The NBA draft lottery has come and gone, with all the pomp and fanfare that was expected. After the Detroit Pistons went down and the San Antonio Spurs rose to first place along with the Portland Trail Blazers and Charlotte Hornets, teams began scrambling to reconfigure their draft boards and consider a trade in the draft.
Unless a team offers a player like Luka Doncic or Giannis Antetokounmpo, there is no trade that would tempt the Spurs to trade in this year’s draft pick and miss out on adding Victor Wimbanyama. Instead, Charlotte and Portland are lopsided with Scott Henderson, a consensus best-three player who could give a number of teams the franchise’s point guard.
Outside of Henderson, players like Jaras Walker, Brandon Miller and Amin Thompson will be highly considered for the top spots in the draft. Hornets, with so many holes on their menu, may feel they are best served by taking multiple bites of the apple. On the other hand, the Blazers are interested in being competitive in the short term, which likely means the third pick is up for sale.
Although not every team has the ammunition to move into the draft, there are a few teams armed with enough trial capital to either move up the top rung of the draft or make some other minor move to secure top talent out of the draft. The upper layer of horizons.
Trade Nominee #1: Orlando Magic: Picks #6, #11, #36
All in all, the Orlando Magic couldn’t be more crazy that they didn’t have more luck in the lottery. After all, they got the rebound right last year to go up to the top pick in the 2022 NBA draft to pick Paolo Panchero, who became the Basketball Rookie of the Year while helping the Magic win 12 more games than they did last year.
With Panchero and Franz Wagner stepping into star roles, Wendell Carter Jr. running the quarterback, and an array of interesting guard prospects like Markelle Fultz, Galen Suggs, and Cole Anthony, the Magic has enough infrastructure to push for a play-in championship as soon as possible. Time next year if everything gets stuck right.
If a team wants to contend for a title someday, they may want to bolster their assets and pay their chips for another young star player. The team was 24th in three-point percentage and 26th per game Last season, which shows the massive vulnerability the team has:
Although there are some depth issues up front and on the wing, it is easier to fill those gaps than to find a franchise player. If the Charlotte Hornets didn’t feel strongly about pairing Scoot Henderson with LaMelo Ball and were more excited about adding a mix of Jarace Walker, Cam Whitmore, Taylor Hendricks, Gradey Dick and Keyonte George, just to name a few in this range, they could bite into the all-in package. from Orlando.
If the Magic is traded, they will suddenly have one of the best young cores in the entire NBA with Henderson, Banchero, and Wagner. All three players could one day have a star cap, which few other rebuilding teams can say, while also building to make the playoffs in the next few years due to the rest of the players on the roster.