Armed with the Nos. 6, 16, and 18 picks in the first round of this year’s draft and a huge stash of future first-rounders, the Thunder are expected to start “knocking on the door” to try to move into the top three of the 2021 draft, Adrian Wojnarowski said on Sunday’s Woj & Lowe special on ESPN (video link).
In his latest mock draft, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Insider link) confirms that the Thunder have been actively exploring the idea of trading up, with Cade Cunningham and Evan Mobley among the prospects they’re said to be high on.
It would take a substantial package for the Thunder to move up into the top three from No. 6, and it remains to be seen whether they’re be willing to eat into their stockpile of draft assets to make such a move, especially if there’s a player they like outside of the top five. James Bouknight could be that player, according to Givony, who says Oklahoma City has “long been high” on the UConn guard, having inquired last year about the possibility of him entering the 2020 draft.
Here are several more draft-related rumors from ESPN’s reporters:
- It’d be extremely surprising if the Pistons do anything with the No. 1 pick other than select Cade Cunningham, says Givony. Wojnarowski says that decision isn’t finalized yet, but the Pistons are “getting there” on Cunningham, and Woj expects the Oklahoma State guard to be the pick.
- Jalen Green is increasingly likely to be the No. 2 pick, according to Givony, who writes that the Rockets have been “stonewalled” in their attempts to host Evan Mobley and Jalen Suggs for workouts.
- The Kings‘ (No. 9) and Pelicans‘ (No. 10) picks continue to be among the most available lottery selections, per Givony. New Orleans is attaching Eric Bledsoe to the No. 10 pick in most trade discussions involving that selection, says Wojnarowski (video link). Givony adds that Franz Wagner has gained traction as a possible target for Sacramento if the club stays in the lottery, despite his “mysterious” pre-draft process — Wagner skipped the combine and hasn’t worked out for many teams.
- While the Raptors are still widely expected to draft Jalen Suggs, they’ve taken long looks at other top-10 prospects, including Jonathan Kuminga, Scottie Barnes, James Bouknight, and Franz Wagner, says Givony. Wojnarowski and ESPN’s Zach Lowe (video link) expect Toronto to have several more conversations about either moving up or down from No. 4, but also view Suggs as the club’s likeliest choice.
- The Cavaliers continue to be active in trade talks and are rumored to be discussing the possibility of acquiring a second top-10 pick, according to Givony. Wojnarowski (video link) is skeptical that Cleveland is looking to add more draft assets though, suggesting he doesn’t “see a scenario” in which the club trades Collin Sexton or Darius Garland to get even younger.
- People around the league have “locked into the idea” that Scottie Barnes is the favorite to be picked at No. 5 by the Magic, reports Givony.
Id love the Hawks to do something like Gallo, #20 pick plus a future 1st to New Orleans for Bledsoe & #10… Jalen Johnson or Josh Giddey would be perfect additions
I’m sure if they offer the Stones SGA and #6 & 16, they would have a deal. A huge overpay, but that is what it should take if Weaver is smart.
Yea.. give me SGA all day. No way OKC does that.
No. SGA is not getting traded.
The one thing we really need to get rid of is personal workouts for individual teams. It is a ridiculous and only serves to shut out certain teams from being able to draft certain players. There should 1 or 2 open workouts per player in which any team that wants to come can. Otherwise, you might as well just ditch the draft altogether and go to a free agent system. Then half the teams in the league would probably fold within 10 years.
There’s enough footage on just about every player. I agree that it would be nice for that to be the case but it’s usually the top 3 that might hold out and it’s usually because they’ve been told by one of the top 3 teams that they’ll be drafted by them.
Footage is useless really. You only see what they WANT you to see in videos. If you don’t see the player in person, you don’t get the whole picture.
And in this case, the Rockets are holding the #2 pick and yet both Mobley and Suggs are not working out for them, so unless Detroit promised to draft both of them at #1, then something is amiss.
Why would they need workouts for the 3rd and 4th best players when they hold the #2 pick? Houston knows they will end up with either Green or Cade. The only reason for looking at Mobley or Suggs would be if they were even considering moving down, which they aren’t.
Do you what being “stonewalled” means? Obviously, they were looking to get workouts with both.
Because if I had the #2 pick, I am not taking someone else’s word over who is the 2nd best player in the draft class. If that is the case, Houston should just fire their entire front office and replace them with a subscription to the Athletic. It’ll save a lot of money.
Yeah right, the Athletic is overpriced.
@hiflew
Im talking about real game footage not some music video highlight compilation. NBA teams have these things called scouts that have been following the elite top talents probably since highschool. Some even before then. The in person workouts aren’t needed for the top 4 guys unless it’s some guy that developed in the last few years or some overseas high end prospect that’s more about projection than current production. If you’re picking #2 and you have Cade and Green #1 and #2 then meeting with projected 3-5 might be due diligence it may not be needed if you’re locked in on who you want.
So thats why rockets are choosing Green, cuz Mobley and Suggs won’t even work out for them)) says a lot about what players think of that organisation
It’s moreso the opposite. Mobley & Suggs’ ppl know that Houston is taking Green. Don’t wanna waste their time
Sure, rockets chose one guy and dont even wanna see anyone else. Great organizational thinking.
Not quite that way. There’s back channels taking all the time. If Houston has told Green they’ll draft him then other agents usually know too. No need to waste anyone’s time
How do you run your NBA organization? Uh huh.
Says more about what the NBA thinks about the draft process.
Besides, Mobley and Suggs have zero experience in the NBA, so how could they have negative feelings toward any organization. This is all about their agent holding a grudge over a different client. And that should NEVER happen.
He just likes to trash the Rockets for no reason. But it’s funny how the original Harden trade is a dynasty ruiner for OKC yet the team who pulled off the trade is somehow the worst run organization in the NBA. That sure makes a lot of sense.
@Wally
1)the fact that rockets turned turned into a pumpkin overnight – from perennial contender to tank, because their beloved beard ruined any long term assets they had just cuz he wanted to and thet left the second he got bored. 2)they have the most cheap owner in NBA.
3)your ignorant hate of every former rocket EXCEPT harden, who is to take at least 50% of the blame for what happened to the team.
There you go, thats three huge reasons to poke fun at Houston
The higher the pick, the more money and better resume for the agebt. I doubt they’d do anything counter to achieving either or those two things.
I doubt OKC will be able to move up. A boatload of remote picks sounds great, but I doubt any FO is really going to pass up their first choice of top tier players to get them, almost regardless of volume. OKC’s only certain lottery pick is this year’s #6. They’d need to secure another top 10 pick in this draft, plus add in a couple of the more desirable remote picks they hold, to make a compelling case to a team picking 1-4. Presti is generally good on draft day, but I don’t think dealing when the other side has the leverage is his strong suit.
Presti is overrated. That Harden trade is an all time dynasty ruiner.
You can’t really blame Presti there. No one saw Harden becoming THAT good after the trade. I mean, he was basically a sixth man in OKC. I figured he would probably be a stat stuffer on a bad team in Houston, but I was obviously wrong. Either way, I don’t think anyone figured he would become NBA MVP in Houston.
Actually, I think quite a few people saw Harden becoming that good or at least close. MVP is hard to predict, but All Star (and better than Westbrook), there were many of us. Almost everyone I know who saw both play in college. The only issue was conditioning really.
Actually, I don’t think you are correct. People thought he might improve and be a decent starting SG, but nobody saw him scoring over 30 a game and being a top 5 player in the league. Except the people that said that’s what they thought 5 years after the trade. Because there are tons of those guys around.
You’d be wrong. You can speak only as to the people you know, and that doesn’t get you far in this case. Understand, he was a top 3 pick. How many top 3 picks in any draft are guys that are not viewed – by a lot of people – as special?
Harden was certainly no exception to this, being picked ahead of the Doncic of his day (Rubio), as well as the eventual rookie of the year (Evans), and, of course, Curry. Doesn’t mean he was destined to be special. It does mean he was expected to be by a lot of people.
The rockets were one of the first teams to grade players per 36 minutes played and not based on a game to game basis. This allowed them to determined players “real” value and has been a much better predictor for assessing a players talent if they were given more opportunities. Since then most, if not all, teams evaluate players this way.
Their most recent example of this was signing Wood. Id say the rockets have historically been a well run team and I think they have shown so far under Stone that they are able to identify talent. This will obviously be an important draft for them to get right.
@hiflew
he was 49/39/85 with almost 19/4/4 on 10 FGA. It wasn’t hard to imagine him breing a 25 ppg guy with more minutes and shots.
OKC isn’t moving higher than #3, so if they really want Mobley (who should be great someday) go ahead and try to facilitate a trade with the Cavs. They aren’t getting either of the top-2 guys.
They don’t need to if they’re interested in Mobley.