Over the last several years, rumblings have regularly surfaced suggesting that the NBA is serious about adding more franchises to its current 30-team structure. Should this chatter lead to action, the league would hold an expansion draft, which requires each existing squad to protect eight players from being entered into the pool of talents eligible to be shipped to these incoming organizations.
For a team as deep as the OKC Thunder, figuring out which players to protect could be quite challenging.
Though Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren would undoubtedly be placed on the untouchables list, five slots would still be up for grabs and at least 10 players on Oklahoma City's roster have a case to be kept.
Recently, the folks at The Ringer held a two-team mock expansion draft where they made 18 selections (nine per team). Among the players chosen, three were plucked from Oklahoma City's crop of ballers which, to senior staff writer Rob Mahoney, is a testimony to just how stellar of a team Sam Presti has created, as he stated:
"It really is stunning how many Thunder players are not just eligible to be drafted but [are] good outcomes for an expansion draft."
Of the Thunder players taken in the exercise, there appears to be a clear hierarchy influenced by talent, rotational fit, and overall potential. Today, we rank each from least to most desirable for an expansion team starting from scratch.
3. Isaiah Joe
Described as an "awesome scorer" who provides "instant offense" to a team among The Ringer's four participants, Isaiah Joe is a player who could realistically fit into any rotation with eyes set on title contention, a youth movement, or, frankly, anything in between.
Now in his fifth season in the association, the 25-year-old is yet again putting forth strong on-court efforts on a nightly basis for OKC. In 21.2 minutes per game, Joe is posting 9.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists while shooting 39.7 percent from distance on a career-high 6.1 attempts a night.
The definition of a spark plug scorer, the wing has seen seven games where he's dropped at least 15 points since January 10.
On top of being a strong isolation weapon, Joe is an incredibly reliable catch-and-shoot sniper who boasts an effective field goal percentage of 65.8 in such sets.
Be it as a tertiary on-ball initiator or an in-motion scoring target, any team's offense would benefit from having someone like Isaiah Joe in the mix.
2. Ajay Mitchell
Before going down in early January with a toe injury, Ajay Mitchell was seen as a clear All-Rookie Team candidate and a legitimate threat to contend for the illustrious Rookie of the Year award.
A second-round surprise from last June's NBA Draft, the 22-year-old was posting strong per-game averages of 6.4 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.7 assists while ranking first in three-point percentage (43.1), defensive rating (100.0), and net rating (9.1) among rookies who have played in 30 or more games in 2024-25.
His efforts have been so impressive that the Thunder opted to convert Mitchell's two-way deal to a standard, multi-year pact with a highly affordable total worth of $6 million.
In any 2025 NBA Re-Draft, it's all but guaranteed that the UC Santa Barbara product would work his way into being a first-round selection. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that teams would be high on snatching his services up in a hypothetical expansion draft.
1. Nikola Topic
Even without having played a single game in the NBA, there's a case to be made that Nikola Topic could be in the running for the top pick in an expansion draft.
Before partially tearing his ACL in May of 2024, the Serbian-born baller was off to a hot start with the Crvena Zvedza in Belgrade as he was averaging 17.9 points and 6.8 assists per night while showing off his impressive ball-handling and driving skills.
With his natural floor general abilities trapped inside a 6-foot-7 wing's body, there was serious buzz during the months leading up to the draft that Topic was a strong contender to be taken in the top five before, ultimately, sliding to the Thunder at 12.
Still only 19 years old, it's easy to say that he'd be viewed in a similar light in an expansion draft.
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