3 Biggest needs Oklahoma City Thunder must address in the 2021 NBA offseason

#2 Oklahoma City Thunder need to acquire a top 5 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft

Sam Presti

The Oklahoma City Thunder have a total of 17 first-round and 21 second-round draft picks from 2021 to 2027. Six of those picks will be in play this year, equally split between the two rounds.

“Nothing really changes for us other than gaining clarity,” said Presti at his pre-lottery press conference. “It really puts us in position to start thinking and being creative and having conversations with other teams and having conversations with agents.”

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) June 23, 2021

It's fairly clear that OKC will not be drafting six players for the 2021-22 season. GM Sam Presti will be looking to consolidate the picks to move up the draft. But his efforts need to be concentrated towards upgrading from the sixth overall pick and entering the top five.

There's every chance that OKC may just hit the jackpot with their current picks, but on paper, the likes of Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Jalen Suggs, Evan Mobley and Jonathan Kuminga are the best players in this draft. The Thunder need to find a way to use their existing assets to move up and have a shot at drafting one of the five aforementioned players.

#3 Oklahoma City Thunder need to use veteran players and cap room to acquire future assets

Kemba Walker

Even though the upcoming draft will have a huge bearing on the Oklahoma City Thunder's future, rebuilding is a long and tedious process that takes multiple years. Hence, OKC must continue to acquire assets for the future and think about consolidating them later.

After absorbing Kemba Walker, the Oklahoma City Thunder are expected to have a practical cap space of $43 million for the 2021-22 season as things stand. The Thunder can use this room to take on salary dumps from other teams for draft picks or young players.

Even though Kemba Walker hasn't been at his best lately, he has some trade value too. There's every chance that the Thunder could flip Walker for an even heftier contract considering their limited salary commitments for the foreseeable future.

OKC has managed to turn the seemingly untradeable contracts of Chris Paul and Al Horford into multiple picks and players. So there's no reason to believe they'll be stuck with Walker until his deal expires.

Presti just used an undrafted G-League player to facilitate a trade involving Kemba Walker and pick just outside the lottery. If that isn’t small market wizardry idk what is

— TND (@ThunderND) June 18, 2021

The bottom line is that the Oklahoma City Thunder need to stay sharp in the trade window and remain open for business.

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