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Some people collect stamps, rocks or sports cards, but Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti collects drafts picks like it’s going out of style.
A busy week in the NBA continued Friday morning, with news the Oklahoma City Thunder have acquired Kemba Walker from the Boston Celtics. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Thunder will also get the No. 16 pick in this year’s draft and a 2025 second-round pick. Al Horford, Moses Brown and a 2023 second-round pick will go to Boston in the deal.
On one hand, acquiring Walker is a win-now move for the Thunder and general manager Sam Presti. But over the years, as Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have both departed, Presti has clearly prioritized adding draft picks in trades. Prioritized, with a capital “P.”
Oklahoma City Thunder: Sam Presti in control of like the next five drafts
Check out the list of draft picks Presti and the Thunder have accumulated.
The only way the Thunder get Houston’s first-round pick this year is it falls out of the top-four (unlikely, but not impossible). But they’ll have their own pick, with a 45.1 percent chance it lands in the top-four when the lottery ping pong balls fall soon (according to Tankathon). Miami and now Boston’s picks will give them two more picks in the top-20. They also have three second-round picks this year, with a total of five picks in the top-36.
Then from 2022-2026, the Thunder could own three first-round picks in four of five drafts. Only a pick swap with the Clippers in 2023 prevents it from being locked into three first-rounders in four of those five drafts.
The kind of draft capital Presti has collected for the Thunder gives them valuable assets for trades. If there’s a bad contract they need to offload anytime over the next few years, attaching a first-round pick won’t be an issue.