Between a high-stakes clash with the Lakers and a chance at a top-four lottery miracle, OKC enters a pivotal weekend that could redefine their championship window.
Oklahoma City Thunder fans are two win away from celebrating their favorite team's sixth Western Conference Finals trip over the past 17 seasons. OKC's series against the Los Angeles Lakers is a marquee matchup against the league's most popular team and the league's most popular player. And incredibly, Oklahoma City fans have a vested interest in some non-playoff proceedings taking place this weekend.
The NBA Lottery Draft is scheduled for this Sunday at 2PM and the league's defending champions will have some ping pong balls with their logo on them.
OKC is currently slotted in the #12 spot in the lottery standings. The most likely scenario is that the Thunder stay in that position. To be exact, there's an 86.1% chance of that stationary result. The odds of moving down are slim. There's a 6.7% chance that OKC falls to #13 and a .1% chance to drop all the way down to #14.
That leaves a small but exciting 7.1%.
Those are the odds Oklahoma City has of jumping into the top four of the lottery and causing a social media meltdown we haven't seen since, well, last year when the Dallas Mavericks jumped to #1.
The thought that is injecting fear into the hearts of 29 other fanbases is that this isn't just any old draft. The three players at the top of this class are all considered franchise altering talents. AJ Dybantsa, Cam Boozer and Darryn Peterson are each viewed by some draft analysts as nearly Cooper Flagg level prospects. And the consensus fourth player, Caleb Wilson, is only a step below and still viewed as a game changing All Star talent. Not only are the guys at the top generational, but it's a deep class with plenty of talent in the late lottery.
Since the lottery was changed to flatten the odds, the #12 spot has not jumped into the top four. The glass half empty view is that means it's extremely unlikely to happen. The glass half full view is that #12 is due to make the leap.
OKC fans are enjoying yet another exciting playoff run and get the added bonus of tuning into the NBA Draft Lottery and hoping for some ping pong ball luck. The best case scenario is that Oklahoma City adds an elite, blue chip talent.
The worst case scenario? The best General Manager in the NBA adds a lottery level talent to the best team in the league.