Thunder head of basketball operations Sam Presti has continued to work the phones and look for a way to move up in the 2021 NBA Draft, engaging with each of the teams in the top five, per Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.
Right now, OKC owns the No. 6, 16 and 18 selections, and is believed to have made shooting guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander available to boot.
As O’Connor noted, rival GMs haven’t been able to figure out which player the Thunder have been trying to get. “Cade Cunningham and Evan Mobley are cited most frequently, then Scottie Barnes,” O’Connor wrote.
Cunningham, a guard out of Oklahoma State, is expected to go first, while Mobley, a center out of USC, is expected to be selected either second or third. Barnes is a forward from Florida State and could go as high as fourth.
Should the Thunder stay at No. 6, opposing executives have linked them to UConn guard James Bouknight, G League Ignite forward Jonathan Kuminga, Australian guard Josh Giddey, Michigan small forward Franz Wagner and others, O’Connor noted.
Earlier this week, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony wrote that the Thunder were hopeful of moving into the top three, attempting to land No. 1 overall from the Pistons for the right to draft Cunningham.
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