NBA Finals 2025 - Ranking (almost) every player in Thunder-Pacers - ESPN

After six weeks of riveting playoff action across both conferences, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers will begin the NBA Finals on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC). It'll be the start of a best-of-seven affair to determine which team will claim its first NBA championship. (Indiana won multiple ABA titles; Oklahoma City has one prior NBA crown from when the franchise was the Seattle SuperSonics.) One of the teams also will become the league's seventh consecutive new champion, establishing a record for parity in the NBA.

It's a series that should deliver some exciting basketball. Oklahoma City, representing the Western Conference, was the league's best defensive team this season, while the Eastern Conference's Pacers possess one of the NBA's elite offenses. Both play with a relentless, full-court style designed to wear on the opposition.

To get you prepared for all the action, we've broken down our top 20 players in the Finals, using a combination of how they've performed during the 2024-25 season and in the playoffs so far and their projections for this series.

It's no surprise the NBA's Most Valuable Player sits atop the list. He led the 68-win Thunder on an impressive march through the West portion of the bracket to bring Oklahoma City back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012. As he has all season, Gilgeous-Alexander will spend much of this series both getting to the rim and operating in the midrange. And he easily could force Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard, Indiana's two top wing defenders, into foul trouble. It's hard to see a way for Indiana to slow down Gilgeous-Alexander, and the Pacers undoubtedly will be happy if they can keep him from breaking their defense by himself. — Tim Bontemps