The history of the Oklahoma City Thunder and previous longtime franchise location Seattle SuperSonics has been rife with great players coming through the ranks of the team's drafting record. Lenny Wilkens and Bob Rule, Jake Sikma and Fred Brown, Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, and Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook—all legendary parts of the Sonics/Thunder history drafted into the pros. That said, free agent luck hasn't been glorified for the Sonics and Thunder.
5. Nenad Krstic
The Serbian seven-foot center was a first-round pick of the New Jersey Nets in 2002, making the All-Rookie team and averaging double digits in scoring with the Eastern Conference franchise. Nenad Krstic would later sign as a free agent with the Thunder in Dec. 2008 and play altogether 169 games with OKC across two-and-a-half seasons, averaging 8.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. He reached the playoffs in his second year with the Thunder in 2010—the then-newly relocated franchise's first postseason appearance.
4. Antonio Daniels
A former fourth-overall draft pick of the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1997, Antonio Daniels arrived on a shaky Sonics team in July 2003 as a free agent. Spending 146 games over two seasons with Seattle, Daniels averaged 9.7 points and 4.2 assists per game shooting 45.1 percent from the floor.
The champion point guard with the San Antonio Spurs had his best moments during the 2005 NBA playoffs with the Sonics. He averaged 13.8 points and 4.5 assists a game in 11 appearances alongside Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis as Seattle bowed out in the second round of the postseason against Daniels' former San Antonio team.
3. Anthony Morrow
A former undrafted shooting guard out of Georgia Tech, Anthony Morrow first broke onto the NBA scene with the Golden State Warriors before being traded multiple times to several franchises. Morrow would join the Thunder as a free agent in July 2014, signing a three-year, $10 million deal at the age of 29 to reinforce the Durant and Westbrook team.
Morrow wound up playing 182 games across two-plus seasons for OKC, averaging 7.7 points and 1.6 rebounds a contest and shooting 39.4 percent from downtown. Morrow left the Thunder in a trade-deadline deal in Feb. 2017 to the Chicago Bulls for Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott.
2. Gus Williams
Gus Williams was a two-time NBA All-Star with the Sonics and integral backcourt member of the 1979 championship team. Originally a second-round draft pick of the Warriors in 1975 out of USC, Williams joined Seattle in as a free agent in 1977.
“The Wizard” was a stud for the 1979 championship team, averaging 26.7 points and 3.7 assists per game in 17 postseason appearances en route to the franchise one and only title.
Williams left the Sonics in 1984 to play with the Washington Bullets.
1. Spencer Haywood
It would be a grievous error to mention Hall of Fame power forward Spencer Haywood's career without the landmark Supreme Court case that got him to the NBA and Sonics. Hayward signed with the Sonics after leading the ABA in scoring and rebounding, but the NBA tried to prevent the star athlete from violating its policy of waiting four years out of high school to enter the draft.
Haywood's breakthrough case opened the door for high school stars to join the NBA via the draft. But that didn't stop the power forward from signing a six-year deal with Seattle. In five years, Haywood made all but one All-Star Game, averaged nearly 25 points and 12 rebounds a game, and took Seattle to their first playoff series.
Haywood would later find himself traded to the New York Knicks before the final year of his contract. And eventually won a title one year after the Sonics won the franchise's first championship when he won with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1980.
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