The NBA Draft is right around the corner and FortyEightMinutes conducted a Mock Draft with a trade for every pick, including several Donovan Mitchell deals, multiple scenarios where teams trade up into the top-10, and at least one scenario that sees Ben Simmons, LeBron James, and D’Angelo Russell each finding a new team.
Below is an excerpt from the piece which is set to be released later today:
No. 5 – Detroit Pistons
Thunder Trade Package To Add No. 5 Pick
- Pistons get: Derrick Favors, No. 12, No. 30, 2023 First-Rounder (their own back), 2023 First-Rounder (via Clippers).
- Thunder get: No. 5
Oklahoma City owns Detroit’s 2023 pick (top-18 protected) via their deal Alperen Sengun trade with Houston during last year’s draft (the Rockets owned the pick as part of the previous Christian Wood/Isaiah Stewart trade). The Pistons are likely to keep that selection in 2023 due to the protections but it becomes slightly less protected as the years pass before turning into a 2027 second-round if it never conveys.
In this trade, the Pistons take any doubt away from losing their future pick and they add another first-round pick in this year’s draft as well as a 2023 selection via the Clippers and Derrick Favors, who recently opted into his $10.1 million player option. At No. 12, they land Mark Williams out of Duke, who has a chance to be the team’s defensive anchor for years to come.
For the Thunder, they take a page from their own book, drafting two top-5 players in a year where they land a top-2 pick. In 2007, the organization (still in Seattle) landed the No. 2 overall pick and opted to trade Ray Allen for the No. 5 pick. Kevin Durant and Jeff Green were the beginning building blocks of their rebuild and in this scenario, the Thunder add two top-5 picks to end a draft pick hoarding phase of the rebuild; the core of Josh Giddey, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and AJ Griffin could follow a similar path to the previous generation of young talent in OKC (plus they have the cap space to further build around them).
