Draft day is here, and the expectation is that we’ll see unusually high trading activity given how many teams are trying to move up, move down or change their rosters.
I already gave you my top-70 players and my mock draft for tonight, but here are a few other added thoughts to ponder while we wait:
How hungry are the Thunder?
The No. 1 topic heading into draft day is this: Exactly how willing are the Thunder to move up from the sixth spot in the draft?
Oklahoma City has more future draft picks than it can possibly use and a team that is set up to be quite bad for the immediate future. That sets up the Thunder to make the type of trade offer to a team in the top three that might be tough to resist: offering the extension-eligible Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the sixth pick and other draft assets to a team that will allow them to move up.
Thus far, most of the attention has focused on what kind of offer the Thunder might make the Pistons to move up to No. 1 and select Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham, but that story has shifted in the last 24 hours. Now we’re hearing a lot more chatter about a Thunder-Cavs trade for the third position, which would allow Oklahoma City to select USC’s Evan Mobley.
One presumes any team in the top three is demanding a huge sum from the Thunder, and it’s an easy ask because Oklahoma City has such a ridiculous horde of picks.
