In their article that dropped on Monday discussing the 2022 NBA draft combine, The Athletic’s John Hollinger and Sam Vecenie talked about the possibility of the Oklahoma City Thunder once again promising a draft prospect they will select them in the draft.
Michigan forward Caleb Houstan did not participate during the combine, leaving many league insiders to believe that he has gained a draft promise from an NBA team.
“Finally, Oklahoma City’s pick at No. 30 was the topic of other speculation. Michigan forward Caleb Houstan was notably absent from the week’s proceedings, with many league insiders suspecting he had a promise from a team in return for shutting down his draft process. Suspicion immediately went to the Thunder, given their surplus of picks and long history of making their draft pick in April. Houstan wouldn’t even be the first Michigan guy they did this with. (Hello, Mitch McGary!)”
Like the article mentioned, the Thunder have a history of making promises to draft picks with Aleksej Pokusevski being the most recent notable example of this. With that said, this does not mean Houstan is a lock to go to Oklahoma City; plenty of other teams make draft promises too, it’s just that the Thunder are one of the more widely known teams to do so.
For what it’s worth, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony also had Houstan mocked to the Thunder for similar reasons in his post-lottery mock draft article.
“The Thunder have precious few roster spots at their disposal and four draft picks (three first-rounders), meaning there is a decent chance they won’t be making this selection ultimately. One of the big mysteries surrounding the 2022 NBA draft will be where Caleb Houstan, a onetime projected top-10 pick, ends up. Houstan declined his invite to the NBA combine, indicating there might be something to the rumors of a first-round promise, or that Houstan has a landing spot he’s comfortable with. Houstan’s positional size, defensive awareness and perimeter shooting gives him a high floor as a prospect, despite his disappointing freshman season at Michigan.”
If the Thunder are to select Houstan, it will likely be with one of their latter picks at 30th overall or 34th overall.
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