With the NBA’s Board of Governors approving the league’s return-to-play plan on Thursday, the NBA Players Union is expected to follow suit on Friday.
What that means is that 22 of the NBA’s teams will relocate to Orlando and resume the 2019-20 season on July 31.
Depending on how things play out, the Thunder could walk away from the entire ordeal with an additional first-round draft pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, believe it or not.
Here’s why.
As we’ve been focused on mock drafts and the like over the past few months, the Thunder have been consistently mocked as owning the 25th overall pick in the draft. That pick belongs to the Denver Nuggets, but Denver dealt its rights to the Thunder in exchange for Jerami Grant, whom Oklahoma City traded to Denver last summer.
The Nuggets’ pick was traded with top 10 protection, but with the Nuggets already clinching a playoff spot, the pick will convey to the Thunder this year. It’s theirs.
Interestingly enough, though, the Thunder have another pick on the line whose fate is unresolved. This time, though, it involves a pick that they’ve traded away. And ironically, it again involves Jerami Grant.
When the Thunder acquired Jerami Grant from the Sixers, they agreed to send their 2020 first-round draft pick to Philadelphia for his rights. The pick, however, was top 20 protected.
In effect, what that means for the Thunder is that if they finish the 2019-20 season with one of the 10 best records in the league, they’ll send the pick to Philadelphia. If they finish 11th or lower, however, they’ll keep it and instead send Philadelphia two future second-round picks.
As the league prepares to converge upon Orlando, the 22 teams headed there will each play eight “seeding games,” which will impact the standings.
Entering play on July 31, the Thunder will be 40-24. That would give them the ninth-best record in the league and the 22nd overall pick. That pick would convey to the Sixers.
Oklahoma City’s lead over the team with the 11th-best record, the Indiana Pacers, is just 1.5 games.
In other words, a somewhat poor showing in Orlando coupled with better showings by the Rockets and Pacers could have the Thunder end up with the 11th-best record, the rights to their own first pick and Denver’s first-round pick.
It’s an interesting footnote as the league prepares to resume in July.