The night of the 2022 NBA Draft was a key building block toward the Oklahoma City Thunder going from a lottery team to becoming an NBA Finals participant less than three years later. It's also known as one of the wildest draft nights in NBA history.
The Orlando Magic held the No. 1 pick and were expected to draft Jabari Smith Jr. After all, Smith worked out for just two teams during the pre-draft process: Orlando and Oklahoma City. Orlando shocked everybody by taking Paolo Banchero at No. 1. Oklahoma City passed on Smith and selected Chet Holmgren at No. 2.
Houston didn't let Smith slide past them at No. 3 despite him never working out for the franchise during the pre-draft process. Despite the drama in the minutes leading up to the draft starting, the Magic and Thunder made the correct picks in retrospect.
[2025 Thunder looking like mirror image of 2015 Warriors as they set sights on first NBA championship
Brad Botkin
2025 Thunder looking like mirror image of 2015 Warriors as they set sights on first NBA championship](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2025-thunder-looking-like-mirror-image-of-2015-warriors-as-they-set-sights-on-first-nba-championship/)
At the time, it didn't matter who was still on the board because Oklahoma City was set on Holmgren. The Thunder also held the No. 12 selection in the draft as one of many picks from the trade that sent Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers in a deal centered around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander going to Oklahoma City. The Thunder traded for the pick before their selection with the New York Knicks and picked Ousmane Dieng, who hasn't done anything notable in his three-year NBA career.
But at pick No. 12, Oklahoma City focused on Jalen Williams, a mid-major star out of Santa Clara, considered one of the biggest risers throughout the pre-draft process. Still, Williams' draft range was in the late teens or the early 20s, but just like the Holmgren pick at No. 2, it didn't matter who was still on the board. Oklahoma City trusted its evaluation and took Williams in the lottery.
It paid off.
The list of teams selecting multiple players in the lottery during the last 15 years isn't extensive. One notable example came in 2011 when the Cleveland Cavaliers picked Kyrie Irving at No. 1 and Tristan Thompson three picks later. The hit rate on lottery picks is (obviously) high, but the odds of ending up with two blue-chip players -- like Oklahoma City did -- from the same draft class are extremely rare.
Here's a breakdown of teams with multiple lottery selections in the same draft since 2010:
Williams became the first player from the star-studded 2022 draft class to earn All-NBA honors.Holmgren played in just 39 games this season due to a right iliac wing fracture and would've likely been an All-Star had he not gotten hurt. Holmgren was ineligible for most major awards because he didn't meet the 65-game played requirement.
The Holmgren and Williams' picks look like slam dunks. Both players will become extension-eligible this summer, and even with the complications that come with the new CBA, it seems more than likely the Thunder will lock up Holmgren and Williams long-term. Gilgeous-Alexander is also eligible for a five-year, $380 million contract extension with Oklahoma City after winning NBA MVP and landing on the All-NBA team for the third consecutive year.
Those three players are the core of the team that has won 80 games and counting. Only 15 teams in NBA history have won 80 games (regular season and playoffs). If Oklahoma City wins the title, the franchise will become the fourth team in NBA history to win 84 games, joining the Warriors (2015-16) and the Bulls (1995-96 and 1996-97).
Oklahoma City is on the doorstep of winning the NBA title. The trade with the Clippers that sent Gilgeous-Alexander to Oklahoma City is still a major talking point -- and rightfully so -- but the 2022 draft solidified that the franchise was taking the next step toward contention. The Thunder didn't know it yet, but the draft haul of Holmgren and Williams was quite literally franchise-altering.