NBA Draft: Lottery Winners and Losers

Which lottery teams were winners and losers in the draft?

Trying to distinguish the lottery winners from the losers prior to any of the draftees playing in an NBA game is always difficult, as there are no guarantees. Still, here is my list of NBA Draft Lottery winners and losers:

Winners

There were far more winners than losers in Thursday’s draft. Cleveland added a player in Andrew Wiggins who has electrifying athleticism and potential. The Bucks got a potential future All-Star who preferred to play for Milwaukee in Jabari Parker. The 76ers got a big man with serious potential if these recent injuries don’t come to define his career in Joel Embiid, and they have a small forward they’ll stash overseas for the next few years in Dario Saric. The Sixers also made second-round splashes in K.J. McDaniels and Jerami Grant. Orlando added Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton to join the presumed starting lineup along with Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris and Nikola Vucevic, which makes the Magic a young and exciting team to watch next season. Dante Exum slipped to Utah with the fifth pick and the Jazz now have a solid young core of Exum, Trey Burke, Gordon Hayward, (supposing they re-sign him) and Derrick Favors.

The Celtics made out well with their two top-20 picks, drafting Marcus Smart and James Young. Kobe and the Lakers have to be enthralled with Julius Randle slipping to them at seven. Al Jefferson must be jumping for joy that the Hornets were able to add another stretch four in Noah Vonleh at nine, and P.J. Hairston at 26, a tough, two-way shooting guard. The Bulls addressed a dire need for shooting by grabbing Doug McDermott, the Nuggets turned their one lottery pick into two top-20 picks in Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic, and the Suns got a legitimate scorer who slipped under the radar in T.J. Warren.

The Pistons and Pelicans lost out on their lottery picks to Charlotte and Philadelphia due to prior trades and lottery luck; but Detroit managed to snag Spencer Dinwiddie in the second round, and New Orleans was able to swing a deal to acquire Russ Smith from Philadelphia in the second round as well. And the Knicks, who didn’t have a pick just 24 hours before the draft, managed to acquire three second-round picks and draft Wichita State’s Cleanthony Early, D-Leaguer Thanasis Antetokounmpo (brother of Giannis) and Louis Labeyrie, whom they’re likely to stash overseas in the French League.

It was a busy night for the lottery teams around the league, and at first glance there were winners galore.

Losers

Kevin Love was the biggest loser of the night, as he was praying to be dealt. Love’s reaction to not being traded was likely similar to Zach LaVine ‘s response upon learning Minnesota had drafted him.

The only lottery pick I thought was really questionable was Sacramento’s. After drafting a shooting guard in Ben McLemore (who struggled in his rookie year) last summer, the Kings went with another two in Nik Stauskas. He has decent athleticism and is 6-6, but he’s likely to struggle defensively in the NBA. If Stauskas doesn’t develop into one of the league’s premier shooters, the Kings may very well come to regret skipping over the active defender and floor-spreading four in Vonleh, as the Kings could certainly use someone to help bolster the defense and spread the floor for DeMarcus Cousins on offensive.

The only other losers are the Sixers fans in the immediate future, as they’ll again be subject to another tank-a-thon after drafting two guys in the first round who are both unlikely to play a single game for Philly in 2014-15.

Conclusion

There weren’t as many early first-round trades as we were expecting, and there was no Love lost in ‘Sota, but the 2014 NBA Draft was still a wild night which featured its fair share of wheeling and dealing. While it appears there were more lottery winners than losers, only time will tell which teams fell or faired well.