OKC Thunder Select Nikola Topic, Trade for Dillon Jones in 2024 NBA Draft

OKC Thunder Select Nikola Topic, Trade for Dillon Jones in 2024 NBA Draft

show the Oklahoma City Thunder select nicoa Topic in the first round and make a draft night trade getting Dylan Jones all this and more coming up on today’s show you are locked on Thunder your daily Oklahoma City Thunder podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day let’s get it going on the lockdown Thunder podcast on the locked on podcast Network your team every day I am your host me member and inside the Thunder beat writer Thunder on si uh Ryland Styles follow me on Twitter rinor Styles follow the show on Twitter at LOL thunderpod email the show L thunderpod gmail.com on today’s show we’re diving into the Oklahoma City Thunder making a bit of a surprise selection at pick number 12 selecting nicoa Topic in that spot in then trading back into the first round uh going up and getting one of those New York Nick Picks and getting Dylan Jones Today’s Show is brought to you by our good friends over at game time uh download the game time app create your account and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms and conditions do apply what a wild night it was this draft went as unexpected as we thought it would we were mentioning this entire draft process about how flat the draft is about how there’s no true consensus and we saw the surprise picks early Ron Holland going to Detroit that was a surprise many people had Ron Holland falling he goes to Detroit at five many people had Rob Dillingham falling he goes to San Antonio at eight who trades the pick to Minnesota who got all the way up in the top 10 top 10 in the draft by giving away future first round picks so quickly the board started to shake out and there were some surprise selections Cody Williams goes at 10 so the two absolute best case scenarios on yesterday’s best worst and most likely case scenario uh were gone the worst case scenario of Zack idy was also gone ye Mei never in consideration uh and the Thunder at 12 decide to take Nia topic who we’ve discussed with Brandon RAR on this show of a guy uh that is a bit of a wild card because you know as we get into the topic conversation it deserves a more measured approach than what I believe it initially got you know I believe that initially the reaction was a bit unfair you have to remember that at the end of the day the Thunder are a 57 win basketball team and I don’t say that to excuse anything because you can be a fantastic team one year and and backslide the next year and not all contending teams are created equally but this is a unique situation so they draft Nia toic at 12 nicoa toic is out for the entire year the Thunder have said as much the Thunder believe you know that that is something that they can maximize having just seen their developmental staff and medical staff do that with chat holgren so so here’s the deal let’s start with topic and just get right into it were there more Pro ready players at pick number 12 that we would be talking about right now having a bigger impact than topit on next year’s team obviously topit will literally play zero minutes next year right but as we’ve mentioned throughout this process the the draft classes and roster situations are not created equally I know that Derrick Livy last year had a massive impact I know Jaylen Williams two years ago had a massive impact I know the history at pick number 12 this was not one of those draft classes this is not one of those teams that can absorb a rookie and really lean on them whenever you look at this pick the immediate gut reaction is why didn’t you go address the front Court why didn’t you get someone who can play you’ve got to take a step back and realize that you would not be happy happy I promise you those of you typing away about another guard and out addressing front court today would have been typing about how the Thunder can’t settle for just a rookie big man coming in and and trying to appease all of the the issues on this roster the Thunder are trying to win a championship you do not win a championship by filling your biggest hole with a rookie it worked out for Dallas who got last year to the finals and and largely was on the back of Derrick Lively totally different situation there was no Derrick Lively at Pick 12 there just wasn’t but in general right the entire basis of having a treasure chest of draft picks of having top five in the league cap space and having roster spots that are flexible is to go and proove your roster by getting NBA ready players and NBA veterans that’s the luxury you afford yourself so the pick at 12 was the rare lottery pick that never really mattered it was never going to be this magic Elixir for all their problems and we’ve said as much on this show if you’ve been listening so why not use it as the biggest swing for the fence pick that’s what the Thunder have elected to do now by doing this the Thunder have put pressure on themselves so don’t think this is all sunshine and rainbows the Thunder have now squarely put pressure on them that you I don’t think can roll the ball out there October 1 as of this moment coming off of a 57 win year where you you’ve seen that you have a core good enough to compete at the highest of levels your big moves cannot be adding Alex Caruso who is a fantastic move fantastic pickup and then adding a guy who cannot play a single minute this year in topic and then adding Dylan Jones who while a member of the all juice team nobody had evaluated at 26 now granted I had him at 36 so there only 10 spots difference and you know if Sam pry gives a seal of approval I’m not going to quibble over 10 spots right so you but the bottom line is this cannot be the end of the discussion and I don’t think it will be I think that the Thunder will go make a move that has you excited and addresses some of your concerns and if they don’t then we’ll have a different conversation in a few months but that’s not the conversation we have right now right now today the reason for this pick the reason the Thunder went out and got topic is because just mere months ago he was viewed as a top five Prospect in this draft so you have the ability at Pick 12 to potentially get a top five Prospect in this class or you have the ability to get someone who has a significantly lower ceiling but could step on the floor this year and not fix your problems you would still have holes to fill and not have the allore that upside and have exceptionally difficulties trying to crack the rotation if you’re sitting there squirming about the fact that the lottery pick is not going to someone who can play right down right now how many players you want minut to have in this thunder on this Thunder roster you you want Shay kuso Dort jdub and chett to have minutes absolutely you also want KAS Isaiah Joe Aaron Wiggins kenrich Williams Jaylen Williams again two have minutes you’ve also invested a lot in Usman Jang who who I think can see some front loaded action next season after the years of of development you’ve poured into them and you still have a billion first round picks in top five in the league cap space to address these issues this was not the only chance it was the first chance to address this roster so it was going to be incredibly difficult for even a guy like Belton connect who Who I Really you know think is a good player to step on the floor for this team it would be a battle it would not be given right so the fact he can’t play this year is not that big of a deal for what the end goal and end accomplishment could be let’s talk about it if it misses because honestly as you’ve seen with poku as you’ve seen with other players the more more likelihood of these high swing picks is that they don’t panic that’s the most likely route if topic misses you are out nothing you have an abundance of get out of jail free cars you just turn five second round picks into a first round selection so you miss nothing you missed the 10 you missed the 12th pick and a bad draft class we can’t sit here for an entire year a 12mon period and say how bad this draft class is and then bemoan the fact that the Thunder didn’t draft somebody who has a significantly lower ceiling than topic you can’t have it both ways so here’s the thing either topich will be a top five guy from this class or topich will struggle to get on the floor because of his lack of Defense his jump shot won’t come around as we expect it to and it’ll just be an experiment in in an archetype that the Thunder really want to try to capture that they still can and that still eludes the only way that the topic pick shakes the foundation of the Thunders roster is if it hits if it misses you’ll forget topic exist he’ll go the way of of Gabby deck he’ll go the way of VI kie he’ll go the way of tail maldon he’ll go the way of all these other prospects the only way this pick impacts your life is if he’s a top five guy in this class because even a Miss doesn’t sink the ship even a Miss doesn’t limit you in any way the only way this matters is if it’s good that’s the luxury you gain Yourself by having these first round picks that’s the luxury you gain yourself of having a 57- win team that is not topheavy it’s 11 players deep so I hope that that puts some of your concerns aside and again this is not all sunshine and rainbows if the Thunder don’t actually go out there uh in a couple of days as frency opens uh And Trades heat up and everything else and and prove this roster with you know an NBA caliber guy then this this conversation is going to be a little different but I think people are acting as though this was the final step of the off seon and opening night against the Mavericks is tomorrow this was the first step there’s still plenty of time to go plenty of time now coming up what does topich bring to the table in the Thunder entered the night with one first round pick left the night with two but first want say right now better friends over at game time check out game time right now why should you because game time is the best 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bonus podcast on uh and uh some some columns about what this means for the thunder on the Fallout now let’s talk about topich as a prospect because we’ve gotten all the Preamble out of the way of what this means and the setup and everything else so toit is a prospect that the easiest way to describe it and hear me of what I’m saying and I’m not saying is that the Thunder clearly covet and are in love with the Josh giddy archetype and they’ve reset their timeline of getting that right so a lot of you will jump to that meaning that these guys are one for one Josh GID and topic that’s never a thing there is no one toone carbon copy of one player to the next but the archetype of positional size blended with fantastic passing is what the Thunder are looking for topic is just a a souped up version of giddy even as from a prospect standpoint while giddy ended up going top six right in that draft class he was pushed down uh on most big boards to the 10 region uh at the end of the day here’s the difference of of the giddy situation they’re vastly different despite being a similar archetype right they’re both jumbo Playmakers but here’s where they differ and it’s pretty significant first and foremost just Prospect for Prospect I think that topic is a better live dribble passer you saw early in his career even up to present day where Josh giddy oftentimes pick picks up his dribble too soon and that kind of limits him as as a playmaker as a passer how much of that was the awkward fit with the Thunder who knows give him the benefit of the doubt going to Chicago but to does not have that flaw nearly as as hard as giddy does I think that the biggest separating factor is it was always going to be a very very very tough task even for the best shooting coach in the world to get Josh Kitty up the snuff as a shooter the task does not seem nearly as daunting with topic and I’ll tell you why this is not just a pick on Josh giddy session it’s just backed up in reality and the reality is that topic comes into the league at 18 years old way more polish as a rim finisher 68% at the rim and that does not include any dunks like it’s all layup base it’s all touch base for him uh you know you can say the dunk the no dunk thing is a concern because shout out the no dunks pod you can say that no dunk s is a is a concern because of the athleticism that it takes to dunk or whatever but nonetheless the touch around the rim is there it’s feathery it’s awesome he comes into the league with 32% shooting off the dribble and on early jumpers 47% for topic now the catch and shoot stuff is not good 29% he’s not gotten to a place where he’s very good at uh three-point production just yet but here’s the thing he shoots 51% from the floor which is very efficient and where where he differs from Josh on top of the The Rim finishing being more polished on top of the 30% shooting from three uh Baseline the the most humongous difference is the 86% shooting at the free throw line which is the biggest indicator that Scouts use to project you know future you know upside when it comes to shooting the basketball that is a massive difference a killer difference so I like I like Topic’s ability to finish at The Rim much better than gidy at at this stage of of their careers I like Topic in the sense of like his shooting upside more than gidy shooting upside at this stage of their careers so so that’s massively different right away the other key difference is something that Josh giddy couldn’t control the other key difference is Josh giddy was thrusted into a situation where all three years in Oklahoma City his roles were completely different what was demanded of him what he was trying to work to fit in toward was completely different from year one to year two to year three and each year drifted further and further and further apart from his skill set no longer was he trying to grow with the team he was trying to fit into the team and it was like fitting a square peg through a round hole whereas topich comes in to a team that will be sustainable right there’s not these es and flows there’s not this roster turnover there’s not this this refinement of play style there’s none of that this is the team the team is built around these constructs that that Chad and JB and Shay and K and so on and so forth already play and already fit in to the core nucleus of CH job and and and you know Shay the the hierarchy will not be shuffled around that’s how it is and you embody that style of play it’s not going to you know change on you which makes it easier to integrate into makes it easier to to find your place and they kind of just get a redo with institutional knowledge of what worked and what didn’t work with this archetype before with knowledge of of a better understanding of how they can utilize that role let’s not forget here that despite trading Josh giddy the Thunder had crafted this idea of how to leverage his skill sets by bringing Josh giddy Off the Bench now we don’t know like they didn’t tip their hand they didn’t reveal everything but we know it’s rooted in coming off the bench and coming off the bench they thought that they had something there that could have worked out to maximize Josh gidy skill sets now you you transfer that to topen of he won’t be asked to be a starter unless he hit that ceiling well down the road he’ll he’ll be able to uh fill in on a on a plan now that they’ve obviously altered for this archetype with a much higher chance to Boom as a shooter which then reverses course right back to where it makes it easier to play with all these guys so they just have more knowledge now and they’re just not racing against the clock now you were going to have to pay Josh giddy now you’ve reset that and I I cannot un you know I cannot understand enough how uh important it is that they that they got to see uh you know how the how they handled Chad hen’s red shirt season which made them more comfortable with Topic’s you upcoming red shirt season which Sam presty confirmed to to clear any any confusion that uh while topich won’t be playing this year he will be with the Thunder just as Chad was so I believe that someone said that Shams like had it wrong or whatever I didn’t get the obviously plug into all the coverage at the facility and everything and getting work done but just to to make it clear Sam did uh confirm that popic will be with the team and and and be following that Tre model so that’s what you have on topic this is a fantastic jumbo playmaker with TR with true shooting upside not shooting upside where we have to squint to try to find it you can see it clear as day he gets into a team with a really good developmental staff with the patience and the luxury of not needing anything out of him and and a renowned shooting coach who needs a new project so like this is check check check on what topich does uh in theory that fits with what the Thunder are trying to do this is a comfortable environment I think for topich to be in as a player who’s trying to you know reach that status and even with this year off he’ll enter next year as one of the youngest guys in the NBA like this guy’s 18 years old right now soon to be 19 but right now he’s 18 years old so I I I just think that you don’t have to be doing jumping jacks you don’t have to do cartwheels in the street but she also shouldn’t be you know peed off about this move it it shouldn’t really get your goat at worst you should look at this as an uninspiring indiffer move because there’s absolutely no way this move comes back as like a as like a bad move it’s either going to be a move that’s forgettable or it’ll be a move that that shakes the Thunder for the and you’ve really nailed one here late in the lottery there is nothing bad that can come from this pick because you just have too many options uh to replace it it’s like a it’s like a Trey man like nothing bad came from missing on Trey man and I love Don Holmes I I mean I’m not NBA GM but I would have picked dur Holmes he clearly didn’t go near Pick 12 but like I think that Don Holmes could have impacted this team right away at a position of need but Don’s dur Holmes ceiling is like a potential starter that’s like clearly your fifth best starter out of five more realistically his potential is an extraordinarily good backup big backup you know big man power forward I would consider him a modern day big man to just ceiling is borderline smart guy Allstar now again the most likely option is that these guys don’t hit their ceilings it’s it’s it’s incredibly hard to hit your top 1% ceiling but the Thunder have the luxury of letting that allore lure them in and it doesn’t really matter if it pans that or not so would you rather have the chance at this pan out big or relying on a rookie backup big man now again this is all under the pretense of it has to be coupled with the Thunder going out and getting you know an NBA caliber guy uh and utilizing these assets to go get someone who’s more NBA ready than Rickie would be otherwise the the tenor and tone changes but with the information we have right now where we expect that to happen this is this is a fine pick at the very worst and a fascinating pick at the very best and we’ll see where it lands coming up Dylan Jones and your mailbag questions we’re back on lockdown Thunder podcast on the lock down podcast Network your teams every day thank you so much for making us your first listen every single morning every single day we’re here for you talking Thunder basketball Dylan Jones the Thunder trade up using five five second round picks to trade up and select Dylan Jones uh wrote this at SI you know on Tuesday about how the bridges trade makes it more likely that Thunder will go and get that uh niick pick I thought that they would be targeting Johnny Fury who was available still is available uh but instead they were targeting Dylan Jones who I had 36 who was a member of the all juice team um at SI earlier this week and when you look at Dylan Jones first and foremost the the second round picks should excite you the Thunder spent 5c round picks and and I think that the sticker shock is great in reality it was the equivalent of Taylor Swift spending a million dollars and what that translates to is you or I going and buying a Starbucks coffee today treating yourself to have picked me up after the draft night uh that included power outages and staying up until 3:00 am that’s all this say a price well worth paying uh to get a guy clearly the Thunder have coveted Above the Rest and clearly they felt they need to go get this guy at 26 they they had information whether it’s you know legitimate or not they had information that they believe genuinely that someone would take Dylan Jones who is a fascinating Prospect 6 foot4 uh without shoes on at the combine however he compensates for that with a 611 wingspan and a very sturdy 237 pound frame you know I I think that you can look at this and say he’s a guard he plays more like forward Sam pry discussed this with Alex Caruso last week about how often times people look at height but with the Thunder looking at is is efficient and Effectiveness uh whenever know defending bigger guys Jones has been effective in both filling it up stat sheet wise offensively been effective also defensively uh at at defending spot up chances he also uh ranked in the 97th perc tyon pick and roll uh defense according to Synergy 77th percentile in terms of shutting down spot up chances according to Synergy where I think that the interesting aspect comes in for Jones is that 22 years old it’s this tank that can roll to the rim and and finish at will at 61% clip at The Rim at Weber State last year he had 34% on catch and shoot chances uh which you know if you buy the jump shot 34% on catch and shoot when you project that you’ll have more spacing and and you’ll have players with better gravity around you at the NBA level of course whenever you have the attention of of JB and and Shay and Cas Etc uh you know working with you that number could climb 39% off the dribble he he showed he can drive the bus offensively he did it for the Wildcats uh you know throughout his career as a spot up score he turned in one point per possession which is good you want to see that number go one and above he got one point per possession in transition he was excellent 1.2 points per possession what I would be curious about for Dylan Jones is that in college he only had 12 shot attempts out of the pick and roll the Thunder love guard to guard you know screens and obviously you know we be said did not have the roster necessary um to let Jones spend much time away from the ball and as a screener but now you do have the luxury under Mark and what he loves to do I could see that being an area because of his quality hands his catch radius his Rim finishing and catch and shoot jumper on the pick and pop uh 30 at 34% which I think can uptick I I would I would really watch out for that being a way that the Thunder use him you know as a as a screener so uh that’s what you got Dylan Jones who’s a who’s a funky player but man does he bring the juice hence the all juice team selection of just this amazing motor this absolute junkyard scrapper uh just scrapping for parts on the glass of getting all these rebounds despite his unorthodox frame all these rebounds plays with an edge a physicality to him and I think has some playmaking feel you we’ll dive into that summer league and we’ll dive into that in the future but the initial shock Jack reaction to Dylan Jones is intrigued and and Sam prey spot himself some some currency with this as well and again it’s only 10 picks higher than I had him and I’m not an NBA GM I’m just an idiot with a podcast so uh it’s not crazy to think that like the the true value of him was higher uh let’s talk about your ma questions before we get out of here we we’ll save some for tomorrow as we discuss uh some second round steals OKC could look at uh Deni says my takeaway is that the Thunder fans need to chill uh I agree I agree uh David says no big not feeling great yeah I mean again I understand that the bigman position was where a lot of people had the concerns um I had concerns about table setting which know technically I mean yes topic is a table setter but one that you cannot utilize for calendar year so it doesn’t really do much good for next season um so I still have those two concerns uh but I I I don’t think that like the fact that they’re not relying on a rookie to fill those needs is that big of a deal until it is like until until we get to a point where okay they’re not addressing this period Then the conversation shifts a little bit um but I I don’t think that the conversation should shift uh right now we gave our opinion on the on the topic pick um Jaylen says will Sam prey make a move tomorrow meaning today uh second round there’s so much value left on this board they’ve already spent two roster spots on rookies but man there’s so much roster spots I know so many value picks on this board that someone really talented is going to fall into that two-way range where like you’re a second round pick but you’re willing to sign a two-way contract and the Thunder at least have one to a spot open don’t know what they’re going to do with kthy Johnson I think they’re gonna bring him back clearly because they invested a draft picking him but don’t know what they’re gonna do with Adam Flagler but you know for a fact that like you you just can’t bring back leevar who cannot play next year because of his injury so I would I would feel decent about the thunder uh getting into the second round is why we’re doing a bonus pod about second round prospects tomorrow uh Greg says can you explain the stash option with with uh topic uh since the Thunder don’t expect him to play next year yes the Thunder the Thunder are gonna are gonna sign topic even though they don’t expect him to play next year as Sam confirmed uh again we’re GNA save some of these questions for tomorrow uh T OKC over under 400 minutes for Dylan Jones in the league next season initial reaction under but we’ll see how the offseason shakes out I really do like Dylan Jones though Daniel says and presty he trust uh and we’ll talk more about these these questions coming up in the future but thank you so much for listening to today’s lockdown Thunder podcast let me know what you think of these selections by Oklahoma City did I calm your nerves at all are you still pretty uh mythed about the selections what are your feelings right now as we sit on the first ever day two NBA Draft Day how fun is that we were all hyped up on sugar for day one there still another day to go of NBA Draft coverage you can find it all at SI Thunder also at draft digest on SI um and follow me on Twitter at rinor Styles so until tomorrow be good and be good to one

The Oklahoma City Thunder have selected Nikola Topic with the No. 12 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. Why did the OKC Thunder select Topic in this slot? When can the Serbia star contribute? Josh Giddey comparisons and the measure discussion needed around this pick. Plus, Oklahoma City trades up for Dillon Jones – what does he bring to the table? Why didn’t the Thunder draft Zach Edey, Donovan Clingan, DaRon Holmes II or another big man?

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