What are draft possibilities?

that we have more draft picks than we need. As it stands right now, both of our number ones will be outside the lottery. I’m fully in favor of trading up for a center, or trading picks for an established center.

You’ll hear a lot of different opinions here, but basically the top center prospects coming out are, in no particular order: Cole Aldrich, Demarcus Cousins, Derrick Favors and Greg Monroe. (Some of these guys may fall into the PF/C category.)

There is also a foreign dude who I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole and Solomon Alabi from Florida St. who should me a mid-to-late first rounder.

I’ve thrown out the name of Tulsa’s Jerome Jordan, on occassion, but he didn’t progress as well as I hoped he would this season. He’ll go in the 2nd round, but I don’t know that I’d want him in OKC.

I can’t think of anyone other than Chris Bosh as a big free agent, but I’m not too high on him for our team.

Also, I don’t want to discount the progress of Serge Ibaka. He’s really starting to come into his own as a defensive guy.

So, that might help get you started. Dig around online. You can find lots of info and opinions.

 And welcome to Loud City!

of the better looking prospects there’s no reason not to. Cousins and Favors are both going to likely go very high, so unless we’re trading something else that’s not going to happen. Aldrich as well. If any of those should fall and it looks like we can package our picks to move up to snag them, I’d say it’s worth a look. Further down, I wouldn’t mind taking a flier on Alabi and just letting him develop. Currently he’d probably fare about as well in the NBA (or worse) as Thabeet has.

At the point we’re projected to pick (20th-ish) it’s a crapshoot anyways.

Craig Brackins from Iowa State? His stock took a dip this season. But, that could be attributed to a week team, especially guards.

that a starting center is even in this draft, save for Cole Aldrich. Cousins is a borderline PF/C, but if you guys are starting Jeff Green at PF, you need a real shot blocker/banger on the boards to give your frontline some muscle. he could be an offensive weapon, but not too much, since you won’t be calling many plays for him. a lot of guys could be had out there with this crazy summer coming up. I would think about picking up Roy Hibbert, Robin Lopez, Marcin Gortat.. somebody who’s not gonna break the bank on the trade front (you guys don’t have a lot of trade assets out there, save for your picks and backups + Krstic) but has potential and good size

We already have Ibaka, Collison, White, Krstic, and Mullens. Drafting another big man would just be adding more crap to the pile.

In my opinion, I’d like to see a nice shooter off of the bench. Like a spot up shooter. Right now, we have a ton of scorers, but we have no shooters. It hurts us sometimes, like yesterday, when we shot 15% from behind the line. I’m not saying we need to have a volume shooter or anything like that, just somebody who can step in for 10 minutes a game and play offense.

Even if we move up, I just don’t see a big man being advantageous to anyone other than the 66ers. I’s much rather use those picks to try to trade for one, or try to sign one in Free Agency.

That’s presti is trying to keep okc a power in the NBA for a long time. People look at clubs when they start winning and then ask “what’s the missing piece?”. Well the truth is we have many such as a pure shooter , great back up 3 , and a dominant 5. On a roster of 15 in a 9 man rotation we are missing a lot. So while everyone thinks presti will continue to draft great unknown international and young seasoned college players to keep OKC relevant. If presti makes a trade for a player it will me calculated far better than we even imagined ( like the chandler trade) and made when no one is paying attention ( like the maynor trade) . So I trully don’t believe he will make any trades before/during the draft. If he does please believe presti will keep at least one 1st round pick a a continuation of his “master plan”. I’m all for collecting tallent letting it build for another two years while KD RW0 and Serge become seasoned killers. Looking at the trailblazers you can see what happens when you rush and grab the missing piece way too soon( like Oden). Favorite or not KD was the better tallent and we all knew that when they picked oden. ( but I digress ). Presti once said he wants to build “a team of all PGs” or players who can handle and dish the ball fluidly … And I think that is what is he looking for ( which explains the mullens trade).

Bottom line just don’t expect anything exciting this year. Just know that in 10 years the thunder will be in the same conversations as the l@kers and the celts as great bball teams.. And that presti will NOT find a center this year becuase he has already found his experiments in serge and mullens and will continue to play with them like putty untill they fit the mold he wants.

bloggers on this particular site are post very fluid, meaningful comments that add to the intelligent discussions.
I think the Thunder are in great position. They really can do whatever they want. They could trade their picks to a team with a lot of holes for future picks. They could trade both their first rounders for a top 15 pick in 2011 and draft rough guys with potential or euro guys. I think they should try to aquire Marco Bellinelli. He is a very good talent. He is a good passer, shooter, and when he was with the Warriors he was playing good defense. He could come off the bench with Harden and put on a hell of a show. He is a fan favorite too. He is always around 40% three point, and has raised his free through to 84%. Trade him for a late first rounder. Then of course they could pursue Anthony Morrow

hell even if they stayed exactly the same for 2 years they would be contenders just because of Durant, Westbrook, and Harden. They just need to add a shooter and a guy to do the dirty work downlow and then they are set. I do not know anything about college ball, so I will not act like I do. They should draft a dirty work big in the draft, its not like they do not have room to experiment in the draft, so why not. Because of their great potential and room to grow, I do not see the point and rushing the process by adding a Camby or trading for a veteran like that. Not that I don’t want the Thunder to win, but if they are so far into the process of building through youth why stop now? Its worked out quite well.

but do you think the Thunder would look into packaging Green and the first round picks for a top pick like Favors, Aldrich, or Ed Davis.

Whiteside and Aldrich declare early…along w smaller players like Paul George, James Anderson, Domonique Jones.

Craig Brackins is late 1 at best after this year

Manny Harris and Sylvan Landesberg couple of presumed 2nd-undrafted also declared.

Tommy Mason Griffin is crazy too declare also.