1.) Detroit Pistons
Cade Cunningham - basketball player, Oklahoma State Cowboys
Grade: A+
What more needs to be said? Cade-Killian Hayes- Jerami Grant-Saddiq Bey-Isaiah Stewart is talent and youth at every single position. At head coach? The perennially underrated and underrecognized Dwane Casey. Impossible not to love that core, and the fact that they are such a beautiful fit is incredible.
2.) Houston Rockets
Jalen Green - scoring shooting guard, G League Ignite
Grade: A+
A special shooting guard that will pair exceptionally well with Kevin Porter, Jr., who said himself that he is a point guard this month. The Rockets are more devoid of talent than any team in the NBA, so they just need players that can dribble and shoot. Green is exceptional at both, and he has a legit MVP ceiling, in no small part because of his MVP work ethic. Great handle and slithery. Three-level bucket getter.
3.) Cleveland Cavaliers
Evan Mobley - switchable defensive big, USC Trojans
Grade: A+
Draymond and AD and Bam have rewritten defense as we know it. That triumvirate owes it all to Andrei Kirilenko, but we won’t digress. Mobley could be their prodigal son. And he’s one of the best passing big men college has seen in at least the last decade. His perimeter orientation on offense and lack of girth (not necessarily a bad thing given his twitch and insane feet) project him at forward to me, but who cares? Defense translates. He could be a unicorn at a legit 7 foot.
4.) Toronto Raptors
Scottie Barnes - defensive point forward, Florida State Seminoles
Grade: B+
Last year, we saw the surprise defensive Florida State forward Patrick Williams at 4. Now, Scottie Barnes shocks the world. Clearly, Toronto is expecting Kyle Lowry to be back by not taking Jalen Suggs. Or clearly, they are going full rebuild, took Barnes' ceiling, and are moving on from Pascal Siakam. Either way, Barnes is an incredibly gifted passer, and can play point guard - for real - at 6'9". He's not nothing scoring the ball. He's a fearsome defender, and if Mobley didn't exist, we'd be giving him every superlative under the sun.
5.) Orlando Magic
Jalen Suggs - combo guard, Gonzaga Bulldogs
Grade: A
ANOTHER guard to the Magic. We never will have to figure out whether he's a point guard or shooting guard, because he gets to pair with Markelle Fultz, Cole Anthony, and RJ Hampton. The Magic needed both scoring and shooting really badly. Those are his biggest questions, but he's too good for it to matter here. Scoring is Suggs' biggest, but not a massive question, and he does so many other things well that it isn’t a swing skill. He can never average more than 18 and still have a tremendous, winning, long, impactful NBA career. Orlando plays incredible defense, but they needed it badly on the perimeter. This could be the steal of the draft. Whichever one or two of those aforementioned guards gets moved, teams should be lining up. Suggs is a legit quarterback (sorry for the football past reference) on the court, but does a ton of damage off-ball as well.
6.) Oklahoma City Thunder
Josh Giddey - playmaking wing, Adelaide 36ers
Scottie Barnes to the 6 had legs the past day or so. This is as shocking as we may see tonight. Giddey is an incredible passer, and his lack of interior stuff will keep him operating as a true guard. His shot hopefully comes around, but it's bad right now. And his defense is really poor. He's super smart and super young, so he clearly has hope. Oklahoma City is and has been all about upside swings. This is another large one. Also could feed into rumors that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is too old for their timeline (at age 23!)
7.) Golden State Warriors
Jonathan Kuminga - explosive forward, G League Ignite
Grade: B
They said it exactly right on the broadcast. This is a swing. Kuminga has a ceiling as high as any player in the draft. His tools are tremendous. He has the potential to be a menace everywhere, on both sides of the ball. Athletic and large and long. Explosive, able to get to the rim, but not much else right now. His ability to get to the bucket is currently sheer speed and sizing past defenders. Handle, shot, passing all need improvement as of right now.
8.) Orlando Magic
Franz Wagner - versatile forward, Michigan Wolverines
Grade: A-
Franz was always going to be on the board at 8, but the Magic probably would not have taken him if they didn't get the Suggs home run at 5. Wagner will replace Terrence Ross, who is probably moved on to play basketball that matters. They need Wagner's shooting, the fact he plays wing, and his jack of all trades-ness. So many Magic players are specialists on one side of the ball.
9.) Sacramento Kings
Davion Mitchell - two-way guard, Baylor Bears
Grade: D+
Mitchell is Mr. Win Now at age 23 when the season starts. He defends on-ball with endless intensity. He shot crazy well from three, which was new this season. His weakness is facilitation and pure guard skills, which he won't ever have to worry about alongside De'Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton. The Kings' buzz all offseason has been that they want to win now really badly. This pick was on the market openly for guys that could help them win. The Buddy Hield era has ended, and they had a trade of him to the Lakers fall through today. So he'll be gone somewhere for a different established player.
10.) Memphis Grizzlies
Ziaire Williams - forward, Stanford
Grade: C+
Interesting that the Grizzlies took on the bad deals of Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe, and traded away their second-best player on a playoff team in Jonas Valanciunas for this. I like Ziaire Williams a lot, but he's far from a sure thing. Memphis drafts incredibly well, hitting on basically every pick the past couple years, so they get the benefit of the doubt. He's a slow bring-along, and they made themselves worse near-term, which makes me think they don't care about next year's postseason, and are focused on the big picture of eventually contending for championships.
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