Why the Oklahoma City Thunder Are the Best Draft Fit For Nikola Topic | NBA Draft 🏀

Why the Oklahoma City Thunder Are the Best Draft Fit For Nikola Topic | NBA Draft 🏀

Rob Dillingham is the next guy on the board I’m going San Antonio here for him uh I think the if I’m Dillingham this is the perfect fit for me because I could shoot the snot out of the ball I’m a good playmaker I could dribble anywhere and get anywhere I want on the court um and I can be an offensive fulcrum unto myself and all I need is two things I need a pick and roll lob threat I need somebody to be able to cover up for all my deficiencies defensively and in San Antonio you got that in Spades and Victor webman this is not a hard decision for me if I’m Rob Dillingham I want San Antonio he is another one in this class where you know you see Lou Williams comparisons you just look at the fact that obviously he’s 61 and very very scrawny and only a 63 wingspan he could just bust here right I mean and and and so there’s really not a place that I feel like well he won’t bust if he goes there because it really just is about how much can he maximize what he’s good at to just carve out a career for himself so I like the idea of a little bit more of a patient stable Organization for a player like that in general rather than a Charlotte or a Detroit or a Washington or even Chicago where they just are always kind of in some various stage of being a mess you know so I like that but U man he’s going to have to like I think of James book Knight a little bit the same way he went to Charlotte a few years ago and just kind of one of those Gunner bench microwave scorer guards and it’s like he didn’t play with you know high level decision-making on either end he was really small and he was out of the league by his the end of his rookie contract so the the problem with these guys like when you’re small you have to be an elite shot maker or playmaker right you have to be absolutely Elite at those things and if you’re not I mean for every Tyrese Maxi there’s a James book Knight for every tyes Maxi there’s a bones Highland it just it the the there’s so little margin for error the smaller you are the thinner your margin for error is and so um with with dilling it’s it could be really difficult Maxi was a freak athlete he plays with Force you know those aren’t really things that that Dillingham has so the thing that I like about Dillingham is I think he’s I think he’s the best ball handler in the in the class uh the guy like I said he can get anywhere he wants on the court I I think that’ll translate I just I don’t know is he does he have All-Star potential or does he have six Man of the Year potential and you know is he Malik monk or is he dear and fox I I don’t really know but yeah if I’m picking him or if I’m if I’m him and I’m picking my landing spot I’m going to San Antonio yeah I mean Monk’s a great a great name to throw out there I mean he just you know obviously signed that extension but his real leap came okay yes got to had to become more comfortable and confident and consistent from three but becoming a legitimate passer somebody that you can run offense through for others is what took monk from being you know a mid level minimum what is he going to be in the league what team he’s going to be on kind of guy to somebody that is getting a real extension and A team’s making commitment to so maybe it’s passing maybe that’s part of his his growth and that’s how Maxi’s kind of we mention too this guy might not get taken in the lottery like there are some reports of him potentially falling but just according to ESPN’s Big Board he’s up he was up next so um all right next up number nine tjn Salon uh Wes I’m going to make uh an executive decision here I’m trading myself down to 10 cuz I don’t know enough about this guy to pick a spot for him so I’m passing him to you um and I’m going to go with nicoa topic who is number 10 on on on gon’s board you can we can negotiate what what the uh what’s going each way on that trade that I just made up but right so if we’re not we’re trading players and not picks I want like I want Zack Ed coming back or something I don’t know yeah perfect uh we’ll we’ll we’ll top off the Sunday here with a little bit of Ed talk and you can pick where he go that that’ll be some extra content for you to to feel good about okay topic so nicoa topic we’ve had Zack Cohen on a real GM the past few weeks heading into the draft and topic is his guy you know he obviously has this this knee injury that is keeping him out and I’ve seen people you know reference it as kind of like treat it as if maybe he won’t play this whole season and then be be happy if he does and you can get something out of it but to me it’s like a lot of these teams here in The Lottery Why do I care if he’s going to be be gone for a year you know um next draft’s great A lot of these teams are tanking and rebuilding I know not everybody has the stomach for getting Zero from their their their lottery pick but a lot a lot of teams frankly should be able to to handle that so where I’m going to go here I think I’m going to go with the Thunder wow okay did I take it I took them I know that that’s kind of uh that’s kind well hold on hold on let let me let me double let me double check the the possibilities it makes a lot of sense we have Atlanta left though yeah we have Atlanta left we have is H Houston still on the board correct we have another Portland yep Detroit yep and then Oklahoma City and I think we still have Charlotte and Chicago well I use Chicago for Chicago they only have the one pick okay and Charlotte you just used for Castle oh no we were talking about him for Castle you didn’t use Washington Washington is Castle okay so yeah honestly even going through it again I’m gonna I’m going to stick with Oklahoma City I mean they they brought uh vasilia meich last year right we know that at the end of games a lot of their issue was the paint would get clogged if they couldn’t put enough shooting out there and teams were playing off of Homen and you know some of their other guys despite the percentages looking good and they got Caruso that doesn’t really address that issue they have the patience cuz they’re already a very good team to have topic just you know recover maybe go play some g-league games they use that program a lot and get some reps there and then you know even if the season after that he’s still not a contributor at a high high level maybe he’s somebody who is just kind of in their back pocket as they figure out what the rest of this roster is going to look like when it gets more expensive so they they just they need another Creator they need another kind of pick and roll orchestrator who can create a shot and he’s that so I’m going to stick with it I really like it you know I I was a little worried about it at first because it was like didn’t we just do this with Josh giddy but uh I think topid is a little bit more skilled in terms of getting to the rim and things like that but they’re similar size similar sort of Passover the top height and vision stuff similar issues defensively but to your point earlier if you’re a lottery team and you could take topic and just say you know what we we’re trying to be bad anyway and we’re really gun for the 2025 draft and it does kind of make sense to get a guy who’s on a red shirt year that doesn’t risk making your team better than what you want to be but the other side of that is Oklahoma City where you don’t even need them because you’re already really good so it’s just sort of like this bonus guy that you can have a year or or two from now you’re absolutely right they need another Creator there’s a world where he develops into a pick and roll orchestrator and could even play with Shay gildas Alexander they don’t really have a backup point guard on the roster that they trust and they feel great about can he become that they like guys with size with good feel with ball handling he checks a lot of the Oklahoma City boxes that they usually are trying to check and if you’re him and you’re picking the team then you do want somewhere that is a stable organization that you trust that you that that could be patient with you as you come back from this injury that might not need you right away I guess the downside would be well eventually I want to run my own team and that’s probably never going to happen in Oklahoma City but I don’t know I I think it’s a good pick considering everybody else that’s on the board cuz like Utah can make some sense for him but they’re off the board right like and and between all the other the teams out there Oklahoma City is the one that makes the most sense so I like it he’s gotten mocked to the Jazz quite a bit so you know maybe that’s what ends up happening on draft night but as far as the the giddy comp I also feel like at least at this moment having just played professionally overseas and not yet in any NBA time it maybe correct me if I’m wrong but it feels like people will evaluate his likelihood to be able to shoot at the NBA level a little bit ahead of where giddy was he has this weird thing where you know he’s has the ball so some of his threes are off the bounce but he also his percentages have kind of fluctuated year by year but his free throw percent percentage is like Beyond Elite he’s shooting like close to 90% from the free throw line which is always a good indicator for three-point success over time so you know I’m not going to pretend I’ve have watched him a ton to have a good intricate scouting report on like if he’s going to shoot threes but it feels a little more likely than it was with giddy where even with giddy back then it kind of felt like it’s probably not going to happen like there was almost no chance of it whereas with topic you could see it coming and we act here like Josh giddy wasn’t a helpful player for Oklahoma City for the first three years of his career he was a really helpful player for this team he was part of one of the best starting fives in the league the problem with giddy in Oklahoma city was eventually he got played off the floor in the playoffs sure but also he’s up for an extension and S they don’t want to pay him what he’s going to cost I think they were fine paying him what he did cost I don’t think that they regret that pick even a little bit so it’s almost like in the NFL where the running back kind of gets priced out and then you let him go and then you draft a new running back that’s kind of what Oklahoma City would be doing here with topic is all right we we we this worked with Giddy and we don’t need him anymore we don’t want to pay him but we can get another giddy on a rookie scale of salary and I’m with you the comparisons are not one for one but like I’m just saying if we even go down that path are some of the same limitations to both of their games too but I think this guy could really help them and so I have no problem with the pick

Breaking down why the Oklahoma City Thunder are the best fit for Nikola Topic in the NBA Draft.

Wes Goldberg and Brendon Kleen break down the best fits for Topic and Rob Dillingham in their Reverse Draft ahead of the 2024 NBA Draft first round on Wednesday night.

#oklahomacitythunder #okcthunder #nikolatopic
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