The Oklahoma City Thunder have a history of dipping into the international ranks during the NBA Draft.
From Serge Ibaka to Alex Abrines, Steven Adams and even guys who opted to forgo the college experience to play overseas like Terrance Ferguson, general manager Sam Presti has proven he’s comfortable drafting guys who are outside of the college basketball orbit.
Now in two straight drafts, the Thunder have selected an international player in the first-round, selecting Aleksej Pokusevski and Josh Giddey.
Presti also added French international Theo Maledon last year in the second round, forming a young core of established internationals.
But Presti said it’s been more of a coincidence that the Thunder have ended up with so many international players rather than a draft strategy.
“I think a lot of it is happenstance,” Presti said during a Zoom press conference on Friday morning. “It's just — those were the players that we valued at those places.”
Presti said that there are inherent advantages to drafting players with experience playing around the globe, but those are the same attributes that the Thunder look for anyways when they are evaluating young talent.
“I do think those guys, the international players, I do think they have tremendous concept of team,” Presti said. “I think they've got tremendous concepts of what it means to be playing within a framework. And, and a lot of them had the international experience in competition. But it's not like a specific thing we're seeking out or trying to add to.
“But I do think they have pretty advanced understandings of like team dynamics and they've, they've been through different stages because a lot of them are professional earlier in their careers.”
Presti even went so far as to highlight another player, who played college basketball, as a guy Oklahoma City drafted for displaying those same concepts.
“I also think Jeremiah Robinson-Earl playing at Villanova has all of that as well,” Presti said. “So I don't think it's, it's more of the things we're looking for than it is where they're coming from.”
Regardless of how they got there, the Thunder now boast a vibrant young core from across the globe. If the likes of Giddey and Pokusevski develop and reach anything near their ceiling, Oklahoma City will not only have a pair of great players, but will continue their trend of having great global appeal as they build their team of the future.
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