Oklahoma City Thunder’s draft position makes improvement harder
There are no options that will help the Oklahoma City Thunder get to a new level in the draft at No. 21 and moving up will be costly. The pick that OKC has is essentially useless.
A team’s No. 1 goal is to always have new young talent on the roster and that will be crucial for the Oklahoma City Thunder this go-around in the 2017 NBA Draft.
The Thunder are a good team because of their superstar Russell Westbrook and he helped carry them to the playoffs, which is an overachievement when you look at the team on paper. The Thunder won one game in the playoffs against the Houston Rockets. The score was 115-113 OKC Thunder. That was in the first round and that round was all the team saw.
To get the team to the next round and beyond, the Thunder need to develop their young players, to acquire talent that helps them win more games in the regular season and to capitalize on home-court advantage once they get there.
To be able to get better talent they have to move up in the draft. If that means trading future picks then so be it. The Thunder are not trying to rebuild, they are trying to win now. When you have a superstar on your team you are saying that you don’t want to lose to get better picks and that is a good mindset.
That mindset hurts when you are trying to get high quality draft prospects though. To make matters worse, even if the Thunder moved up the board to the top five, the prospects that would be best to pick would all be point guards, which is the spot occupied by Russell Westbrook. Markelle Fultz (No. 1), Lonzo Ball (No. 2), and De’Aaron Fox (No. 5), who are point guards, are all in the top five in NBA.com’s mock draft.
There are two small forwards that are in the top-five, which is a position of need for the Thunder after Kevin Durant‘s departure. Josh Jackson is at No. 3 in the mock draft and Jayson Tatum is fourth.
The Thunder would probably rather trade with the Philadelphia 76ers for the third spot because Jackson is the player with more upside. Jayson Tatum is a ready-now player. They would love to have him, but Jackson’s potential is too hard to ignore.
Moving up to third in the draft would be a miracle for the Thunder, though. The more realistic option would be someone like Justin Jackson, who is projected to go 12th to the Detroit Pistons. According to ESPN‘s Marc Stein, Detroit may be looking to trade the pick for a proven veteran:
NBA Draft scuttle: Hearing Detroit is open to discussing trades for its No. 12 overall pick in hopes of acquiring more of a win-now veteran.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 30, 2017
The Pistons already have a small forward that they are developing in Stanley Johnson, who was the eighth overall pick in just the 2015 NBA Draft.
After an awful season of averaging 4.4 points and just starting one game this season, maybe the Pistons are looking to move on but they can’t keep drafting the same position hoping for a change. Johnson has one more year to show signs of development because it would be his third year and that is a crucial year for a young player.
Could the Thunder have a veteran that would entice the Pistons? Possibly, but that would defeat the purpose of moving up, since the whole point is to help Westbrook get help now.
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If Jackson can shoot the NBA three consistently and learn to create a shot off the dribble then he would be a perfect fit for the Thunder. The Thunder can always develop him and he has a motor in him that never stops running. His rebounding which is what North Carolina was known for is also a plus. Helping out on the boards is always a plus in basketball.
Justin Jackson was a player that led the national title North Carolina Tar Heels team and helped the team redeem the loss last year against the Villanova Wildcats. He has proved that he is an NBA-ready player, which is important for the Thunder, but if the cost is a veteran piece, it wouldn’t be worth a trade.
Justin Jackson is the only real fit in this draft that makes sense to move up for and you don’t know what you’re going to get. Everybody in the draft is a toss-up unless you’re a LeBron James who was the most clutch pick in the draft ever.
Next: 2017 NBA Mock Draft: Post-Lottery edition
It will be interesting to see what the Thunder do in the draft whether they move up or stay put but one thing is for sure where they are at is not a good position for a team to get a player that will help them contend in the near future.