Grading OKC Thunder guards Vit Krejci, Theo Maledon, and Lindy Waters III
By Rylan Stiles
The OKC Thunder season is over! With the end of the 2021-22 NBA regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder roster earned a great from us at TI, from the head coach to the starting five to the bench unit, the veterans, and now the “misfits” whose futures are not as defined.
As the Oklahoma City Thunder season wraps up, all eyes are on the 2022 NBA Draft, a draft in which the Thunder holds two NBA Lottery picks that will be decided tomorrow night. Oklahoma City finished with a 24-58 record, the fourth-worst in the NBA, and the second-worst in the Western Conference. With the Clippers’ pick owed to OKC unprotected thanks to the famous Shai Gilgeous-Alexander trade, the team now is tied for the best odds at the first overall pick if you combine the Clippers and Thunder odds.
Grading the “misfits” on the OKC Thunder roster, how do Vit Krejci, Theo Maledon, and Lindy Waters III play into the future of the organization?
One thing is inevitable no matter how the NBA Draft lottery shakes out, the Oklahoma City Thunder holds four selections in the top 34 picks of the 2022 NBA Draft. Will Sam Presti bring in four more rookies after making four selections in the 2021 class? If you believe his end-of-season media available, the OKC Thunder general manager seems poised to do so.
If/When Presti brings in four new players to Bricktown, the organization will have to make roster spots available and the players in this grading session might not be on solid footing. In each of our previous grades, we have left tidbits on how safe we think the player is on the roster, we will do the same in this final session.