Five lingering questions after NBA Draft: OKC gets 'Wemby stopper' but what's next? Is Ja Morant out of luck?
We know the top 30 picks in the 2026 NBA Draft, but plenty of questions remain as the offseason ramps up
Here's an unusual fact for you: not a single, established player was traded during the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft on Tuesday. Trades were made involving picks, of course, but between the Wizards going on the clock at No. 1 and the Mavericks closing out the night at No. 30 overall, no player currently under contract with an NBA team was dealt in the name of maneuvering around the draft board.
That certainly hasn't felt like the expectation in the days and weeks leading up to this draft, as the 2026 offseason is expected to be full of player movement overall. There are still a ton of big names theoretically available. Perhaps the lengthy Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes simply held up the market too much for follow-up blockbusters to occur. Perhaps teams simply valued picks in this draft too much to trade them for veterans.
Either way, we exit the first night of the draft having learned very little about the fates of the biggest names of the offseason. Antetokounmpo has moved, but none of the other stars on the table have yet. So with the first round of the draft now behind us, let's look at five lingering questions left over from this draft as we move into the rest of this offseason.
1. How will the Thunder manage their new front-court logjam and cap crunch?
At this point, every meaningful roster decision Oklahoma City makes has to be geared toward beating San Antonio. The Thunder and Spurs, at least in terms of talent and asset wealth, are a tier ahead of the rest of the league, so the basic notion of drafting a 7-foot-3 center to throw at Victor Wembanyama makes sense. That's what OKC got by taking Michigan's Aday Mara with the 12th overall pick.
Mara is already being referred to as a possible "Wemby stopper."
"Obviously, it's not a bad thing to hear," he told reporters Tuesday night. "I think it's going it take time for adjustment, but I'm excited. I'm excited to play against him. ...I feel like I'm going to play against him a lot."
The idea that Oklahoma City "needed" a Wemby stopper is probably a bit overblown, at least for the moment. Once they stopped guarding him with smaller wings after Game 1, the Thunder actually defended him reasonably well. Wembanyama had 23 paint touches in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, but the Thunder held him below six per game in the rest of the series. Ultimately, though, Thunder don't really "need" much of anything. Wembanyama still has a lot of room to improve, so sure, why not load up against him?
The argument against the Mara pick is that the Thunder already have a ton of big men. By all accounts, they are not interested in trading Chet Holmgren even after his Western Conference Finals no-show. Isaiah Hartenstein has a team option for next season. Ideally, the Thunder will bring him back on a new, multi-year deal. Jaylin Williams is on a very team-friendly contract. They just drafted Thomas Sorber No. 15 overall last season. He hasn't played a game yet because his torn ACL. That's five of their 15 roster spots devoted to bigs.
Further complicating matters is Oklahoma City's cap crunch. Even after trading Aaron Wiggins to the Atlanta Hawks, the Thunder leave draft night more than $30 million above the second apron. They don't have to get below that line, but for a variety of team-building reasons, it makes sense to at least try to do so. With 16 players under contract for next season, at least one player needs to go. Multiple likely will.
But the exact path they take here feels less clear than ever. The cleanest path out of the second apron would have been trading Isaiah Joe (whom Jared McCain has effectively replaced) and Lu Dort (with a Cason Wallace rookie extension following). From there, declining Kenrich Williams' team option would've done it, or a renegotiation with Hartenstein.
Both Oklahoma City draft picks should make existing members of the Thunder nervous. Sorber is now entering his de-facto rookie season as the fifth big here. Is that a luxury Oklahoma City can afford at a salary above the minimum? Is Bennett Stirtz a Nikola Topić replacement? Is there a path to keeping Dort on a reduced salary if enough money is saved elsewhere? Could someone blow the Thunder away with a trade offer for Hartenstein now? The 2025 champions have only just begun their cost-cutting maneuvering. There's much more work to be done.
2. Has Ja Morant lost the game of point guard musical chairs?
Supply and demand go a long way toward dictating star-level trades, especially when stars are potentially finicky fits on most teams. Ja Morant neither shoots 3s nor defends. He really only makes sense on teams with a true opening at point guard. If he's not running the offense, he's just not worth his max salary. The problem Memphis is potentially encountering right now is that the supply of high-level point guards just went up significantly. The No. 5, No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8 picks in the draft were all point guards.
Think of the rumored destinations for Morant before the offseason. Sacramento? Just drafted Darius Acuff. Miami? Traded for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who's not exactly a point guard, but controls the ball as much as most of them do. New Orleans? Didn't add a point guard this year, but took Jeremiah Fears last year, and reports indicate they are no longer in pursuit. The Nets were a blank enough slate of a roster to pursue Morant on talent alone, but they landed Mikel Brown Jr. at No. 6.
Ironically, the one team whose point guard rotation looks less certain after draft night would be the Grizzlies. It was the likely outcome, but they got a forward in Cameron Boozer rather than a guard in Darryn Peterson at No. 3 overall. They traded down from No. 16 twice, but when the dust settled, they once again went with a forward in Karim Lopez at No. 21. Could Memphis simply keep Morant going into the season? The team might have to, because there are no other obvious fits on the market. The Grizzlies might have to wait for the rest of the offseason to play out to see if some other trade partner emerges. Perhaps if Milwaukee reroutes Tyler Herro, for instance, the Bucks could work. Otherwise, the Morant saga may drag back into the season.
3. Could any first-rounders get traded for Jaylen Brown?
It was probably unrealistic to expect a resolution on the Jaylen Brown front by draft night. The Celtics learned they weren't landing Giannis Antetokounmpo less than 24 hours ago. While reports have suggested that the Celtics are seriously considering Brown trades, moving him would be a pretty complicated endeavor. It just wasn't going to happen in time for the draft, so it remains one of the bigger remaining questions of the offseason. That doesn't mean players drafted on Tuesday couldn't theoretically move in such a deal.
Such moves are rare because draft picks, like cars, lose value once they're driven off of the lot. Teams want to make picks themselves, not claim players other teams chose. Once a rookie signs his contract, he can't be traded for 30 days, so timing can become problematic as well. Still, the occasional rookie is dealt between draft night and opening night. Walker Kessler, for instance, was included in the Rudy Gobert trade after Minnesota picked him in 2022, and Andrew Wiggins was famously traded for Kevin Love in 2014.
Of the players drafted on Tuesday, specifically, Kingston Flemings would figure to be the likeliest to move in a deal for Brown. Atlanta has been linked to Brown, and while the Celtics have Derrick White and Payton Pritchard are guards, they have no one with Flemings' speed. The Clippers are another team that has come up in the Brown rumor mill, and given their limited assets, Keaton Wagler would almost have to be in the trade if one came. Many of the other most commonly suggested Brown teams -- the Pelicans, the Blazers, the Rockets -- didn't make picks on Tuesday.
4. Could any first-rounders get traded for Kawhi Leonard?
The reporting on a possible Kawhi Leonard trade has been mixed. There's known interest, but Steve Ballmer is apparently resistant to moving Leonard after one of the best seasons of his career. The Clippers were one of the quiet losers of the Antetokounmpo trade because Miami would seemingly have been an aggressive Leonard suitor had they missed out on Giannis. Now, obviously, the Heat lack the assets to make a serious pursuit.
Leonard is a tricky trade candidate. He's 34. He has a lengthy injury history. He's on an expiring contract, and he's proven to be picky about markets. Given Toronto's experience with him, it just seems hard to imagine any team in a market Leonard doesn't want to play in would be willing to meet what would presumably be a high asking price from the Clippers. That's why Miami's absence hurts so much. It's going to be tough to generate a real bidding war here.
Golden State is the other frequently rumored Leonard team. They're already old, so adding Leonard changes little for them on that front. They're in California, so would perhaps be a desirable landing spot for Leonard. And like the Heat, they had a high pick in Tuesday's lottery, ultimately selecting Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg at No. 11. As far as draft picks go, Lendeborg is enormously tradable. Big wings that can defend and shoot can fit anywhere, and that is a player type the Clippers in particular have prized. If Leonard is traded, there's a chance Lendeborg is in the deal.
Of course, Lendeborg is a 23-year-old rookie. Part of the appeal here is that he should be able to play quickly. If the Warriors do mount a serious Leonard pursuit, don't be surprised if they try to do so primarily with draft capital deep in the future.
5. Did the league miss its window to trade for Trey Murphy?
One of the most widespread rumors of the draft process was the interest the New Orleans Pelicans held in Tennessee forward Nate Ament. General manager Troy Weaver has a well-known affinity for prospects from the "DMV" area, and the Virginia-born Ament qualified. Had the Pelicans held onto their 2026 first-round pick, they could have simply chosen Ament themselves. However, they dealt it for Derik Queen last year, so that left them to pursue another trade this year. Ament went 13th overall to the Bucks.
The rest of the league has wanted Trey Murphy III for quite some time. Big, athletic shooters on team-friendly contracts are worth their weight in gold. The Athletic's Sam Amick said on a radio interview Tuesday that Murphy has "signaled a desire to play elsewhere." But the Pelicans have asked for a king's ransom to move Murphy in the past. No trade materialized despite a number of teams holding picks that could have been used on Ament reportedly having interest in Murphy.
This doesn't preclude a trade later, but the draft is such a valuable trading window because teams fall in love with specific prospects. The rest of the year, draft picks are essentially just liquidity: assets that can be spent later on vague additions. Without knowing the long-term direction the Pelicans are taking, it's not clear what sort of package it would take to pry him away from New Orleans now that the draft has passed. By all accounts, New Orleans has set a high bar. There's still time for someone to clear it, but the odds of a trade seemingly took a hit on Tuesday.
Lingering questions after NBA Draft, including what's next for OKC
Sam Quinn 9 min readLingering questions after NBA Draft, including what's next for OKC
