Eyeing him in the predraft process, the Oklahoma City Thunder got their guy in Thomas Sorber. Like a cherry on top of a delicious sundae, the NBA champions capped off the greatest week in franchise history by selecting one of the best centers of the draft at No. 15.
The Thunder are the rare NBA champion with their entire roster on the books for the 2025-26 season. Besides some changes at the bottom of the depth chart, they could run it back next season with the hopes of being back-to-back champions.
That means the Thunder won’t need to rely on Sorber to contribute. That doesn’t mean they aren’t high on the 19-year-old, though. He could eventually become the backup center if Isaiah Hartenstein leaves and gets a bigger deal next offseason.
Thunder GM Sam Presti talked about Sorber’s feel. The Georgetown product possesses a lot of the traits they look for in draft prospects. Just because expectations are heightened, doesn’t mean they will scrap their draft philosophy.
“I think also the other thing with Thomas is just how quickly he’s processing the game on both ends of the floor, which is another trait that was really attractive to us. You could see that both in games and in practice both,” Presti said. “As I said earlier, the ability to understand what the team needs and to give yourself up for that at a young age, I thought that was also pretty impressive, and then the more people you speak to, that was a pretty consistent theme even when he was an extremely young player in high school.”
Being in the same center room as Chet Holmgren, Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams makes up for the best teachers to learn from. Especially now that all three have a championship pedigree. Sorber will be a sponge and soak up plenty of knowledge as he likely won’t see a ton of action in his rookie season.
“I can learn a lot from them,” Sorber said. “I can hear a lot of different knowledge and see what I can learn from the other players that’s been there before.”
Hopefully, Sorber takes advantage of the opportunity. You can see hints of being a playmaking center with an old-school build at the collegiate level. He can pound the rock and be a consistent lob threat. The nonexistent shooting likely won’t go away, but his feel around the basket can make up for it with floaters and layups.
The Thunder are in a rare spot where they can contend for championships in June and be attentive to the predraft process with lottery-bound prospects. Usually, title contenders pick at the end of the first round and see their talent pool slowly get drained, but OKC’s treasure trove of draft picks has helped them live in the best of both worlds.