The NBA Draft Lottery was held yesterday night, and this one was one of the most important ones that we have seen in a while. This is because of one player: Zion Williamson. The Duke athlete is arguably the most hyped up teenager since LeBron James in 2003. The Cavs, Knicks, and Suns all had a 14% chance at landing the first pick, but it was the consensus belief that the Knicks would be favored by the NBA due to their huge market and win the Zion sweepstakes.
Boy, was everyone wrong. Almost every single pick came as a humongous surprise. Here's the order: 1. Pelicans, 2. Grizzlies, 3. Knicks, 4. Lakers 5. Cavs 6. Suns 7. Bulls 8. Hawks 9. Wizards 10. Hawks(via Dallas) 11. Timberwolves 12. Hornets 13. Heat 14. Celtics(via Kings).
That's right. The Pelicans, who had the 7th best odds, jumped ahead of six teams to land the first pick. This throws a wrench into the Anthony Davis saga. Maybe AD will want to stay to pair with Zion. The Grizzlies also were a surprise pick at two. They had the 8th best odds to land the 1st pick, and were expected to go around 5-7. Getting number two jumpstarts their rebuild. They can trade Mike Conley for future assets, and build around Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson.
Poor, poor New York. After earning a league worst 17 games, the new lottery rules made it such that they had a 14% chance at #1, rather than 25%. After over 30 years of franchise demise, New York thought that they could finally land a generational talent, and then pair them up with one or two max contract free agents(Kyrie, KD). They would make them contenders for years! With the 3rd pick, New York might trade it to New Orleans for the aforementioned Davis.
NOLA would have two top three selections, and future assets, which is a hard trade to resist.
The Lakers also got incredibly lucky, and jumped all the way to the fourth overall pick. This means that they have an excellent asset to throw in to a potential Anthony Davis deal too. There is also plenty of excellent talent available at #4, with college standouts like Jarrett Culver and DeAndre Hunter expected to be available.
This might have been the most surprising and stunning draft lottery ever, which means that the new rules certainly worked. The more even odds were kept in place to avoid teams tanking to get the worst possible record. With this year's results, teams know that even mid-lottery odds have a chance to break into the top 3. This could also lead to teams being more protective of the lottery picks that they have, knowing that there is a good chance it goes up.
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