The NBA Draft is Thursday night and there are rumors swirling everywhere. The draft is one of my favorite nights on the year and watching the drama unfold is great sports theatre. Here are some thoughts before Adam Silver gets the ball rolling.
1.Kick Rocks Vegas
Line movement this week has been a crazy swing for Paolo Banchero going #1 overall. During draft SZN, Vegas is usually a great predictor due to all of the rumors swirling around with no backing. Vegas doesn’t shift without some intel. That being said I still don’t see a path for Banchero going #1 over Jabari Smith or Chet Holmgren. Smith and Holmgren just offer more of what the Magic are looking for to compliment the young core already in place. Pencil in Banchero at #3 to the Rockets.
2.Wheeling and Dealing
We are going to see a lot of pick movement on Thursday night. I think the top 4 are locked in but after that look out for movement galore. A few teams I could see moving their pick are:
Portland (7th pick)-Get an asset for Dame
New York (11th pick)- Use it trying to move up or acquire a big name
OKC (12th pick)- Look to move back up into the top 10 by packaging future picks
Charlotte (15th pick)- Attaching it to Gordon Hayward to upgrade the roster
Chicago (18th pick)- Attempting to use it to upgrade veteran talent on the roster
Golden State (28th pick)- GS is already abusing the Luxury Tax and they need to resign core pieces so they will look to move this pick to free up cash
3. The Kings are Going to Do Something Weird
I’m not sure what it is yet, but the Kings are going to go full Kangz and throw a wrench into Thursday night’s proceedings. Either by Drafting Jaden Ivey and creating another glut of lead guards that they just got out of or drafting one of these mid-lottery wings so they can “compete” for a playoff spot this season. Whatever the Kings do, it feels like it will be the wrong decision which is very on brand for the current era of Kings basketball.
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