SBNation Mock Draft, Pick #3: Oklahoma City Thunder

With the second pick in the SBNation Mock Draft, the Seattle Supersonics Oklahoma City Thunders, represented by Mr. P from Welcome To Loud City, select... (Drum Roll please)

From WTLC: Well, actually, his write up took up a lot of space and since his team already hijacked the Seattle Supersonics, I decided I'm taking a stand and not letting him hijack my blog as well.  Make the jump!

James Harden: Shooting Guard, Arizona State. 6-5, 222 lbs.

Welcome to Loud City comes to the podium with the consensus top two picks off the board. The obvious choice is to take Hasheem Thabeet because of the defensive presence he can bring to the inside for the Thunder. Just like any Sonic fan turned Thunder fan, WTLC is SCARED TO DEATH about drafting another 7' center since we've had so many failures in that department over recent years (most recently Robert Swift, Mo Sene, and Johan Petro). Then scary turns to terrified when you look at the caliber of players that Hasheem played against in college without being able to dominate on a regular basis. With his size, he should have been able to impose his will on both ends of the court during almost every game that he competed in, but that just wasn't the case. In fact, a lot of the time, he struggled playing against undersized competition. It really makes you question whether or not he'll turn into an effective big man in the NBA or whether he'll be just another giant bust. Either way, we're not going to once again risk our top draft choice on what we believe is an unproven, questionable talent. 

Since we're passing on Thabeet, that gives us a whole host of guys to look at, mainly guards, and more specifically, shooting guards. Before we get to those guards, the only other big man we'll be considering with this pick is Jordan Hill. However, with Jeff Green still slotted in at power forward (Thanks to Kevin Durant making the switch to small forward last season), Jordan Hill is not going to be the best option to help this team now, and potentially long term. He's also only about 1" taller than Green and tips the scales at about the same weight. At this point, Jeff Green just brings way more to the table than the potential that Hill brings. So we're not only passing on Thabeet, but also on Jordan Hill, which means we'll definitely be taking a guard...but which one?

The top 10 of this draft is going to be filled with stellar guards, and outside of Rubio, its now up to us to figure out who will be the best of that bunch, and who will fit the Thunder the best overall. James Harden is the first guy we're going to consider. Harden will fill the current hole at shooting guard (although we still love Thabo Sefolosha), and round out the back court of the future for the Thunder. He provides the long range shooting ability that this team currently lacks, to go along with tremendous court vision, unselfish play, and a high basketball IQ. To sum it up simply, the guy is a playmaker and facilitator of offense. The next guy on our list is Stephen Curry, who, if for nothing else, will help push our offensive ability through the roof. Seriously, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Jeff Green all on the court should be able to score a boatload of points, no matter who is playing center. His sharpshooting ability should open up Kevin Durant and his tremendous passing ability could help his cause to be the starting point guard of the future in Oklahoma City. Then of course there is Brandon Jennings, Tyreke Evans, Ty Lawson, and DeMar Derozan. Honestly, we could find a fit in any of these guys, but in the end there is only one guy at the very top of our list. So enough blathering (I was going to go in depth about all those guys too, but you're probably arleady getting sick of reading this, yeah, I can hear your complaining through the computer Scott!), with the 3rd Pick in the 2009 SBN Mock Draft, Welcome to Loud City (Oklahoma City Thunder) selects...

James Harden
PS...I've peppered this entire article with links to great articles at WTLC about the player linked, so if you want to get to know any of these guys, or Thunder players, give the links a click and check us out.