The Oklahoma City Thunder are in the midst of the NBA Finals but the NBA Draft is right around the corner. The OKC Thunder have to have their hands in multiple different jars right now, prepping for attacks of the Indiana Pacers in hopes of securing its first NBA title in team history.
Oklahoma City sits on a mountain of future draft assets and hopes that the team will face this first-world problem many times over the next few seasons.
In Draft Expert Derek Parker’s latest NBA Mock Draft, the Draft content creator took a different approach, attempting to craft trades in the top 30 to complete a fun but realistic NBA mock Draft.
The Thunder are flushed with future picks but also current talent with its entire Western Conference Championship roster under contract for next season. In this mock draft trade, Oklahoma City ships off pick No. 15 (via Miami) to Golden State and the Warriors send back a 2027 first-round pick (lottery protected).
“At No. 15 we have the Golden State Warriors, one of the few teams that do not have a first round pick, trading up with Oklahoma City to nab Collin Murray-Boyles of South Carolina. The Thunder have two firsts this year but given they are in the NBA Finals and still have developmental players waiting on deck such as Ousmane Dieng, Ajay Mitchell and last year’s No. 12 overall pick Nikola Topic, it is not out of the question that they kick these picks down the road as they do here,” Parker explains the trade.
Murray-Boyles is a fun pick for the Golden State Warriors and this would likely be his best possible landing spot if the Warriors can pull this off.
“At 6-foot-7, Murray-Boyles is one of the most pure defenders in this class. He has a nice strong interior game…He gets the Draymond Green comp and of course he is not likely to become the all-time player that Draymond is, there is some overlap [in their archetypes],” Parker details the pick.
Murray-Boyles learning from Green would be great for his game and help grow the depth of Golden State ahead of next year as the Warriors attempt to make a run with Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and Green.
