The Oklahoma City Thunder will have to find a way to limit Victor Wembanyama going forward after the French phenom and the San Antonio Spurs knocked out the reigning champions in the Western Conference Finals.
Wembanyama's dominance could gift teams above the Thunder in this month's NBA draft with significant trade leverage, including the Golden State Warriors who sit a solitary selection before their conference rival.
Victor Wembanyama could gift Warriors trade leverage over Thunder
Rumors of the Thunder's interest in jumping after the draft surfaced even before they were eliminated, but are now likely to become even more real after their Game 7 defeat at home on Saturday.
There is talk of the Thunder being interested in moving right up to a top four pick and potential access to Duke star Cam Boozer, but NBA insider Marc Stein reported on Monday that "Michigan's Aday Mara would figure to be a more realistic trade-up target."
Mara's stock will have only risen as teams watch Wembanyama's rise during the playoffs, and particularly to a team like the Thunder who got to witness it first-hand, and who will presumably have countless more battles with the Spurs going forward as the two teams likely to dominate the West for potentially the next decade.
Mara's 7'3" size and 9'9" standing reach makes him uniquely similar to Wembanyama from a physical standpoint, so you'd see why Oklahoma City would have interest after Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein struggled to curtail the former first overall pick.
It therefore poses an interesting question -- if Mara is still available at 11, how far would the Thunder be willing to go simply to jump up one spot to nab the 21-year-old? Would they be open to handing the the 17th pick to the Warriors in order to swap 11 and 12?
Aday Mara may be out of Warriors reach due to Victor Wembanyama
Just weeks ago when Golden State landed at 11 in the lottery, Mara was seen as a player who could go around their range or even fall to the middle of the first-round. The problem now for the Warriors is that while Wembanyama may gift them leverage over the Thunder if Mara does fall to 11, it's also becoming unlikely that the NCAA championship-winning center drops that far.
OKC won't be the only team looking at Mara as a potential means to trying to stop Wembanyama for the next decade or so, meaning he could well go somewhere between 5-8 after the consensus top four picks.
Perhaps the Thunder ultimately fork out assets to jump up into that range, but if Mara does slip and is available when the Warriors are on the clock, Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the front office better be prepared to take advantage.
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