They are the reigning and defending NBA Champions. They are an NBA best 17-1.
But is the Oklahoma City Thunder the hottest team in the country right now?
Nope, that title – for the moment – goes to the Detroit Pistons, who are the top team in the Eastern Conference, having won 14 games and only experienced two losses. But the newest iteration of the Bad Boys is hotter than freshly-pressed Motown vinyl because they have won 12 straight games after opening 2-2.
Here’s a tale of two teams and how they got to where they are today, two of the hottest teams in the NBA:
It’s okay that Bad Boys might be copyrighted to the Bill Laimbeer – Rick Mahorn – Vinnie Johnson era Pistons, because these Pistons are even badder. They might even be as bad as what’s on Samuel L. Jackson’s wallet … y’now, Badd Mother … shut your mouth! (I’m just talking about the 2025-26 Detroit Pistons).
And while I’m not trying to steal any of Oklahoma City’s thunder – I mean, they have 10 straight wins to lead their conference and division – I have to point out that these times are as much similar as they are a breed apart.
While it may seem like I am not acknowledging the impressive record of head coach Mark Daigneault as much as I am pointing out the excellence and genius of general manager Sam Presti, there’s a reason – because I am equally as impressed with JB Bickerstaff as I am Presti when it comes to assembling talent, motivation, and making the best of bad situations.
Both men have seen their fair share – some would say maybe even more so.
By the end of his fifth season as the GM for the Seattle Supersonics/Oklahoma City Thunder, the young man from Concord, Massachusetts was watching his young, star-studded team dance their way to the 2012 NBA Finals with a line-up of Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Serge Ibaka, and Kendrick Perkins.
For you younger generation fans, there are three NBA Most Valuable Players in that lineup, a journeyman center who brought championship over from his days as a Boston Celtic, and a power forward who carried a bigger stick than Buford Pusser in ‘Walking Tall’ … and from what I understand, drove the ladies crazy when he wore sweat pants.
However, they met their fate at the hands of Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslam, Mario Chalmers, and some guy named LeBron James – you may have heard of him?
Not ready for prime time. Too big for their britches. Presti was even labeled as overrated in some circles, despite his pedigree.
A prodigy of R.C. Buford with the San Antonio Spurs for five years prior to his hire in Seattle, Presti brought three championship rings (2003, 2005, and 2007) to the party himself.
Take that, Big Perk.
Some might say young Presti was born with the proverbial silver and black spoon in his mouth, and that the 2012 result was a result of not assembling the right team around the talent.
While that was happening, Presti’s rings and rise to prominence, Bickerstaff was cutting his teeth as an assistant coach with the Charlotte Bobcats … then the Minnesota Timberwolves.
And while we’re talking spoons, take a wild guess at who was the Bobcats’ head coach … that’s right, deal ol’ dad, the legendary Bernie Bickerstaff. But this wasn’t any silver spoon experience. In fact, about the only positive takeaway was to learn everything from your father in every way possible. In this case, adversity – and overcoming it versus letting it overcome you.
Bernie Bickerstaff was put in an untenable situation, inheriting a team that was starting from scratch to get a team back in Charlotte after the Hornets swarmed south to New Orleans and BET mogul Robert Johnson founded the Charlotte Bobcats.
The elder (and younger) Bickerstaff would go 77-169 (.313) in their three seasons in Charlotte, toughest season ever for the legendary coach, but it showed the generational gap. However, it afforded young John Blair the opportunity to see adversity, face it, and learn to master it, all to hi and his team’s benefit.
JB would get his first crack at being a head coach when he was given the interim head coach tag with the Houston Rockets, when Kevin McHale was let go 11 games in. Bickerstaff took over a 4-7 team, with one of the aforementioned Thunder stars already in the fold, James Harden.
Bickerstaff would finish his first stint 37-34 (.521), considered enough of a success compared with his predecessor, but not enough to be awarded the full time head coaching position. That went to Mike D’Antoni … and Bickerstaff would head on to the Memphis Grizzlies as the associate head coach.
Meanwhile, the Thunder were making it to the Western Conference Finals again, without Harden, who departed via free agency after the 2012 run. But Durant had won the MVP award in 2014, and he and Westbrook kept the momentum going, going back to the WCF in 2016 while Harden, Bickerstaff, and the Rockets were losing in the first round to the eventual WCF champions, the Golden State Warriors and 2016’s MVP, Stephen Curry.
Curry and his Warriors would go on to defeat Durant, Westbrook, and the Thunder to represent the West in the 2016 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
That led to another star leaving OKC, as Durant played out “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” IRL, defecting to the Warriors, where he would go on to his two NBA championships and two NBA Finals MVP awards, while leaving Presti and Westbrook scratching their heads and starting anew in Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, Bickerstaff was hired onto the Grizzlies staff in Memphis and became, once again, the interim head coach when Memphis fired David Fizdale, going 15-48 after Fizdale’s 7-12 start. JB would finally get the official title at the beginning of the 2018 season, but didn’t reach the playoffs with an aging Mike Conley and Marc Gasol.
In 2017 and 2018, Westbrook and Harden would win their respective MVP awards in Oklahoma City and Houston, while Bickerstaff had old farts to work with.
But did you know that when you do a crossword or play Boggle or Scrabble or Wordle (depending on which generation is reading this), you can throw the letters B-I-C-K-E-R-S-T-A-F-F-S in and shake the cup, and pour the dice out, it always spells P-E-R-S-E-V-E-R-A-N-C-E.
(If that metaphor is too deep for you kids, run it through ChatGPT and you’ll understand).
It’s a matter of hanging on when others have let go, given up hope, moved on to other things. The only guarantee for failure is to stop trying. Stephen Silas and Wes Unseld, Jr. also had NBA fathers, fathers who were NBA coaches.
Silas is currently the head coach for the USA Basketball AmeriCup qualifying team; Unseld is a lead assistant for the Chicago Bulls under former Thunder head coach Billy Donovan.
And there ain’t no shame in that game, Wes Jr. – Daigneault got his start under Donovan at the University of Florida then coming to OKC and working with the Thunder’s G League team, the Oklahoma City Blue, before taking the reins from Donovan in 2020.
(All that time and I don’t see any evidence that Donovan even taught Daigneault to shave – does he shave yet?)
Working. Hanging on. Learning their way.
Much like Bickerstaff did under his father, under Randy Wittman, under McHale and Fizdale and former University of Michigan head coach John Beilein, before getting his shot.
Yep, Bickerstaff was back in an old familiar role once again in 2019, as an associate head coach under Beilein in Cleveland, where pops was now a consultant for the Cavaliers.
JB would once again succeed his predecessor as the head coach, finishing the last 11 games of the season and – third time being the charm – JB would nail down a long term contract as the head coach front and center, not the fall back option.
He may or may not have been there one way or another, but his grit and determination certainly got the attention of the Cleveland Cavaliers ownership and management and Bickerstaff was rewarded for continuing to get up one more time than he got knocked down.
What silver spoon? This was a wooden spoon eating from an old wooden bowl and drinking through a soggy paper straw.
The only silver lining in it all was the Bickerstaff name and legacy, which proves that no matter who you are, nothing in life is given – it’s earned.
JB fought, persevered, survived, and won. Bickerstaff would make the Cavaliers so relevant that it seemed the city finally moved on from LeBron James’ two defections from his hometown team.
Over in Oklahoma, Presti was doing his best to keep fans interested in NBA basketball in a college football and oil industry state. After Durant’s departure, it became Westbrook and a patchwork cast of NBA All Star caliber players, ranging from Domantas Sabonis, Victor Oladipo, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony, with rosters just this much shy of a poorer man’s Big Three.
It netted four years of first round exits and eventually, Westbrook would get lured away to play alongside Harden in Houston, and begin his NBA twilight years as a journeyman in moving on to Washington, Los Angeles (both teams), Denver, and Sacramento,
Daigneault would take over from a fired Donovan and start with scratch, with 22 wins and 24 wins in his first two seasons, some young buck named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and a cast of then unknown, no-name draft picks – or if they were a big name, they were hurt.
And Chris Paul as a mentor. I mean, Paul was the reason that Oklahoma City was on the map after the Hornets played in the Ford Center after being forcibly relocated by Hurricane Katrina.
In Cleveland, Bickerstaff would take the Cavaliers to only 22 wins in his first season as well, but improved to double that the next year. They made the playoffs in Year Three and the Easter Conference semifinals in Year Four, but that wasn’t good for Dan Gilbert, Koby Altman, and Mike Gansey.
The team Bickerstaff had built and motivated was stripped from him unceremoniously and handed to Kenny Atkinson – who, in what can only be described as poetic justice, took the same roster (for all intents and purposes) to the same fate a year later.
Bickerstaff would be hired by the Detroit Pistons 41 days later and inherited a franchise with a stigma that hadn’t had a winning record in eight seasons, since the Stan Van Gundy experiment, and no more than 23 in any of the previous six seasons prior to JB’s arrival.
He’d get them to 44-38 in his first season last year, and into the playoffs against the heavily favored New York Knicks, who they would stretch to six games. Their start to the 2025 season proves their mindset that the mission is unaccomplished, but off to a damn good start.
At the rate he’s going, JB Bickerstaff may make the City of Detroit great again before the President. And he didn’t promise it – he’s simply doing it.
What’s the point of an article that takes about as long to get to the payoff as it takes to walk from Detroit to Oklahoma City?
The two hottest teams in the NBA right now are teams that were built. From the ground up. 14 win seasons and 22 win seasons are definitely rock bottom, ground up. There are no superteams built by assembling the Justice League or Marvel Avengers.
These heroes, these champions are home grown. Through the draft prowess of Sam Presti. Through the confidence of Pistons general manager Trajan Langdon in his hiring of Bickerstaff, who’s proven time and time again he knows how to take a punch and get back up and scream ‘gimme some more!’
| DETROIT PISTONS | OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER |
| Jalen Duren | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander |
| Cade Cunningham | Chris Youngblood |
| Isaac Jones | Luguentz Dort |
| Ronald Holland II | Jaylin Williams |
| Paul Reed | Chet Holmgren |
| Caris LeVert | Jalen Williams |
| Wendell Moore, Jr. | Alex Caruso |
| Ausar Thompson | Isaiah Joe |
| Tobias Harris | Thomas Sorber |
| Chaz Kanier | Ousmane Dieng |
| Jaden Ivey | Branden Carlson |
| Daniss Jenkins | Aaron Wiggins |
| Marcus Sasser | Cason Wallace |
| Isaiah Stewart | Brooks Barnhizer |
| Javonte Green | Ajay Mitchell |
| Bobi Klintman | Kenrich Williams |
| Tobu Smith | Nikola Topic |
| Duncan Robinson | Isaiah Hartenstein |
There are no Anthony Davises (don’t even think about it, Trajan). No one adding a Durant or a Harden or a Klay Thompson, not even a 40 year and 329 day old physical specimen that’s still out there embarrassing young guns.
Nope, both teams are at or near the precipice of greatness – let’s just leave well enough alone and see if we’re talking about these same two teams in six months.
Whaddya say, Terry Rozier? Damon Jones? How about your old team, Chauncey Billups – whatcha got? Are they championship material? Should I put money on ‘em?
I think I’ve honestly given you as much inside information as you need.
As purists and fans, we have a lot to be thankful for.
Both teams return to action Wednesday night – the Pistons head to Boston, and the Thunder host the Timberwolves.
Enjoy the ride.
NOTES: Cunningham has Oklahoma ties. He was a standout at Oklahoma State before going No. 1 to the Pistons in the 2021 NBA Draft … Gilgeous-Alexander is known for his car collection, but none of them are made in Detroit … My autocorrect kept wanting Bickerstaff to be ‘Bucketstaff’ – but the Pistons have only scored 2,034 points so far this season, 13th in the league; Oklahoma City has scored 2,207, 3rd in the league, while Bickerstaff’s old squad – the Cleveland Cavaliers – leads the NBA in scoring at 2.257 points so far … Bickerstaff has 313 career wins to date, his winning percent is .487; by comparison, father Bernie finished his storied career at .447 and 419 wins; JB is closing in fast.
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Tracy ‘T-Money’ Graven is the Senior NBA Analyst for BackSportsPage.com owner of TMoneyMedia.com and also has his posts on SubStack at allballs.substack.com
He has written the NBA, appeared as a guest on NBA Radio, and the last 25+ years for HoopsWorld, Swish Magazine, HoopsHype, the Coach Scott Fields Show, NBARadioShow.com, and also tackles the NFL and NCAA. He’s spent 25+ years in locker rooms in Orlando, Boise (CBA, G League), San Antonio, Phoenix, Denver, Oklahoma City, and Atlanta.
He has raised five kids, and now currently resides in the heart of SEC Country near Knoxville, Tennessee – home of the 2024 Men’s Baseball World Series Champion Tennessee Volunteers.
Reach him on Twitter at @RealTMoneyMedia
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