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OKC Thunder: No longer dancing – Re-grading Cam Payne

By Rylan Stiles

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 25: Cameron Payne meets with Commissioner Adam Silver after being selected 14th overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the First Round of the 2015 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 25, 2015 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 25: Cameron Payne meets with Commissioner Adam Silver after being selected 14th overall by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the First Round of the 2015 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center on June 25, 2015 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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OKC Thunder
Cameron Payne #22 of the OKC Thunder (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

Cameron Payne brought energy and dance moves to the OKC Thunder, but not much else. Re-grading the 2015 first-round pick

The OKC Thunder are in the midst of one of their most refreshing and downright fun seasons in a long time. However, we know the rebuild is coming. With the abundance of draft assets that Sam Presti has compiled over this past offseason, and the need to build around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA Draft will be vital moving forward.

We all know Sam Presti went on a scorching hot streak so good that if he was in Vegas, you would think he was counting cards at the blackjack table. He drafted three straight future NBA MVP’s. In this series, we are re-grading every first-round selection made since that point.

So far we have assigned news grades to Terrance Ferguson, Steven Adams, Mitch McGary, Perry Jones III, and Reggie Jackson. Now it is time to move on to the dancing machine, Cameron Payne.

We can not assign a re-grade until we establish the initial grade. For me, I was not high on the  Payne selection. Having watched Kelly Oubre‘s college career I was pining for Presti to pull the trigger on the former Jayhawk. That alone gave him a C+ in my mind.

2015 was a solid NBA Draft, however, it was an obsolete class for the OKC Thunder. Their two selections, Cam Payne and Dakari Johnson played a combined 108 games in Thunder blue.

Sam Presti missed out on the aforementioned Oubre, Terry Rozier, Delon Wright, Josh Richardson, Norman Powell, Cedi Osman, Pat Connaughton, Bobby Portis, Montrezl Harrell, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.

Safe to say Cam Payne was not the best selection at pick 14 for the OKC Thunder.

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