Thunder free agency: Ranking the best available bigs in 2024

1. Jalen Smith

Jalen Smith just may be the ideal free agent, let alone available big man, that this Thunder team could realistically pursue this offseason.

The former 10 overall selection from the 2020 NBA Draft finds himself entering into free agency fresh off a career-best campaign with the Indiana Pacers where he dropped impressive averages of 9.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, and nearly a block in just 17.2 minutes per game all while shooting at a highly efficient rate of 59.2 percent from the floor and 42.4 percent from distance.

Though his career may have gotten off to a slow start after being drafted by the Phoenix Suns who, frankly, improperly used him as a pure four, since coming to the Pacers and being thrust into his more natural position of center, his career has seen somewhat of a renaissance and, now, is looking to capitalize on his uptick in two-way production.

A sensational athlete who has proven capable of spacing the floor and protecting the paint at a high-end level, adding him to serve as the primary backup to Holgrem at the five would be a great move from this surging Thunder team to make, while his ripe young age of 24 years old makes him a tremendous fit both from a system and timeline perspective.

Though there may be more noteworthy names that will be available on the free agency market this summer, one could make a strong argument that Jalen Smith should be the top target for Oklahoma City to pursue.