The Oklahoma City Thunder are still early in their rebuild but they already have a centerpiece in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. What makes their set-up even more interesting is all the versatility in their pieces. Gilgeous-Alexander can play on or off the ball and defend three positions, as can Lu Dort. Aleksej Pokuševski is 7-foot but handles the ball like a guard and looks most interesting running in transition and creating off the dribble. And Darius Bazley is a combo forward with defensive upside and a developing offensive game.
Adding Barnes feels like playing to the same theme and leaning into what makes the current core special. He’s a strong defensive prospect who can defend both wings and bigs and has value both in space or anchoring around the rim. On offense, his jumper is a big question mark but he basically functioned as a point guard from the 4 for Florida State and leveraging his face-up game and ball-handling ability lets Oklahoma City put Poku and Gilgeous-Alexander in all sorts of different offensive scenarios. It’s a bit of risk given the overlap with some of the pieces already in place but the Thunder have enough other picks coming to hedge later on.