NBA Draft 2024 Review: Oklahoma City Thunder

OKC SkylinePhoto byRaychel SanneronUnsplash

The rebuild for the Oklahoma City Thunder is now complete after the team went 57-25 in the regular season and made it to the NBA Western Conference Semifinals.

Now, the next step for the team is to now go for the NBA Championship. Adding veterans Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso increases the depth on an already loaded roster. Plus, the Thunder ended up selecting three more players in this year's NBA Draft.

Round 1, Pick 12: Nikola Topic - PG - Crvena Zvezda Belgrade (Serbia). 6'6", 203 lbs (8 ppg, 3 rpg, 5 apg).

Topic will miss this season due to a partially torn ACL. However, he appears like he could be the point guard of the future if he is able to recover from his injury.

Round 1, Pick 26: Dillon Jones - F - Weber State. 6'6", 235 lbs (20.8 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 5.2 apg, 2 spg, 32.4% 3-PT FG%).

Jones was able to fill up the stat sheet in the Big Sky as an undersized forward. He operates well in iso play from the high post area. He can also step outside to hit a three-pointer every once in a while. He could possibly see some time off of the bench due to his scoring ability.

Round 2, Pick 8: Ajay Mitchell - G - UC Santa Barbara. 6'4", 180 lbs (20 ppg, 4 rpg, 4 apg, 1.2 spg, 39.3% 3-PT FG%).

Although he shoots the three-pointer well, Mitchell prefers to drive to the lane for his buckets. He could also possibly see time off of the bench due to his scoring ability.

Overview: The OKC Thunder addressed some bench scoring issues after picking Jones and Mitchell in this NBA Draft. Last season, the bench for Oklahoma City only scored 32 points per game. If the bench scoring goes up to over 40 points a game this upcoming season, then the Thunder has the potential to win 60 games.

Grade: B-.