Recently, ESPN's Tim MacMahon revealed on an episode of the Hoop Collective podcast that teams across the league are "in a panic" over the collection of draft capital heading to the OKC Thunder this year, particularly the unprotected rights to the 5-16 LA Clippers' 2026 first-round pick.
Frankly, the idea of the reigning champions and current favorites to repeat adding a potentially high-end lottery-selected talent to their arsenal is truly unheard of.
However, though such a selection certainly has the potential to be extremely valuable, it is the 2027 exchange of picks between these two franchises that should actually be sparking the most fear.
Thunder have unprotected rights to swap picks with Clippers in 2027
As things currently stand, if the season were to end today, Los Angeles would finish 14 in the Western Conference standings and with the sixth-worst record in the entire league, meaning the Thunder would likely be handed a top-six selection next June.
However, despite their lackluster start to 2025-26, a lot can still happen between now and the Draft.
Considering the Clippers still have established stars like James Harden and Kawhi Leonard leading the way, and are accompanied by proven talents like Ivica Zubac, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Chris Paul, and Bradley Beal, as well as a title-winning coach in Ty Lue, it's far from out of the realm of possibility that this team could inch their way to, say, the Play-In Tournament over these remaining 61 games.
Such a happening would clearly hurt the odds of the Thunder landing a top-billed player in this year's draft.
However, the unprotected rights to LA's 2027 first-rounder would still be up for grabs via swap, and, if they fail to make the playoffs this year, there's a strong chance that the front office may be forced to tear down this current roster, be it under their own accord or due to certain players asking out.
Already, the trade rumors surrounding Harden are becoming increasingly pertinent and, should he be moved, it should be assumed that it would only be a matter of time before Kawhi asks out -- after all, being he's only 34, there's a strong possibility that he's still looking to win another ring, and a Harden-less Clippers team is far from capable of doing so.
Heck, even with the former MVP in tow, there seems to be little to no chance.
Assuming Los Angeles holds their core largely intact throughout this year's campaign, should they ultimately miss out on postseason action, there's a growing belief that blowing things up during the summer months could be plausible, which, if acted upon, might actually make their chances of landing the top pick in 2027's festivities even more possible.
And who would benefit most from this series of events? The (hopefully) two-time NBA Champion, OKC Thunder, of course!