Jalen Green heads to OKC Thunder in CBS NBA Mock Draft

The NBA Draft is now just under two months away and we here at TI are already prepping with tape views and countless hours of reading up on some of this year’s top prospects that could wind up falling to the OKC Thunder.

After the coin flipped Oklahoma City’s way earlier this week, Sam Presti and co. head towards June’s Draft Lottery boasting the fourth-best odds of nabbing the top slot on the illustrious night, and hold a 52.5 percent chance of their pick landing within the top-five.

Because of these odds, it’s quite evident that, come next season, the OKC Thunder will likely have themselves a nice young stud to have thrust into the rotation to develop as a potential sidekick for current star, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

At the forefront of the majority of big boards, there are four consensus top-billed prospects that are viewed as the clear-cut options to go one through four though, outside of Cade Cunningham going first overall, in NBA Mock Drafts we’ve often seen the remaining three being selected in a multitude of different orders.

Recently, CBS Sports pushed out an updated mock for 2021 and, at fourth overall, we see G League Ignite star, Jalen Suggs, heading to the Sooner State.

Citing his propensity to put the ball in the basket and his impressive stature, writer Gary Parrish believes Green should be seen as a true building block for the franchise right from day one:

"Jalen Green is an elite scorer with good size for his position who could quickly establish himself as one of the main building blocks in Oklahoma City. His decision to skip college and play for the G League Ignite did nothing to damage his draft status in any meaningful way."

Starting every game for his team in 2020-21, the 2020 McDonalds All-American went on to post impressive per-game averages of 17.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.5 steals on 46 percent shooting from the floor and 37 percent shooting from deep.

While obviously Cunningham is seen as the top grab for all teams found within the lottery, one could certainly argue that a guy like Green is perhaps the second-best talent coming into this draft.

Should the OKC Thunder fall to fourth overall, nabbing the talented wing seems like an absolute steal in our book.