Thunder Draft Rewind: Oklahoma City Narrowly Misses Out on a Star in 2015
Unfortunately for Sam Presti, neither of his draft picks in the 2015 NBA Draft worked out for Oklahoma City.
Entering the night with just two picks, Presti was going to have to make the most of where he was selecting and was just one pick away from potentially landing a superstar.
With the No. 13-overall pick, the Phoenix Suns drafted Devin Booker, the third Kentucky Wildcat off the board in 2015. Booker would have been a great scoring threat off the bench for the Thunder, and star Kevin Durant was reportedly very high on the Kentucky guard headed into the draft.
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But unable to move up, Presti settled for Booker’s current running mate Cameron Payne with the 14th pick.
The 6-foot-1, 183-pound point guard from Murray State was brought in to back up Russell Westbrook, ostensibly a low pressure situation, but he struggled.
Appearing in 12.2 minutes per game, the undersized Payne failed to adjust to the pace and physicality of the NBA while in Oklahoma City. He averaged just 5.0 points and 1.9 assists per game, but shot just 32.4 percent from deep.
In just his second season with the Thunder, Payne was included in a deal which sent the guard to Chicago as a piece in a package for Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott.
Payne’s time in OKC is best known for his antics with Westbrook before the game, as they danced while getting loose in the warmups, flashing an infectious personality before tipoff night in and night out.
After toiling in Chicago, Payne bounced around the league for a bit before finally landing in Phoenix where he carved out a nice role for himself off the bench and has turned his career around into more of what Presti had envisioned for him on draft night.
The Thunder also selected center Dakari Johnson in the second round. Johnson was mostly a G Leaguer for Oklahoma City, only appearing in 31 games for the franchise. Johnson was dealt to the Orlando Magic at the end of the 2018 season.
