How the Donovan Mitchell trade impacts OKC Thunder

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ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne’s French player Victor Wembanyama trains prior to the Euroleague basketball match between ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne and Zalgiris Kaunas at the Astroballe arena in Villeurbanne, near Lyon, on October 1, 2021. (Photo by PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP) (Photo by PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP via Getty Images) /

The OKC Thunder and Utah Jazz could find themselves racing for ping pong balls by the end of the season, and the 2023 NBA Draft class is loaded, and headlined by Victor Wembanyama

The 2023 NBA Draft class is stacked with potential. Talking to people within the NBA, I have been told there are “40-45 prospects” that have a first-round grade. compared to the last draft, most ended their first-round grades at 25, and some said as few as 18.

That will change as injuries and poor performances derail things, but how much it changes is the real question. On the topic of grades, this draft goes seven prospects deep in prospects who are viewed as franchise cornerstones, in the range of a top-three player in an organization.

While the depth is incredible, it is similar to the 2021 class. People loved Scottie Barnes, Jalen Green, and Evan Mobley, but the number one slot never changed it remained Cade Cunningham for the entire cycle. Victor Wembanyama will go wire-to-wire as the number one prospect in the 2023 class, and some say he is the best prospect since LeBron James.

You can not blame any organization for tanking in the 2022-23 season, to gain a minimum of nine seasons with Wembanyama. It is why times like the Jazz and Spurs have positioned themselves in this way for the upcoming season.

light. Related Story. Chet Holmgren is out for the season with a Lisfranc injury

With the news of Chet Holmgren’s season-ending injury, many expect the OKC Thunder to finish at or near the bottom of the standings. However, as I mentioned before, with the pieces on this roster, the Thunder will still be a competitive team night-in-and-night-out but it might not lead to many wins just given the nature of young teams and their typical inability to close out games.

Still, though, I peg OKC to be a better team than Utah, San Antonio, and Indiana for this upcoming season with question marks about how much better Houston, Orlando, and Detroit are than the OKC Thunder.

So the race for the bottom of the NBA will be intense, and this is before any team gets off to a slow start or suffers a disappointing injury.

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