OKC Thunder Grab Five-Star Freshman in Recent Mock Draft

The NBA Draft is slowly approaching as the college and NBA season hits its stride, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are slated to hold onto three first-round draft picks for 2025.

Not that the Thunder need more young talent, but appears as if they will be getting some help. In this prediction by ESPN, OKC walked away with three young and talented first-round players. Whether the additions are neccesary or not, adding those young talented players couldn't hurt.

The first of those picks, selected with the No. 10 pick, was Maryland freshman big man Derik Queen. Queen is averaging 15.9 points and 8.6 rebounds per game for the Terrapins while actively leading them to a 19-6 record, one of the best in the country.

Not many freshmen in the entire country have impacted winning basketball like Queen has in the Big 10. Outside of defensive concerns in pick-and-roll and isolation situations, Queen doesn't have many flaws. His age is on his side, as is his pure scoring ability. He's listed as a center and is only 6-foot-10, which also could be a knock against the Maryland big man.

Five picks later, Oklahoma City is projected to take Spanish wing Hugo Gonzalez. He's been a tricky prospect to evaluate this season for Real Madrid by not living up to preseason hype. That being said, he has displayed the tools neccesary to become a first-round pick.

Gonzalez has earned more minutes as of late compared to earlier in the season, starting to find consistency from the perimeter. His shooting was supposed to be a big part of his game but fell off a cliff at the beginning of the year. He's shooting 46% from three since Jan. 1, a welcome improvement in that department.

OKC has not shied away from taking international wings in past drafts. From Aleksej Pokusevski to Ousmane Dieng, most recently, the Thunder love to take flyers on developmental foreign prospects. Gonzalez would exactly fit into that category by not being a surefire project.

Its last first-round pick, in this instance, was used at the No. 21 spot on Georgia forward Asa Newell. The Thunder would be adding another freshman big to its roster in this scenario alongside Queen. Newell would provide another physical, pure-scoring big with tons of area for improvement.

Newell's averaging 15 points per game and 6.7 rebounds this season, along with one block per game. He's not the most efficient from the perimeter, shooting 27.9% from three, but he has a jump shot that can be tweaked to gain consistency.

That would wrap up OKC's first-round selections in this mock draft. They are predicted to grab Mexico City Capitanes guard Dink Pate with the No. 42 pick later on in the draft, taking a shot on another developmental wing prospect.

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