2022 NBA Draft Lottery: Winners and losers
By Jim James
This one will be shorter than most, don’t have too much to say but wow. The draft lottery did not disappoint. Some big rises and big drops, although I still maintain that it should be done live, no matter how long it is, just for us to make sure there isn’t any corruption. If you’re saying “oh, that only takes 10 minutes, they’ll never be able to stretch it to half an hour”, you’re wrong. If they can make opening 14 envelopes into a half-hour event, they can make that into a half-hour event. Anyway, these are my 3 winners and 3 losers of last night’s draft lottery.
Winners:
Orlando Magic
Congratulations on the 1st pick, Orlando. They have the pick of the bunch, and I believe that they may just go for Jaden Ivey. I say this because they already have an influx of big men with Wendell Carter Jr, John Isaac, Mo Bamba, etc. That’s good depth for a 14% team. You’re telling me that they have Cole Anthony, Jalen Suggs, Fultz, right? Well Ivey is a combo guard (technically) and doesn’t have to play 1. This will be very interesting.
OKC Thunder
They jumped 3 places, and would be one of the best teams potentially for the action-loving neutral (like me) to place 2nd. They have the assets, with the 12th, a late 20’s pick and a bunch of future selections to trade with their 2nd pick for Orlando’s #1. Don’t be surprised if you see Oklahoma active on draft night.
Sacramento Kings
FINALLY! THE KINGS ARE WINNERS! I’m not a Kings fan, I just feel bad for the team. They’ve been so bad over the last 15 years that they still moan about their Lakers series 20 years ago. As we talked about recently, they had the #2 pick and could have selected Luka, Trae, Shai, or MPJ, but selected Marvin Bagley, who didn’t even make our 2018 redraft. So it’s great to see this cursed franchise in the winners column for once. However, the work is just half-done. They now have to actually draft a good player on Draft Night. As I said they got #2 in a stacked 2018 and didn’t get a good player, so they need to get a good one here.
Losers
Detroit Pistons
Golden opportunity squandered. They have Cade Cunningham, Saddiq Bey, Killian Hayes, and Isaiah Stewart and were one of the 14% teams. They fell hard, to 5th. All they needed was top 4 and they’d have a seemingly unstoppable band of future talents. Now that title goes to Orlando with Anthony, Suggs, Wagner, and their pick of the pool this year. Very disappointing for Detroit.
Houston Rockets
This team tanked hard, and while they will still get one of Chet, Banchero, or Jabari, they’ll be forced to pick whichever one comes to them. After a pretty disappointing rookie season by Jalen Smith, they’re looking for a now star. But again, they have no say in which one they get.
Indiana Pacers
For a team who was many people’s favourite to be the jumpers with the 5th best odds, going down thanks to SacMo’s jump must be frustrating. They wanted a top 4 player, but now look like they’ll get one of the mid lotto players who don’t look too appetizing for them.
That’s all folks. I hope you liked it. Soon we will have the “22 days of draft” in June, so look forward to that. I’m Jim James, until next time.