{"id":716013,"date":"2026-04-22T17:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716013\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:15:22","slug":"nba-mock-draft-after-recent-tiebreaker-places-okc-thunder-at-no-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716013\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Mock Draft After Recent Tiebreaker Places OKC Thunder at No. 17"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">On Monday, April 20, the NBA drew tiebreakers for multiple picks in the 2026 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">Phoenix, Orlando and Philadelphia were tied after each finishing the regular season with a 45-37 record, with Phoenix winning the tiebreaker and getting the No. 16 overall pick. That selection will go to Memphis this summer, and Philadelphia, who received the No. 17 pick in the tiebreaker drawing, will send its pick to Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Utah also won a tiebreaker with the Sacramento to earn the No. 4 odds in the NBA Draft lottery, meaning the the Jazz&#8217;s pick can&#8217;t fall below No. 8 overall. Utah could have also sent a first-round pick to the Thunder, but the selection was top-8 protected, meaning the Jazz will keep its pick.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">Oklahoma City also owns the Clippers first-round pick this summer, which sits at No. 12 in lottery odds.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">With a few more 2026 draft positions solidified and multiple potential first-round prospects announcing that they will return to school, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report released an <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25262746-2026-nba-mock-draft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">updated mock draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">At No. 12, Wasserman slotted Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg to the Thunder.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">Lendeborg was one of the most productive players in college basketball during the 2025-26 season, but is projected outside the top 10 likely due to his age. The 23-year-old averaged 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 51.5% from the field and 37.2% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">Lendeborg earned Big Ten Player of the Year and consensus All-American honors for his efforts while helping Michigan to a national title.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">The former Arizona Western College and UAB standout tested the NBA Draft waters in 2025, and measured at 6-foot-8 and half an inch without shoes while notching a 7-foot-4 wingspan.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"76\">At No. 17 overall, Wasserman paired Washington&#8217;s Hannes Steinbach with OKC.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">As a freshman, the 6-foot-11 big man averaged 18.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 57.7% from the field and 34% from beyond the arc. At the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup, Steinbach averaged 17.4 points, 13.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game while helping Team Germany to a silver medal.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">Finally, at No. 37 overall, Wasserman slotted Connecticut&#8217;s Alex Karaban to Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">Karaban, a two-time national champion with the Huskies, averaged 13.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game while shooting 46.4% from the field and 37.4% from deep as a fifth-year senior. The 6-foot-8 forward helped UConn to its third championship appearance in four seasons in 2026.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday, April 20, the NBA drew tiebreakers for multiple picks in the 2026 NBA Draft. Phoenix, Orlando&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-716013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-oklahoma","11":"tag-oklahoma-city","12":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","13":"tag-oklahomacity","14":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","15":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116449492149334611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}