OKC Thunder: ESPN latest mock for NBA Draft nets Jalen Suggs

This week the OKC Thunder confirmed they’ll enter the NBA Draft Lottery on June 22nd with the fourth-best odds to land the top draft pick.

That situation was resolved when the Thunder won the coin flip giving them fourth while the Cavaliers land in fifth. The actual pick selection won’t be cemented until the NBA Draft Lottery occurs. At the same time, the Thunder find out where their pick will occur they’ll also discover the second pick they’ll be making in the first round.

If the Rockets land outside the top four that will be the second pick and if not it will be the Heat’s pick in the 18th spot.

Clearly, the best of all worlds would be if the Basketball Gods intervened with the Thunder winning the top pick and Houston slipping to fifth. As much as we’ll all cross our fingers for that scenario to play out it’s not likely Houston won’t nab one of the top four selections.

At least with the fourth-best odds, OKC should also land one of the top five picks.

With the odds placement taken care of ESPN completed another mock draft based on the placement panning out precisely where teams are seeded prior to the lottery. Again, that’s likely to shift as it’s rare for no teams to swap positions. That said the draft expert offered the following prospects for OKC in their current order.

ESPN Mock Draft serves up Jalen Suggs for OKC Thunder

The first pick ESPN writer Givony makes for the Thunder is Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs. If you caught much of March Madness you’ll recall how pivotal his play was for the Bulldogs and his thrilling buzzer-beater in the Final Four.

"The Thunder would surely be thrilled to see Suggs, a strong candidate for many teams picking in the top three, fall to them. His defensive versatility, competitiveness and transition-scoring prowess would fit in very well with what the team already has in place on the court as well as with the culture Sam Presti is attempting to build in Oklahoma City."

Suggs is a leader with the type of character Sam Presti often covets from his youngsters. Moreover, as Givony notes his above-average defensive ability and well-developed skills would fit into the future core of the OKC Thunder.

Suggs would offer a nice fit with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort helping to accentuate and augment both their talents.

As for the second pick Givony selected Arkansas shooting guard Moses Moody.

"Like every team, the Thunder could look to bolster their wing depth with as many floor-spacing, multipositional defenders as they can find. Moody is an ideal 3-and-D prospect who happens to be one of the youngest players in the draft, having yet to turn 19."

As Givony highlights, every team in the association could use wing help. The most coveted skills in today’s era of the NBA are wings with two-way talent. The Thunder in particular could use 3-point shooting and if the prospect also happens to possess perimeter shooting prowess that would be a huge bonus.

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

It’ll be interesting to see if VP Sam Presti leans away from his past preference for selecting wings based on athleticism and defense as the prime factors. He’s been adept at finding quality wings that fulfill that need but the perimeter shooting has often been lacking. Hamidou Diallo for example is one of the best defensive athletic wings but his 3-point shooting never measured up.

Granted in 20 games with Detroit, Diallo witnessed a massive surge from his previous 29.3 percent efficiency with OKC to 39.0 percent with the Pistons.

At 18.9 years, Moody is one of the youngest in the draft and aside from his 3-point shooting has also demonstrated upside defensively.  Arguably his most attractive quality is he would easily fit into the positionless strategy the Thunder wants to form and is young enough to develop and grow within Mark Daigneault’s system.

As we await the NBA Draft Lottery on June 22nd Intentions will take many more dives into the prospects analyzing their fit. However, if these were the two players OKC drafted it would be a positive scenario for the club.