OKC Thunder Prospect Series: Is Ja Morant the next Russell Westbrook?
Current Ranking:
- The Ringer: 2nd
- NBA DraftNet: 2nd
- FanSided Busting Brackets: 3rd
- FanSided The Step Back: 4th
- ESPN (Note: from the paid portion of site ESPN+): 2nd
- CBS Sports: 3rd
- NBA.com: 2nd
- Sports Illustrated: 2nd
- Bleacher Report: 2nd
- Basketball Insiders: 2nd
- NBC: 2nd
OKC Thunder Factor:
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Each of the top 10 prospects on this list won’t be players Thunder Nation should expect to be prospects Sam Presti will make a move for. The franchise is committed to rolling with Russell Westbrook and Paul George which means they are invested in winning within their primes.
And, although Presti has shown a penchant for draft night deals the top five talents in this class (other than Zion) don’t move the needle enough to make a move.
In terms of where Morant will land, like Zion the lottery balls fell in favor of a Western Conference team. It’s likely Morant will be selected by Memphis as they move on from the Grit and Grind era which witnessed Marc Gasol get traded this season.
Moving forward Memphis may decide to move the last piece of the original Grit and Grind trading Mike Conley this offseason. If they don’t Conley can work with both Morant and still developing Delon Wright. But, if the team does move on the combination of Wright and Morant is compelling given how well they should compliment each other.
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For the OKC Thunder, they’ll face Morant three or four times next season. Given the youngster is already waxing poetic about Westbrook it’s likely he’ll bring his “A” game when they play OKC.