As the OKC Thunder ramp up their final preparations for the NBA Draft this coming Thursday the lottery that took place on June 22nd continues to be a thorn in Sam Presti’s side.
After a season of tanking the bespeckled mastermind watched his hopes to bring Cade Cunningham to the OKC Thunder dashed by a bingo ball. The hits kept on coming as the club didn’t net any of the top four picks each paired with what analysts are projecting to be generational talents.
NBA Draft lottery results continue to burn OKC Thunder
Presti has more draft capital than entire conferences but the teams in those coveted top four spots have all the power. Despite holding six picks this year and a potential 38 over the next seven seasons current assets and draft position hold are taking precedence.
That fact has the VP in a position where he’ll need to put more on the table if he wants to counter competitor’s offers and even then might not be deemed as valuable.
This weekend rumors surfaced that the top two teams on the board may swap picks. Specifically, that the Detroit Pistons would drop to second and the Houston Rockets would move up to the first slot.
The Rockets are pursuing the No. 1 overall pick from the Pistons, according to our #NBA Insider @ShamsCharania.
— Stadium Bets (@StadiumBets) July 24, 2021
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If this transaction occurs, Houston would make the top pick and land Cade Cunningham. Considering the Thunder owned the Rockets’ pick until that darn bingo ball bounced into a top-four slot makes this news sting even worse.
Adding even more salt to the wound is Troy Weaver is the man running the show over in Detroit now and honed his skills in the Thunder organization. It stands to reason if Presti had landed one of the top picks it would be the two former front office peers doing business and not Houston’s Rafael Stone.
That’s not the only remnants of the singe marks on Presti from June 22nd, because the teams who got the lucky third and fourth ball bounces aren’t typical lottery teams. Rather, the Cavaliers who are poised to get quality big man Evan Mobley already have Jarrett Allen on the roster.
One spot down in fourth is the Toronto Raptors who experienced a season ravaged by injuries and a particularly bad COVID outbreak. The Basketball Gods made up for the Raps’ bad luck season by vaulting them into the fourth lottery seed.
So while Presti and his front office work to figure out a way to move up and land one of those four generational talents from this class there are murmurs the Cavaliers and Raptors may also swap picks.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg as the team selecting just before the OKC Thunder also holds multiple picks in this draft that could be packaged in a deal. Specifically, the Orlando Magic could end up nudging the Thunder out of the way in a deal with the Raptors to get Jalen Suggs. In turn, the Raptors would likely still select Scottie Barnes who they’ve long been linked to and add more picks to use for trades.
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Again, both are prospects Presti is either reported to have interest in (Barnes) or is one of that top quartet (Suggs).
Although the copious draft picks of the OKC Thunder are valuable the bottom line is teams are dealing with the tangible assets in front of them. Teams look at the prospects to determine their value and fit at the moment whereas future picks are subjective. Those prospects are still a work in progress and the draft seeding is yet to be defined.
When the Thunder fell to sixth and the five teams above them were locked in essence it tied Sam Presti’s hands. In order to move up the board, he would have to give up so much more than the teams in those top four slots and even then it might not have been compelling enough to move the needle.
It all came down to those darn lottery balls and the Basketball Gods. Still, we’ll be transfixed on what happens over the next few days and hold out hope our bespeckled magician has one more trick up his sleeve.