{"id":689514,"date":"2026-05-23T13:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T13:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/689514\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T13:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T13:17:13","slug":"new-2026-nba-mock-draft-with-blockbuster-lamelo-ball-trade-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/689514\/","title":{"rendered":"New 2026 NBA Mock Draft with Blockbuster LaMelo Ball Trade Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Thunder, who also hold the No. 17 pick, might be the clearest trade-up candidate in this draft. They have more first-round selections than roster spots, and their rotation is already overflowing with championship-level talent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">If OKC stays here, though, it probably makes sense to use this pick with only the future in mind. Especially if Ament is still on the board, which he definitely could be after an up-and-down season with the Volunteers. His game and frame both need work, but his long-term appeal as a 6&#8217;10&#8221; swingman who can dribble, shoot and pass is both clear and compelling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Thunder, who also hold the No. 17 pick, might be the clearest trade-up candidate in this draft.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-689514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}