The OKC Thunder could potentially find themselves having their pick of the litter during this year’s NBA Draft, as they are not only in the running for the top overall selection but, thanks to Sam Presti’s wheeling and dealing over the last several offseason, they could find themselves in possession of three total first-round picks.
In one of the most recent NBA Mock Drafts, specifically coming from Bleacher Report, we saw Oklahoma City bestowed the second overall pick where, in turn, they would go on to select USC standout big man, Evan Mobley. However, over the last several weeks alone, we’ve seen their slot on the draft board shift quite often.
Still, with 10 games remaining on the regular-season schedule, they have as good a chance as anyone to secure the best odds of landing a top-3 pick. Because of this, in a piece by B/R discussing three draft targets for each team, writer Jonathan Wasserman listed the presumed three top prospects as ‘realistic’ grabs for Oklahoma City come draft day.
NBA Draft’s top-3 prospects viewed as ‘realistic’ targets for OKC Thunder
As is well known to this point, the top prospects heading into the draft are Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley of USC, and Jalen Suggs of Gonzaga.
The beauty of Oklahoma City’s rebuild is that, looking at their roster, they are able to go the path of “best player available” when it comes to their draft night strategy, as they could use a little help all across the board.
According to Wasserman, any one of these aforementioned players, should they be available, would be tremendous acquisitions for the OKC Thunder’s roster and, frankly, no one in their right mind should disagree.
Perhaps the best part about all this, however, is that even if they do wind up missing out on a top-3 slot, they could easily trade their way to the position they most covet, as they have the ability to package together any number of picks (both in this year’s and future drafts) in order to move on up.
Whether they finish in the top-3 or not, come draft night, all of these players will likely be attainable for Sam Presti and co.