OKC Thunder seen landing Cade Cunningham in recent mock

The OKC Thunder are inching closer and closer to the finish line of the 2020-21 campaign and, in the process, are strengthening their chances of landing a top-three pick in this July’s NBA Draft.

Just recently, the organization entered the highly coveted bottom three in the league standings and have managed to follow this achievement up with yet another loss Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings. Now, with two games left on the docket, fans are hoping for two more L’s to better their odds at a top spot.

Ultimately, the goal for every tanking team is to land the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft to snag the consensus top prospect, Cade Cunningham.

Though perhaps the Thunder were a bit slow to the plummeting party this year, as they found themselves constantly revolving in and out of the play-in tournament picture throughout the first half of the year, this second half schedule OKC has embarked on has caught them up with the other tankathon squads and, recently, they were seen surpassing them all in Bleacher Report’s mock draft.

In their most up-to-date mock, writer Johnathan Wasserman bestowed the OKC Thunder with the top spot on the board where, in turn, they would go on to take Cunningham out of Oklahoma State.

Frankly, his reasoning for why was rather obvious:

"Cunningham and Gilgeous-Alexander would be easily interchangeable. The 6’8″ freshman just finished as the most efficient isolation scorer of any recent top draft pick. But he also shot 40.0 percent from three while showcasing advanced passing skills, which allows him to work as a lead guard or player an offense can run through."

Now, Wasserman would then go and continue on to say that Sam Presti and co. could consider taking USC’s Evan Mobley with this pick, citing their need for a big man. However, many are under the impression that the Thunder should without a doubt draft based on who’s the best player available rather than focusing on fit within the rotation.

All season long, we’ve been hearing “fade for Cade” being chanted amongst the Oklahoma City fanbase and, on draft night, should they land the first overall pick, we at TI don’t expect them to veer away from the projected top talent.