Thunder Have Picks To Consolidate in NBA Draft

The art of consolidation.

In NBA terms, consolidation is typically utilized in packaging two lesser picks for a greater one, or tagging a slew of players onto a deal for a star — akin to Carmelo Anthony’s shift to New York.

For Sam Presti, he’s very familiar with this art of dealing. And, with four Top-35 picks at his disposal, he could lean on this practice.

The Oklahoma City Thunder were living large following draft night, bringing home selections 2 and 12 from Mark Tatum’s envelopes. Barring a godfather offer, it’s hard to envision Presti moving the No. 2 pick, especially given his cognizance of how tedious the lottery process is. At selection No. 12, it wouldn’t be crazy to see Presti making a trade-up play. However, the asking price could be steep depending on who’d be available — making a consolidation unlikely here as well.

The real food for thought comes in the Thunder’s latter two selections — picks 30 and 34.

The last two draft cycles, Sam Presti has leaned on this crop of picks to climb the board. Last season, the Thunder traded selections 34 and 36 to nab Jeremiah Robinson-Earl at Pick No. 32. In the 2020 draft, the Thunder repeated this process dealing out picks 25 and 28 alongside Ricky Rubio for the 17th pick — Aleksej Pokusevski.

When breaking down the board, OKC has a strong offer to break into the 20s with this selection. Both spots carry some weight and the 34th pick, because of being a second-rounder, is not guaranteed. That’s valuable for teams swimming in repeater tax. The Orlando Magic would also have this edge as their tandem of 32 and 35 are both non-guaranteed contracts.

With the Oklahoma City Thunder carrying the youngest roster in the league and 19 first-round picks — they’ll be loaded with roster fillers for a while. The kicker — the team’s 15 standard deals will always stay a constant. Because of this, packaging picks to get “their guy” could be a strategy the Thunder exhaust this season and continue to as they scavenge their lottery loot.

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