Denver Nuggets: 3 things to watch for at the NBA Draft Lottery
By Sean Carroll
Denver Nuggets, 3 things to watch at the NBA Draft Lottery: OKC’s asset haul
The Oklahoma City Thunder started the season off well with young star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and a few veterans who were salary dumped there like Al Horford and George Hill.
It wasn’t long until OKC general manager Sam Presti had seen enough and decided to hit the brakes (or hit the gas, on a tank). The Thunder are projected to land the fourth pick in this year’s NBA Draft Lottery, but following the Chris Paul trade from Houston, OKC gets the Rockets 2021 first-round pick if it falls outside the top four.
Since Houston had the worst record in the NBA this season, they share equal odds with the worst three teams at getting a top-four pick: 52 percent. On the other side of that, the 48 percent that it falls outside the top four, Presti gets it.
If it falls within the top four, Presti still gets something since the obligation from the trade will then give OKC the less favorable of Houston’s or the Miami Heat’s first-round picks in this draft: 18th overall.
I’ll reiterate: if Houston’s pick goes 1-4, Houston gets it then OKC gets 18th. If it falls fifth or lower, OKC gets it (on top of their own) and Houston gets the 18th pick.
While both these teams are bad right now, it’s never great knowing there’s an asset behemoth rising in the same conference as you. For the Denver Nuggets, it’s best to hope Houston keeps their own pick, giving both teams a high draft pick, spreading out the talent.
OKC is much more competent than Houston right now and who knows if adding two top-five draft talents to their roster, on top of Shai and the recently acquired Kemba Walker make them a sneaky playoff team, possibly stealing wins from Denver in the regular season.
Thankfully, Denver is competing for today, both OKC and Houston are competing for the future. We think.