Gauging Oklahoma City's Packages to Move Up in the 2021 Draft

NBA Draft night is fast approaching.

With six picks in 2021 alone and a war chest of future picks acquired all over the league, Thunder general manager Sam Presti is sure to make waves.

Oklahoma City won't have the roster space to sign six new players, and really won't have the development space for likely even half of that.

Packaging their vast amount of current and future picks is a must for OKC.

Draft night trades typically consist of dealing players. But in Oklahoma City's case, they're quickly running out of sought-after role players wanting to be dealt to a contender.

Shifting up and down the boards using only an assortment of picks can get tricky.

Sliding back a few spots to acquire a future second rounder has always been a useful method. In the Thunder's case, they own plenty of future seconds, and will more than likely consolidate to move up.

Oklahoma City's 2020 trade consisted of acquiring Al Horford, the 34th overall pick, which led to Theo Maledon, the draft rights to Vasilije Micic, and a 2025 protected first rounder. In exchange, OKC sent Terrance Ferguson, recently acquired Danny Green and Vincent Poirer.

To get from No. 25 to No. 17 last year, Oklahoma City had to send Ricky Rubio to Minnesota.

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The Knicks moved up to No. 23 in the 2020 draft using its 27th and 38th overall picks. Deals like this could be especially useful considering OKC owns to early second round selections.

In 2019, the Hawks traded No. 8, No. 17 and No. 35 to get to No. 4 and No. 57. Oklahoma City's top three picks are all higher than Atlanta's, but sneaking into the top four of the 2021 Draft could be much harder.

Looking back to 2018, Dallas famously went from No. 5 to No. 3 using just one protected future first. In the same draft, the Clippers moved up one spot to No. 11 grab Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander using two future seconds, something OKC has plenty of.

No matter what Presti opts to do, it's sure to be a wild ride from start to finish.