There were surprises and a few major trades, a few steep drops and some questionable picks. Thursday’s NBA Draft didn’t disappoint, offering up several interesting…
There were surprises and a few major trades, a few steep drops and some questionable picks. Thursday’s NBA Draft didn’t disappoint, offering up several interesting developments.
Below are The Post’s winners and loses from the blockbuster evening:
Mavericks
Dallas had the fifth pick in the draft and landed arguably the best prospect, needing only to trade a protected first round 2019 pick to do so. In addition to getting Slovenian sensation Luka Doncic, the Mavericks also added underrated Villanova point guard Jalen Brunson, who will be a 10-year pro, in the second round. Doncic, though, made Dallas the evening’s big winner. He’s a 6-foot-8 playmaker who has played professionally since the age of 15, and has already won at a high level in Spain. He will further open up the floor for athletic guard Dennis Smith Jr. and give a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff series since 2011 significant reason for hope.
Trail Blazers
Portland needed to find immediate help for guards Damian Lillard and C. J. McCollum, the first round was full of such players, and instead it went for one of the draft’s big mysteries in 19-year-old guard Anfernee Simons, who didn’t play college basketball. It’s hard to envision the un-ready Simons, taken 24th, breaking into the Blazers’ backcourt rotation in the next few years, while players like Jacob Evans (Warriors), Moritz Wagner (Lakers) and Khryi Thomas (76ers) were available.
Villanova
With four players going in the top 33 picks, and three in the first round, the Wildcats capped a memorable season on one of the sport’s premier nights. Only Duke has as many first round picks. Afterwards, Jay Wright downplayed the recruiting significance of the evening, saying the Wildcats will still target the same type of hard-working prospects that fit in with his program’s mantra of player development and patience. But maybe more elite prospects will now target Villanova after Mikal Bridges (10), Donte DiVincenzo (17) and Omari Spellman (30) went in the first round, and Brunson (33) early in the second.
76ers
Is part of The Process embarrassing a local kid known for winning? After drafting Villanova “3 and D” specialist Mikal Bridges 10th overall, the 76ers traded his draft rights to the Suns for Texas Tech guard Zhaire Smith and an unprotected 2021 first round pick, and let Bridges speak to the media without informing him of the move. Wildcats coach Jay Wright found out about the trade from the Suns. Complicating matters, Bridges’s mother, Tyneeha Rivers, works in Philadelphia’s human resources department and was visibly thrilled to see her son drafted by the hometown 76ers. Then there is the basketball component. Bridges seemed like the perfect choice for the contending franchise: A mature and defensive-first wing capable of producing immediately. And later in the first round, Philadelphia reached for Wichita State’s Landry Shamet, adding a point guard to a roster not in need of one.
Suns
There’s nowhere to go but up for Phoenix, and the 21-win Suns now have an exciting young core to build around. Deandre Ayton, a 7-foot-1 dominator, could form one of the top young inside-out tandems with prolific-scoring guard Devin Booker, and Bridges provides a much-needed winning pedigree and defensive mentality on the wing. Trading the 2021 first-round pick could come back to burn Phoenix, but if in three years the Suns’ current higher-ups still have them in the lottery, they probably won’t have jobs anyway.
Michael Porter Jr.
Once considered the top player in this draft, the multi-talented 6-foot-11 forward tumbled all the way down to the last pick in the lottery, going 14th to the Nuggets after back problems limited him to just three games at Missouri as a freshman. It was a wise gamble for the Nuggets, but a costly fall for Porter, who lost a few million dollars by dropping several spots over concerns of his medical records.
Celtics
College stars
One of the stars of the NCAA Tournament. The Big East’s all-time leading rebounder. An 18.1 points-per-game scorer at powerhouse Arizona. What do Malik Newman, Angel Delgado and Allonzo Trier all have in common? None of them got drafted, standout college players that were left without a team once the draft concluded. And they were far from alone, joined by standouts like Purdue center Isaac Haas, Arizona guard Rawle Alkins and Notre Dame forward Bonzie Colson.
It’s just another reason the one-and-done rule is silly. If teams are drafting based on measurables and projection, and it’s hard to fault them for doing that since the college and pro game are so different, why not let them take those players directly out of high school? It’s not like college production seems to matter.
