Loser: Oklahoma City Thunder
Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder have been stockpiling draft picks for years now and through the 2027 NBA Draft, they own the rights to 38 total draft picks, including two different pick swaps, which can get complicated! Entering the Draft Lottery, the Thunder had a 52.5% chance to end up with a Top-5 pick and an 11.5% chance to end up with the #1 overall pick.
Not to mention, they also had a 47.9% chance of obtaining Houston’s 2021 1st Round Pick that was Top-4 protected. There was a chance for the Thunder to end up with two Top-5 picks in this year’s draft based on how the lottery went, but they ended up with zero Top-5 picks.
Instead, the Thunder got the 6th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft and since they did not get Houston’s pick (#2 overall), they keep Miami’s first-round pick, which is slotted in at 18th overall. Now, the Thunder own the rights to picks 6, 16, 18, 34, 36 and 55, which is remarkable in itself and they will be getting plenty of high-level talents, but the lottery could have been so much better for them.
The Thunder are definitely in a position to make some big draft night trades and they already made a big trade ahead of the Draft Lottery, trading for Kemba Walker and Boston’s 16th overall pick, but getting one or two Top-5 picks would have been big for them.
With no center on their roster right now, it had looked like the Thunder would be targeting Evan Mobley, which they still could if they wanted to trade up in the draft, but now outside the Top-5, it seems almost impossible that they will be able to get Mobley.
READ MORE: NBA Mock Draft 3.0: Detroit Pistons win Cade Cunningham sweepstakes
The Thunder have a ton of highly talented, young players on their roster in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Darius Bazley, Theo Maledon and Aleksej Pokusevski, so this franchise is still heading in the right direction, but they would have loved to have two of the first five picks in this year’s draft.
Who knows what Sam Presti and the Thunder’s front-office has planned, but with six draft picks in the 2021 NBA Draft, they will be able to not only target some of the best players in this year’s draft class, but they will set themselves up in a position where they could make a big time trade on draft night.
