The franchise rebuild finds itself in full swing for the OKC Thunder, and fans of the organization should feel ecstatic.
Despite the fact that Oklahoma City finished with the fourth-worst record of 22-50 in 2020-21 and, in turn, missed the postseason for only the second time throughout their 13-year existence, with this they set themselves up rather nicely for a triumphant offseason, as they currently boast the fourth-best odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick in this July’s NBA Draft.
On top of this, this summer, Sam Presti and co. could find themselves with about $55 million in cap space to utilize on the free agency market.
Times may appear to be tough on the surface but, with what their long-term plans are, things seem to be going rather smoothly for the Thunder organization.
With this, it appears the team is in an optimal position to try and bolster their roster for more successful campaigns in 2021-22 and onward.
Outside of a few players found on the roster, it would appear that positional improvements could and likely should be sought after moving forward.
While there are several arguments as to which area within the rotation should be focused on this offseason, the folks at Bleacher Report are under the impression that finding a replacement for Theo Maledon within the starting lineup at the one should be the top priority for the front office:
"If we assume, however, that the Oklahoma City Thunder are done feigning efforts to win games, Maledon should not be in the starting lineup next season. Give him minutes as a backup; he’s earned them merely by surviving this year’s baptism by fire. But OKC can’t in good conscience give a first-unit role to a player who shot 36.8 percent from the field. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the biggest star nobody knows about, and the ball should be in his hands as much as possible. Maledon can spell SGA and hopefully build on his rookie year by getting more reps against backups."
Should Presti look to address this apparent need, we at TI believe there are 3 players, in specific, that they should target:
OKC Thunder replacement target No. 1) Cade Cunningham
As we stated earlier, the OKC Thunder have the fourth-best odds of nabbing the first overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft.
Should this happen and the team winds up winning the lottery, while there are several big-time talents that will be coming out of this upcoming draft, Oklahoma State standout, Cade Cunningham, seems to be the most likely player they’d look to bring on.
During his one-and-done season at the collegiate level, the 19-year-old posted stellar per-game averages of 20.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.6 steals on 44 percent shooting from the floor and 40 percent shooting from deep in 27 outings.
Built like a modern-day wing at 6-8, 220-pounds whilst in possession of a guard’s skill set with his court vision and top-notch playmaking skills overall, Cunningham has NBA scouts drooling over his potential at the next level.
We here at the site also see an amazingly high ceiling for the wunderkind talent and have even made comparisons a couple of stars that we believe he most resembles.
Projected to be an immediate impact player, should the Thunder land the first pick on the illustrious night, they’ll likely be taking on Cade Cunningham who will find himself with a great chance of taking on starting guard duties come opening day.