OKC Thunder in the news: draft prospect early exits, workouts and the impact of luck

In the news for Friday, May 31 features more OKC Thunder prospect workouts along with several exercising the early termination option and an examination of how luck controlled the teams future.

Today’s OKC Thunder in the news features articles on another draft prospect scheduled for a tryout in OKC, early opt out from the draft process and how luck intervenes positively and negatively to the process.

OKC Thunder work outs continue:

Thunder Wire writer Ky Carlin notes Kansas guard LaGerald Vick will work out with the OKC Thunder in the near future. Taylor cites the tweet of Ian Begley (below) as the source of this information.

"Vick, who also has workouts scheduled with the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls, averaged 14.1 points and four rebounds this past season for Kansas.At No. 21 overall, the Thunder will most likely not spend that pick on Vick, but there’s always the possibility of trading into the second round and then using a pick on him."

Prospects exercise early termination option:

Speaking of draft prospects the cutoff for early entry withdrawal was Thursday, May 30th for prospects who wanted to return to school. Although others still have until June 10th to remove their name from consideration yesterday was the key date for prospects who wanted to stay NCAA  eligible and keep their scholarships active.

In recent years this addition to the process has been viewed with positivity. Mostly because it allows youngsters to get a feel for how NBA clubs view them in terms of where they rank or what they need to work on.

The full list of prospects who exercised this option can be found on the NBA official site. Some of the more surprising names who removed their names Devon Dotson of Kansas, Jordan Nwora of Louisville, Gonzaga’s Killian Tillie and Charles Bassey out of Western Kentucky. That quartet was among the names T.I. envisioned getting drafted, albeit later in the second round.

If it weren’t for bad luck …

And, finally, Alex Mcewen wrote about how luck can play a major role in a team’s playoff journey of their future ascent or demise. She dives into how injuries have played a significant factor for the OKC Thunder.

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

A perfect example that injuries and luck truly do play a role in outcomes was the opening game of the NBA Finals. Despite virtually every analyst and Vegas picking the Warriors to three-peat, they lost the opening game to the Toronto Raptors.

For those who thought the Warriors were more free-flowing and better without Kevin Durant, the Game 1 loss served as a perfect counter to that argument. Additionally, Andre Iguodala came up lame late in the game and DeMarcus Cousins was clearly not close to 100 percent and the Raptors made him pay for it.

Conversely, OG Anunoby has been updated to questionable and expectations are the defensive wing will return in one of the next two games. Anunoby’s appendix burst on April 11th just prior to the playoffs starting. So while the Warriors seemingly deal with continual injuries the Raptors look poised to get back a key defender who’ll bolster their bench and defense.

The OKC Thunder know this story all too well having lost in the first round with neither Paul George or Russell Westbrook fully healthy. Their opponent was without Jusuf Nurkic, but OKC went up against a fully healthy Damian Lilliard which was not the case when the  Blazers face the Warriors

That wraps up in the news for Friday, May 31st. Make sure to revisit Thunderous Intentions regularly as the writing team rolls out our draft prospect series (an updated Mock Draft drops today). Have a wonderful TGIF!