The Oklahoma City Thunder are fresh off an NBA Finals victory and will now turn their attention to the 2025 NBA draft on Wednesday night.
The Thunder are absolutely loaded with resources for years to come, including a pair of first-round picks in this year's draft, one at No. 15 and another at No. 24. Oklahoma City also has a second-round pick at No. 44 overall.
The scary thing for the rest of the league is that the champions are young and don't have any glaring holes on the roster, which means the team could go in any direction on Wednesday night.
ESPN's Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo recently took a stab at a two-round NBA mock draft and had the Thunder coming away with Maryland center Derik Queen with their first of two first-round picks.
The Thunder, pivoting to this draft fresh off winning the title Sunday night, are a team without any glaring roster needs but have been primarily linked by rival teams to big men, including Beringer and Sorber. Isaiah Hartenstein is under team control through 2026-27 (Oklahoma City holds a club option on the final year), and the idea of finding and developing a less expensive replacement holds weight, particularly with Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren both eligible to sign what figure to be hefty rookie extensions this summer.
Queen would simply be a bet on talent if he fell here, with the Thunder's elite defense providing ample cover for him and Oklahoma City better positioned to weather risk than most.
The only thing that can slow this Thunder train down is having too many expensive contracts that limits the team's ability to have adequate depth. Adding Queen would give OKC at least the opportunity to get cheaper.
As the ESPN pair point out, Harteinstein has a club option on his three-year, $87 million deal in 2026-27, so the Thunder could opt not to bring him back to clear some money off the books in the next few years.
Drafting Queen would give the Thunder an option to replace Hartenstein down the road, and they'd have up to two seasons to figure out if he's capable should the Thunder opt to pick up Hartenstein's option.
During the 2024-25 season, the 6-foot-10 center averaged 16.5 points, nine rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, so the impressive numbers are there.
The issue with Queen is that there are no shortage of concerns with his overall game. Per Kevin O'Connor of Yahoo Sports, some NBA executives are worried about the Maryland product's conditioning and "lack of progress as a shooter."
ESPN's Jonathan Givony adds that Queen's "occasional apathy defensively" is another issue to consider.
Projections for Queen have been all over the place, with some seeing him as a lottery pick, and others believing he'll fall outside that range. That puts OKC in contention for the big man at No. 15 overall.
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