The Oklahoma City Thunder hold draft picks from a plethora of NBA teams, small bets on the downside risk yawning underneath all of them. With the news that Tyrese Maxey will miss weeks with a new injury, suddenly the Thunder are in line to add yet another lottery pick.
In 2024, the Thunder secured the No. 1 record in the Western Conference and advanced to the second round of the NBA Playoffs. They proceeded to draft with the No. 12 pick in that year's draft, a gift from the LA Clippers.
The following year, the Thunder won 68 games and won the NBA Finals with an all-time season, crushing teams with their defense and riding an MVP season from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Rather than draft with the 30th pick, however, they again chose in the middle of the first round, this time with the 15th pick, courtesy of the Miami Heat.
And so the story continues. This season, the Thunder hold onto four first-round picks, each a tiny investment in the downside risks of their fellow teams. As the season has gone on, the value on those picks has diminished as the Clippers improved and the Utah Jazz committed to their tank job and keeping their protected pick.
When one door closes, one door opens -- enter the Philadelphia 76ers.
The 76ers' pick just got better
In December of 2020, the Thunder took on the "bad" contract of Al Horford, allowing the Philadelphia 76ers to reset and pursue a different combination of talent around Joel Embiid. In the deal, they picked up a couple of minor assets and a future first-round pick -- a pick that has yet to convey.
Last year, the 76ers leaped into the Top-4 of the 2025 NBA Draft, drafting VJ Edgecombe and holding onto the Top-6 protected pick that otherwise would have conveyed to the Thunder. The pick rolled over to this season, when it was protected 1-4.
The 76ers got off to a hot start and have been in the playoff bracket in the Eastern Conference for the entire season. That meant their pick was going to be owed to OKC, a valuable asset for the Thunder to use or trade, but not a pathway to another lottery pick to continue backfilling the roster of a contender.
The last few weeks have not been kind to the 76ers, however. Paul George was suspended for most of the remainder of the season due to taking banned medication. Joel Embiid has largely been unavailable managing multiple maladies. All-NBA candidate Tyrese Maxey was essentially carrying the team toward the finish line.
Now comes the news that Maxey will miss at least three weeks with a tendon injury in his right pinkie, per Shams Charania of ESPN. It is something of a death blow to their goals of moving up in the playoff standings and putting themselves in position to win multiple postseason series.
It's not clear how the 76ers will generate enough offense to beat another good team, so anything but a tanking squad on the other side will likely result in a Philadelphia loss (crazy things can happen, but they will be significant underdogs in each game). That could spell disaster for the Sixers.
Philadelphia could drop like a stone
Currently, Philadelphia is clinging to eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings, in line to pass along the 16th pick in the draft. Yet the Atlanta Hawks have won seven-straight games and are only one back of Philly now. And the Charlotte Hornets are 8-2 in their last 10 and are just two games behind.
The most likely path for the 76ers is to drop to 10th, and they are not 100 percent safe from the Milwaukee Bucks in 11th. If they go 5-12 over their remaining 17 games, which is not improbable given their absences, they would end up two games below .500.
That would put them more in the 11-13 range, another lottery pick for the 76ers. In what is being billed as an all-time draft class of prospects, the Thunder could add yet another Top-15 pick to the mix. With a pick coming from the LA Clippers as well and likely to fall in a similar range, suddenly the Thunder are set up to do the impossible yet again.
Another team's pain is Sam Presti's pleasure, at least when it comes to draft picks. A team in line for its third-straight No. 1 seed is also about to draft in the Top-15 for the third-straight time (well, six-straight including their retooling years).
It's the pathway to maintaining a dynasty, and the Thunder do it better than anyone else.