The One NBA Franchise That Should Go All In for Cade Cunningham

Even casual college hoops fans are probably already aware of the 247Sports Composite top-ranked high school hooper from the class of 2020. After attending Bowie High School in Arlington, TX for Cunningham's first two years of high school, he made the move to Florida to play for top prep school Montverde Academy. After a stellar high school hoops career that included the honors of Naismith Prep Player of the Year, MaxPreps National Player of the Year, McDonald's All-American, and a Jordan Brand Classic invite, Cunningham ultimately chose to spend his one year of college basketball at Oklahoma State.

Although only four games into the season for the Cowboys, Cunningham has lived up to his #1 overall pick hype. He has put up per-game averages of 18.5/6.0/4.3 while shooting 50% from the field and converting on 6 of 13 attempts from deep. When looking at the tape, a few things stand out.

Standing at 6'8" and 220 lbs, Cade has the size of a forward, but he is 100%, without a doubt, a guard. He is an elite creator on the offensive end of the floor. He's not just finding the open man. He makes things happen that were not there. Any time you have a guy like that on your team, the squad instantly becomes better.

As a scorer, Cunningham gets to the rim by using his shiftiness and elite ball-handling, but he can also use his size to get close to the basket and draw contact. He shows promise as a shooter. He is able to create separation to get shots up from the perimeter. He has not shot a high volume from three so far this season, but when he pulls the trigger from the arc, he is putting the ball through the bottom of the net nearly 50% of the time. This proves that a Ben Simmons comparison is inaccurate. No matter how many reports come out of Philadelphia that Simmons can knock it down from deep, I won't believe it until I see him make 150-200 three-balls in a season.

Defensively, Cunningham is able to use his size and elite athleticism to trap players on the perimeter or come flying in for a chase-down block. He's also shown a knack for pickpocketing the ballhandler. That high-level athleticism mentioned above transitions very well to the offensive end, resulting in highlight-reel dunks.

We have not yet seen Oklahoma State match-up against a top NCAA team this year, but their 5-star guard has already shown the NBA what they will be seeing from him in the near future. If Cade Cunningham can dominate against Big 12 opponents Baylor and Kansas (among others in a loaded conference), as well as out-compete their NBA prospects Jared Butler and Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Garrett, he will be a lock as the #1 pick in the 2021 NBA draft.

So, which teams will have a realistic shot at landing the best player in the loaded 2021 draft class?

I would be extremely shocked if the Knicks or Cavaliers are not picking toward the top of this next draft. After those two dumpster fires, I expect to see teams like the Bulls, Spurs, and Kings. I believe Cade Cunningham will find success wherever he ends up, but the only one of those teams that would be a good situation for him is the Spurs. Even though San Antonio does not look like an attractive pick to make the playoffs, Greg Popovich will probably do more with the few pieces he has than fringe teams with young stars like Phoenix and Memphis. Still, I do not think that San Antonio would be Cade's perfect destination. The best place for Cade to succeed is with the franchise that has enough draft capital over the next 5 years to make Sam Hinkie blush.

Sam Presti, do your magic.

Oklahoma City has finally begun their rebuild after trying to find success in the post-Durant era. Despite the pain of four consecutive 1st round exits, Sam Presti would not have the Thunder in this position without trying to build around Russell Westbrook.

In order to persuade Kevin Durant to stay in OKC, Presti made moves in the 2016 offseason to acquire Victor Oladipo and the draft rights to Domantas Sabonis from the Orlando Magic. Though the pitch to Durant ultimately failed, this trade led to the Thunder flipping the recently-extended Oladipo and second-year Sabonis following a 1st round exit in the 2016-2017 season for superstar Paul George.

After two more 1st round exits (one of them involving Carmelo Anthony as a failed third fiddle in a "big three"), Paul George demanded a trade to the Los Angeles Clippers to team up with recent NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, who left the Raptors with his 2nd championship ring after his lone season in Toronto. Sam Presti obliged, sending George to the cursed Clippers. The Thunder got back budding star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, veteran Danilo Gallinari, LAC's unprotected first-round picks for 2022, 2024, and 2026, Miami's 2021 first-rounder (unprotected) and 2023 first-round pick (lottery protected), AND the right to swap first-round picks with the Clippers in 2023 and 2025.

Wow, that is a lot for a player who might just leave LA after the 2020-2021 season when both he and Kawhi can opt-out of their contracts for the 2021-2022 NBA season. That move led to the Thunder finally moving on from the second-best player in franchise history (we cannot erase Kevin Durant no matter how hard we try).

Westbrook was viewed as untradeable because of the 4 years/$171,139,920 remaining on his contract at that time, his poor playoff resume since Durant's departure, and the fact that he was entering his 30s as a player who leans on his athleticism and still was not a competent shooter, yet continued to throw it up from deep. The only team willing to take on that deal was the team with a worse contract on their books: the Houston Rockets. Because Chris Paul was essentially a salary dump, Daryl Morey also sent top-4 protected first-round picks for 2024 and 2026, as well as pick swaps for 2021 (unprotected) and 2025 (top-20 protected).

After beating father time in a season that saw Chris Paul make the All-NBA second team and lead the counted out Thunder to a 1st round Game 7 against his former Houston Rockets, Presti flipped Paul for more draft capital. Some other trades were made along the way, but OKC currently holds 17 first-round selections in NBA drafts 2021 through 2026.

So to summarize, the Thunder's most promising players currently on the roster are rookie contract players SGA, Lu Dort, Darius Bazley, and potential unicorn Aleksej Pokusevski. They have a whopping 17 first-round picks in the next six drafts, and their own pick will be toward the top of the draft for 2021. Even if the Thunder do not win the lottery, they NEED to make the moves necessary to acquire the 1st pick in the 2021 NBA draft so they can put Cade Cunningham next to Shai.

The entire state of Oklahoma (even Sooner fans) would be ecstatic if the organization decided to take an in-state college player. And with Cunningham being born and raised in Texas, there would be little-to-no risk in losing him in free agency four to six years later. But that never really scared me in the first place. The loyal fanbase of the Thunder always win over players' hearts.

The idea of pairing the 6'8" Cade Cunningham with 6'6" Shai Gilgeous-Alexander makes me all giddy inside. A backcourt that size could change the landscape of the NBA. Two playmaking guards big enough to play forward, great at defense, and able to become knockdown shooters? Let's not even bring up the 1-in-100 shot that Poku turns into a playmaking guard version of Dirk Nowitzki.

I trust Sam Presti so much that I would let him pick my firstborn son's wife (when that could even happen 30 years from now). With a draft resume of Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka, Reggie Jackson, Steven Adams, and pushing the Spurs to draft Tony Parker when Presti was a part of their front office 20 years ago, every Thunder fan should see the bright future that is not so far ahead.

Come on everybody, say it with me. Oklahoma City Thunder, 2026 NBA Champions.