The 2024 NBA season is officially over, so every NBA team will now turn their attention to the NBA Draft. This year's draft is just around the corner, as the first round is on June 26. One team that has thrived with the draft in recent years is the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder underwent a quick and effective rebuild that saw them go from 24 wins to the number one seed in the Western Conference in only two years, largely because of the decisions they made in the draft.
Sam Presti's rebuild of the Thunder became noteworthy because of the excessive amount of draft picks that he traded for. Even though Oklahoma City is now one of the best teams in the league, they still have a surplus of draft assets going forward. One of their best assets is the number 12 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. Even though the 2024 draft class is considered weak, the Thunder are primed to add yet another key piece to their core.
Not every player in this draft makes sense for the Thunder's roster, though. Oklahoma City has found success rebuilding because they have drafted a certain type of player. The team has favored high IQ, high-feel players who play an unselfish brand of basketball and thrive making plays for their teammates.
There have been a number of players in this class that Oklahoma City has been linked to, but in this article, we are going to look at the four players the Thunder should avoid in the 2024 NBA Draft. Check out the gallery to see which players don't make sense for the Thunder.
4. Stephon Castle: UConn, SG
Stephon Castle is by no means a bad prospect, nor is he a bad fit on the Thunder. In fact, one player he has drawn comparisons to is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder's prized possession and starting point guard.
Castle is a 6-foot-6 guard. He has similar measurables and a similar athletic profile to the MVP runner-up. Both players also thrive when attacking the rim more so than as catch-and-shoot options. They are also both great perimeter defenders who have an uncanny ability to steal the basketball.
These similarities would make it seem that Castle would be a good fit for the Thunder, as he could learn from and play behind a player with a similar skillset. However, this pick wouldn't be a good idea because of its redundancy. In addition to Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder have Cason Wallace, Lu Dort, Alex Caruso, and Isaiah Joe locked up at Castle's positions. The similarities to Gilgeous-Alexander are clear, but Castle doesn't have quite the ceiling the Thunder's star has. However, he is a defensive glue guy in a similar mold to Wallace and Dort.
With so many players at Castle's position already a part of the Thunder's core, and many of them sharing similarities with the UConn product's game, it doesn't make a lot of sense to draft the college national champion, as it seems that his skillset could be better utilized elsewhere.
3. Rob Dillingham: Kentucky, PG
The Thunder value ball movement and passing. Rob Dillingham, although he is a point guard by trade, is much more of a score-first guard. Although he is a better prospect than Tre Mann, Dillingham does have a similar build and playstyle to the former Thunder first-rounder who didn't work out in Oklahoma City.
The Thunder already traded Mann, and they likely won't mess with Dillingham. The Kentucky guard has shown some flashes as a playmaker, but he still needs to develop his typical point guard skillset, and his lack of playmaking right now is likely a turn-off for the Thunder.
In addition to not having the passing ability that the Thunder covet, Dillingham is also undersized. At Kentucky, the guard was listed at 6-foot-3, but he only measured 6-foot-1 at the Draft Combine. The Thunder have a multitude of guards, and the entirety of their roster is a little bit small. This means it would be really hard for Dillingham to find minutes on the court.
Chet Holmgren is skinny for a center, and Jalen Williams is short for a power forward. Dillingham likely wouldn't work in lineups with those two Thunder stars just because the team would be at a major size disadvantage, which was something the Dallas Mavericks took advantage of in the second round of the playoffs. Oklahoma City should be looking to get bigger, not smaller.
2. DaRon Holmes: Dayton, PF
As mentioned earlier, the Thunder have a little bit of a tweener problem. A lot of their players are playing up a position, which has made the team smaller than ideal. They certainly need more bigs and more rebounding help, which DaRon Holmes would help with, but the Dayton prospect would be another tweener on the roster. For that reason, they should avoid drafting him in the 2024 NBA Draft.
Holmes can play both the center position and the power forward position, but like Holmgren, he is a little bit skinny for the five. He may struggle early in his career to get rebounds inside and defend bigger players in the interior. His outside game is still developing, too, so he couldn't fall back on the perimeter game as much as Holmgren did in his first healthy season.
Jaylin Williams has been serviceable as a backup center, but the Thunder should be looking for an upgrade at that position. Whoever that is should be a premier rebounder with a prototypical center build. It would also be nice for this player to be able to share the court with Holmgren and allow the current starter to spend more time guarding power forwards. Holmgren would likely still need to take the center matchup if paired in the front court with Holmes, though.
1. Devin Carter: Providence, PG
Devin Carter is a player projected to go near the end of the lottery, right around where Oklahoma City will be picking. However, his archetype is not something that the Thunder need. Carter is a defensive minded guard. The Thunder already have a surplus of those.
Lu Dort, although he spends plenty of time guarding wings, is one of the best defensive players in the NBA and is usually tasked with the Thunder's toughest guard matchup. The team developed one of the best rookies last year in Cason Wallace, a player who shined defensively as a rookie and has Jrue Holiday-like potential on that end. Finally, the team just traded Josh Giddey, a defensive liability, for Alex Caruso, one of the few players who can challenge Dort for the title of the best point-of-attack defender in the NBA.
That defensive trio will give the Thunder one of the best defensive units in the NBA. Although you can never have too much defense, more offense is a greater priority in this draft, especially at the guard positions.
The acquisition of Caruso makes it unlikely the team will even add a guard at all. Wing depth and front court help are more pressing needs, if the team even selects at pick 12. Oklahoma City is already so deep and still has so many future picks that trading the pick for a star is a logical outcome.
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