Potential OKC Thunder Draft Target Talks Role Next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Despite the NBA regular season coming to a close this week, with the Playoffs being right around the corner, the league never slows down. The work is just begining for organizations. 20 teams make the postseason leaving 10 searching for answer's to offseason questions after Sunday's finale. Four more join them in prepping for next season by the following Saturday.

The Oklahoma City Thunder do not expect to turn the page from their on the court product to the offseason for a long time. After winning the 2025 NBA Championship, the OKC Thunder are primed to repeat. This would make them the first back-to-back title team since the 2018 Golden State Warriors.

Though, it also pushes their season at least until Mid-May by all projections and Mid-June by most. The NBA calendar waits for no one, not even the reigning Champions. A year ago, the Thunder celebrated a Game 7 win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday, June 22, 2025. On Wednesday, after the party carried onto into the morning hours and the city had cleaned up the parade thrown in downtown Bricktown, the Thunder front office members were gathered in the war room for the 2025 NBA Draft. Having expected to be as prepared as any other draft cycle.

This will be the reality for the Oklahoma City Thunder for a long time. Not only do they project to have a sustianed run of success on the hardwood but their cup runneth over with future NBA Draft picks.

Take the 2026 NBA Draft class as a prime example. The OKC Thunder, who might be throwing another parade in a few months, own two first-round picks –– projected right now to land at No. 15 and No. 16 –– as well as a second round selection which projects to be at No. 38.

At times, it is easy to be convinced that the NBA world of media members, fans and at times organizations themselves care more about the transactional periods in the assocaition than the actual hoops. So it is not surprising to see projections of who the Thunder will select in the NBA Draft, how Oklahoma City will navigate the muddy waters of the new CBA with this growingly expensive team (to which they have plenty of options) or what comes next for this club.

That is just as important as if the Thunder repeat or not. How Sam Presti and company operate this summer will largely determine if the projected runway of sustained success will come to be in Bricktown.

One of the popular names tied to the Oklahoma City Thunder is Michigan big man Yaxel Lendeborg. The Wolverine front court member helped lead the Maize and Blue to a title on Monday night in Indianapolis just as the Thunder did nine months ago.

Oklahoma City's front-court situation is up in the air heading into this offseason, to say the least. The Thunder have a $28.5 million team option on Isaiah Hartenstein to decide on, and a rookie, Thomas Sorber, rehabbing a torn ACL, is still awaiting his NBA debut.

Lendeborg averaged 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists 2.3 stocks (steals + blocks) per game in this championship campaign for Michigan. The 6-foot-9 big man has been elite on the defensive end of the floor in helping led the Wolverines to their title tilt win over UCONN.

The six-year college standout shot 51% from the floor this season and a career best 37% from beyond the arc. In a sit-down interview with SB Nation, Landeborg explained that 3-point shooting improvement was more than intentional.

“(The NBA) wanted to see a lot more three-pointers and a lot more versatility in my defense,” Lendeborg told SB Nation. “I tried to be more of three, because in the NBA, I’m not gonna be the superstar. I’m gonna be playing next to somebody like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and he doesn’t need me to score for him. He needs me to get stops. I just tried to figure out my role and do whatever I can do to get there.”

It was interesting to hear in this interview from the big man himself of his thought process ahead of the 2026 NBA Draft and his future professional career.

Understanding that he is not going to be a superstar is often times the hardest hurdle for prospects to clear in getting their life started in the association. Name dropping Thunder superstar Gilgeous-Alexander is eye brow raising as a big man that sits in Oklahoma City's draft range as the 2026 NBA Draft looms.

His defensive first mentality fits like a glove in Bricktown, the ability to spark and capitalize in transition will have Lendeborg and the Thunder singing out of the same hymnal.

Oklahoma City will have plenty of options between now and June's draft and even more to find out ahead of making any new additions. Though this was an interesting nugget from the big man himself regarding his NBA future.