Curving The Consensus: OKC Thunder Have History Going Their Own Draft Direction

The NBA Draft is an imperfect science.

With 60 picks, 30 teams, and a flurry of roles needing to be filled in your typical draft cycle – there’s bound to be booms and busts scattered across the board. As the clock nears closer and closer to the big day, those at home will be chalking down their final mock drafts. And, for the most part, those projections will be in shredder by the end of the night.

That is not a surprising tale. Teams are actively looking to throw wrenches in the draft. With smokescreens, secret workouts, and trades always looming in the air, you can’t set-and-stone predict where everyone falls in the draft process.

As of late, there’s been an uptick of teams going off the consensus. The Oklahoma City Thunder are one of them.

Last season, Sam Presti set off the first domino in the draft. With UCONN guard James Bouknight and G League Ignite forward Jonathan Kuminga up for grabs at the No. 6 pick, it appeared Presti had two options. He pulled a third option, selecting Josh Giddey. This selection came after a bevy of smokescreens and rumors, none of which included Giddey.

Later in the 2021 draft, the Thunder still had yet to patch their center spot. With Alperen Sengun available, he looked to be the piece. One phone call later, Sengun was dealt to Houston for two future firsts. At pick 18, the frontcourt still was the overarching issue. Instead, Presti double-dipped in value for another guard in Tre Mann.

The Thunder’s 2021 draft cemented the idea that it’s impossible to peg the Thunder. Even with positional woes and “obvious” prospects at their pick – they veered off the expectation on all three of their early dice rolls. That history goes back even further.

Oklahoma City had gone fairly chalk in the 2020 draft cycle. With commotion running rampant that the Thunder were linked to Aleksej Pokusevski, Presti gave up the barn moving picks 25 and 28 alongside Ricky Rubio for the Serbian forward. At pick 34, Theo Maledon was a great value pick who was considered in the 20s. Arguably the Thunder’s biggest off-the-grid pick came at Pick No. 37 when the Thunder traded up to select Vit Krejci. Krejci, who was coming off an ACL tear, had been graded as a fringe draft-and-stash prospect going into draft night. Instead, Krejci joined the Thunder that January for rehab.

The 2019 draft brought no true consensus stunner for Bricktown, selecting Darius Bazley at Pick No. 23. However, they did get some buzz in their process of taking the forward. With Brandon Clarke, another power forward, up for grabs at their initial pick, Presti felt confident in trading back two spots for Bazley.

During the Thunder’s cemented playoff seasons (2013-2018), Oklahoma City hardly possessed much value at the top of the draft board. But, that only exemplified how willing they were to go off the consensus to snag their guy. The premier examples of this tendency flashed in 2013 and 2014 when the Thunder selected wings Andre Roberson and Josh Huestis. Both Roberson and Huestis were slated to be second-round picks headed into draft night, but Oklahoma City snagged both defensive-oriented wings in the first round.

The story is simple when it comes to evaluating the Oklahoma City Thunder. Once in the war room, they are extremely difficult to predict. With selections 2, 12, 30, and 34 in the upcoming draft, there are bound to be some home run swings taken by Presti. The main takeaway – don’t base their actions off consensus.

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