Well, that was fun. The NBA Draft didn’t disappoint on Thursday night. The greatest televised (non-active) sporting event of the year delivered the perfect blend of shocking moments, sound draft strategy, and questionable picks.
NBA fans around the league won big last night, and the Raptors faithful got the player they wanted at No. 23. But the draft wasn’t quite a banner night for everybody involved. Here are the biggest winners and losers from the NBA Draft:
WINNER: Minnesota Timberwolves
…Obviously. The Timberwolves were able to flip the 7th pick (Lauri Markkanen, one of the weakest prospects in the lottery), Zach Lavine (a fun player but one with serious limitations), and Kris Dunn (who struggled to adjust to the NBA level as a rookie last season) for Jimmy Butler and still managed to hang onto their 16th pick, which they used to select one of the top big men in the draft, Justin Patton.
Butler, if you didn’t already know, is one of the NBA’s premier two-way players and an All-NBA talent. He’s a clutch scorer who can impact a game in a number of ways and, at age 27, still has three years left on his contract at a “bargain” price of less than $20 million per season.
With Butler in the fold and now reunited with former Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau, the Timberwolves suddenly have a formidable core that also includes future Hall of Famer Karl-Anthony Towns and rising star Andrew Wiggins. The notion of Butler and Wiggins running on the wings with Towns down low is legitimately terrifying. What’s more, Minnesota still has the cap space to go after a point guard in free agency like George Hill or, dare I say, Kyle Lowry. Just an excellent night all around.
LOSER: Chicago Bulls
If, as the Bulls brass stated after the trade, this was the best offer they got for Butler then Chicago should have just waited. What’s more, if they were dead set on unloading their star player and hitting the reset button they should have gone after a package centred around present and future picks. Lavine is OK, but he’s a player who relies on his hops and explosiveness and is coming off ACL surgery. Suddenly, he’s now the face of the Bulls rebuild.
To make matters worse, the Bulls also drafted Oregon’s Jordan Bell, who should be able to continue to protect the basket at a high level in the NBA, and immediately sold him to the Golden State Warriors for cash. Great start to the new Bulls era…
WINNER: Toronto Raptors
OG Anunoby may not be a dominant NBA player… But there’s a chance he will be, at least on the defensive end. And to get a player with that potential near the back end of the first round is as good as it gets.
Had it not been for his torn ACL suffered in January and questions surrounding his offensive game, Anunoby, a pre-season All-American, would’ve been a lottery pick. The rookie says his recovery is going faster than expected and that he’ll be ready to go by October (we’ll see). The Raptors coaching staff will now have the opportunity to build that part of his game from the ground up.
Even though we won’t see him make an impact in Toronto right away, with the right development Anunoby can absolutely be a high-level 3-and-D player for the Raptors for years to come.
WINNER: West coast basketball
With Lonzo Ball and De’Aaron Fox both landing on young, up-and-coming teams out west, they have a chance to build on their rivalry while helping to turn the Lakers and Kings from NBA laughing stocks to legitimately exciting ball clubs. So far Fox has owned Ball at both the collegiate and AAU level.
Throw in Josh Jackson, a two-way terror and highlight-reel waiting to happen, going to Phoenix and future dunk contest champion Dennis Smith Jr. landing in Dallas, and the west will have quite the crop of exciting talent that will make the Western Conference continue to be the NBA’s best. Oh, and the Timberwolves traded for Jimmy Butler.
LOSER: Chicago Bulls
I just can’t stress this enough.
LOSER: Boston Celtics
The Celtics reportedly refused to move either their third-overall pick or next year’s Brooklyn pick in a deal for Jimmy Butler. They will regret that. Instead of packaging their pick for Butler, the Celtics drafted Jayson Tatum. Given what Minnesota gave up, it’s safe to surmise that the asking price wouldn’t be too much more than the pick. Jaylen Brown and the third? Jae Crowder and the Nets’ 2018 first-rounder?
Tatum is a fine prospect, and it’s quite easy to envision the Duke forward developing into a perennial 20 point-per-game scorer. But he’ll never impact a game like Butler. What’s more, a player who does have that kind of ceiling, Josh Jackson, was available, but Boston passed.
The Celtics may very well walk away from the off-season as major winners should they sign Gordon Hayward or swing a deal for Paul George, as they tried to Thursday night. But their draft performance left a ton to be desired.
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WINNER: Golden State Warriors
This is how good teams stay good. While the defending champions got a weirdly massive amount of flack for being great — anybody else sick of the term “superteam?” — it’s important to realize that building a perennial winner is about far more than signing the best player on the market.
The Dubs have drafted smartly (star players aside, the guy they picked 38th overall last season, Pat McCaw, played meaningful minutes in the Finals) and have filled out their bench with surprisingly impactful role players like Shaun Livingston and Javale McGee. The Warriors front office was at it again on draft night, adding a pair of Oregon alumni, Jordan Bell and Montreal’s Chris Boucher, who both should be able to develop into key bench players. As mentioned, Bell was bought for cash, while Boucher signed a two-way deal after going undrafted. Shrewd moves that are likely to pay off.
LOSER: Malik Monk
Monk entered the draft as its best pure shooter and potentially it’s most thrilling player. He’s a scoring machine who embraces the pressure of playing on the big stage. We didn’t get to see his full arsenal of skills on display at college, but he still managed to score 19.8 points per game on 45 per cent shooting (39.7 per cent from deep) for a Kentucky team that went 32-6.
Monk has the potential to be a legitimate star, yet questions about his size (six foot three) and true position led him to, shockingly, slide outside of the top 10. The best fit would have been in New York, where he’d thrive under the lights of Madison Square Garden and help restore interest from a fan base that’s been tested like few others in the league. But, alas, the Knicks went for French point guard Frank Ntilikina, who should be very good and was drafted mostly because of how he can fit in the triangle offence. What a mess.
I thought Monk made sense as high as sixth to Orlando, but alas it wasn’t meant to be. Every year a player falls way further than anticipated (Justise Winslow might be the most recent example) and this year it was Monk.
The Hornets, meanwhile, walked away as major winners by doing the obvious and using the 11th pick to select the best player available, one who happens to fill a legitimate need on the perimeter.
WINNER: LaVar Ball
Hate to say it, but it’s true. I can’t believe it, but it’s true. LaVar got what he wanted, and he’ll remind you about it as long as his son is in the league. Lonzo Ball could be a bust or a superstar, and I’d bet on the latter. Here’s hoping his game will be enough to overshadow his famous father.