In honor of the prestigious Boston Marathon that took place today, we will be looking at the NBA's Tank-A-Thon, also known as the Race for Zion. This evening, the Duke freshmen declared for the NBA draft, joining teammates Cam Reddish and RJ Barrett. Earlier this week, Zion took home the Wooden award, which is handed out to the best college basketball player in the nation. He also won the ACC Player of the year award and was declared rookie of the year.
Right now, the New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns, and Cleveland Cavaliers have a 14% chance of landing the number one overall pick. The Chicago Bulls are not far behind with a 12.5% chance at #1. The new lottery rules that evened the playing field more made a big difference, as the worst team no longer has a 25% at landing the first pick. While this rule might not make much sense, it was a necessary step for the NBA as it had to reduce the amount of tanking being done.
The NBA Draft Lottery will have a lot at stake, even outside of Zion. If they were to get it, the number one pick(Zion) would be the perfect bait to get Anthony Davis. The Pelicans would get a player loaded with potential on a rookie deal. Later in the draft, there are many other pick swaps that could result in more trades and such. The Celtics can earn up to four picks this year, all of which would also be excellent bait for a certain unibrowed power forward.
For any team, landing Zion Williamson would completely change the game. For the Knicks, they could easily convince big name free agents like Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant to join, as they will get to play with an almost surefire star in Zion. Cleveland will quickly get its new hero after losing LeBron James, and the Suns could have a terrifying trio of Zion, Devin Booker, and DeAndre Ayton that could actually contend. At the end of the day, a bunch of ping pong balls will decide the futures for many NBA franchise.
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