The Denver Nuggets aren't satisfied with their one championship — they want another. They're not in a now-or-never position, but with the gift that the Clippers gave the Thunder on Wednesday, the pressure is building even more so on the Nuggets to make another title run this year.
Thanks to Los Angeles, Oklahoma City will officially have a lottery pick in this year's draft. The owed pick is part of the 2019 trade that sent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to OKC, and Paul George to Los Angeles.
The Clippers have the 12th-best lottery odds, so the Thunder have only a 7.1% chance at a top-four pick, but still. We all remember what happened last season with the Mavericks. Dallas had a 1.8% chance of landing the No. 1 pick, and that was all it took. Oklahoma City has a 1.5% chance.
Imagine a player like AJ Dybantsa, Cam Boozer, Darryn Peterson, or Caleb Wilson going to the Thunder. Unfortunately, thanks to LA's ineptitude, that could become reality.
Thunder will draft another lottery pick in June
At this point, the best-case scenario for Denver is for Oklahoma City to get the No. 14 pick, the last in the lottery. It has a 0.1% chance to do that, and a 6.7% chance to get the No. 13 selection. The Thunder have an 86.1% chance to stay in 12th place.
We've heard all about how this is a stacked draft class, so OKC could still hit the jackpot with the 12th pick. Forward Yaxel Lendeborg, who is fresh off a national championship-winning season with Michigan, is a player who could go off the board in that range. He's already caught the attention of Thunder fans by saying he hopes the team drafts him.
Oklahoma City is stacked enough as is, and that's what everyone said before the deadline when Sam Presti traded for Jared McCain. The former Duke guard was picked right outside of the lottery in 2024 at No. 16. He's been a perfect fit with the Thunder coming off the bench. Not to mention all of their other young talent, like Jalen Williams, who they selected with the No. 12 pick in 2022.
You can hope that Presti will whiff on the lottery pick in June, but that's not really in his nature. He is the one who constructed what could go down as one of the NBA's dynasties. He did so by a series of maneuvers, like cashing in on George by acquiring a future MVP and NBA Finals MVP. Unfortunately, Presti is pretty good at his job.
OKC isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and neither is San Antonio, another team loaded with young talent. Denver is still very much up there in the contender conversation with both squads and is very capable of making it past both en route to the NBA Finals this year, but it should be feeling the heat now more than ever.
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