Winners and Losers from the NBA Draft
Last night’s NBA Draft was somewhat of a surprising event. The newest members of the league consist of, the biggest stars in college basketball and foreign players who’s names really make you think. Anyways here’s my winners and losers from the draft.
Winners
Phoenix Suns
In my opinion, the Suns won the draft. They were able to get the two guys they wanted in Chriss and Bender, filling their position needs with those two solid big men. Phoenix was also able to add Tyler Ulis, who I think was one of the top guards in this draft. He should be able to provide good contribution for the Suns.
Oklahoma City Thunder
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Sam Presti (Thunder GM) is a genius. He saw what hurt them in the playoffs, which was their lack of depth, so he made the move to trade Serge Ibaka for Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the draft rights to former Gonzaga forward Domantas Sabonis. Oladipo will provide consistent two-way production at the shooting guard position, which the Thunder didn’t have. And, Sabonis and Ilyasova will provide depth in the front court that they missed. Now, all they need to do is bring back KD.
Loser
Sacramento Kings
About every thing is wrong out west–they failed to get real talent in the draft and their star player is unhappy… Again. The Kings had a decent chance to snag talent at 13 but decided to go with an unheard of and raw player that happens to play the same position as their All-Star DeMarcus Cousins. They also picked up Malachai Richardson from Syracuse, who has potential, but was pretty inconsistent for the Orange. For me, those picks didn’t address their needs and they have Cousins tweeting out “Lord give me the strength🙏🏿” rough situation over there.j
If I were a GM, I would look for guys that produced in college (ex. Sabonis, Ellenson, Hield, Valentine) rather than guys who barely produced like Skal Labisierre, Deyonta Davis, and Cheick Diallo and that showed in the fact that some of the “one and done” players fell below where they had hoped to go. In my opinion, there’s little value in leaving school after one year to be a late first rounder or second rounder. I know…money, money, money…that’s a topic for another blog. Anyway, time will tell how these guys fair in the league.