly tweak its roster to compete with San Antonio?

This is the new reality facing the Thunder. When a young team goes on to win the NBA Finals ahead of schedule like they did last season, it becomes championship or bust.

The thornier complications are financial, and Thunder executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti will need to be creative to juggle this roster.

Yet, to be clear, the goal here should be to keep this core intact as much as possible.

GAME 7 TAKEAWAYS: Victor Wembanyama, Spurs top Thunder to reach NBA Finals

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Victor Wembanyama leads Spurs to a huge win in double OT. See game highlights

Oklahoma City Thunder fans react during Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs at Paycom Center on May 18, 2026.

(Alonzo Adams, Imagn Images)

Let’s start here: the Thunder, for the latter half of the series, were without Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, both of whom are excellent offensive creators and both of whom ease pressure off of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

With both sidelined, that forced the ball into Gilgeous-Alexander’s hands and made it easier for the Spurs to throw double-teams at him.

It also put a ton of pressure on Oklahoma City’s shooters, to knock down open looks.

Williams and Mitchell, who emerged this postseason as a solid offensive play-maker, allow Gilgeous-Alexander to play off the ball more. In their absence, the Thunder offense stagnated and everything was taxing for the back-to-back NBA MVP, who scored 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting in Game 7.

It’s a very different series if both Williams and Mitchell are healthy.

“I still think we had enough to get it done,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game. “We won two-and-a-half games without them, we just didn’t get to it in the biggest game of the series. I guess it will take a little bit, but I’ll go back and watch the games where we had some success, and why did we have success and try to duplicate those things next season.”

In some ways, Oklahoma City is already built to stop a team like the Spurs.

The Thunder have a pair of bigs in Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein who can make life tough for Wembanyama. Hartenstein, in particular, used his strength at times in the Western Conference finals to shove and manipulate Wembanyama in the low post.

But Hartenstein has a $28.5 million club option for next season that the Thunder will need to exercise before June 29. If Oklahoma City wants to save some space in the salary cap, declining that option is an easy route.

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) shoots against San Antonio Spurs as Isaiah Hartenstein (55) battles defenders during Game 7 of the Western Conference finals on May 30, 2026.

The more complicated question surrounds Holmgren. His five-year, $239.3 million contract extension kicks in next season. Holmgren finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting to Wembanyama and was an All-NBA third-team selection. Yet, he disappeared at times during the Western Conference finals and produced his worst performance in Game 7, when he took just 2 shot attempts and finished with 4 points and 4 rebounds.

That’s probably not enough for the Thunder to dangle him in a trade this offseason — perhaps to move up from the No. 12 pick that they currently hold in the 2026 NBA Draft — but Presti is going to have to be calculating a judicious.

That means veterans like Luguentz Dort, Aaron Wiggins and Kenrich Williams may be gone — out of necessity more than anything. The same could be said even for Alex Caruso, who is a tremendously versatile defender and whose championship experience is treasured in the locker room.

If the goal is to keep the core of Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Holmgren intact, the Thunder will need to be cold and calculated. They will have to let go of good players — including ones beloved in the locker room.

Gilgeous-Alexander turns 28 in July and is in his prime. Williams is 25 and Holmgren is 24. The Thunder’s window to win is now. As long as this core is together, anything else becomes a disappointment.

“To be a 64-win team and have the net rating we did, overcome some of the adversities we did in the season is something we’re incredibly proud of,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said after Game 7. “It’s something we can build on. When you have a team that’s together for a long time, you have to grow from every experience, including the tough ones. It’s the NBA, there are tough ones.

“And we can also be really disappointed. We felt like we could’ve won the series, obviously. We were right there, in the game and in the series. There’s nobody that we don’t think we can beat, respectfully, so obviously we’re going to be disappointed with the outcome. You don’t have to choose one or the other. You can be proud of the progress you made this season and some of the successes, and you can be disappointed.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Thunder offseason starts now. How does OKC compete with Spur in future

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