3 NBA Draft prospects Thunder should be monitoring after landing No. 12 pick
By Kyle Lander
Season by season, teams find themselves reloading and reshuffling players to find solutions for the problems they have faced throughout the season. Problems such as lack of shooting, playmaking, shot creation or, in the case of the OKC Thunder, lack of size.
Oklahoma City played small for a reason throughout this year's campaign and it is how they prefer to run their scheme.
It has let them take advantage of opposing bigs when forced to match up with their guards. When they've had bigger forwards and centers guarding smaller players, they have been able to get blow-bys that allow them to freely run their offense the way they wish to.
Sometimes it has hurt them and other times it's benefitted them.
The numbers show that they ranked in the bottom five during the regular season for rebounding, averaging 42 boards a game, making them the second-lowest rebounding team still left in the playoffs, beating only the Indiana Pacers.
Simply put, that is not good.
The 2024 NBA Draft doesn't seem to have the top-of-the-line star power like in previous years, but that isn't as important because the Thunder already have their stars in tow with the likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren.
What this draft class does have, however, is potential impact role players who could contribute immediately.
Following Sunday's NBA Draft Lottery, the Thunder find themselves heading into next month's festivities in possession of the number 12 overall selection, as they acquired the rights via the trade that sent Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets back in 2019.
With this, considering the prospects that are generally found on big boards for this year's draft, there are a few players, in particular, Oklahoma City should be keeping a close eye on between now and June 26.