Nuccio DiNuzzo/AP
- The NBA draft lottery on Tuesday may have been the wildest in league history.
- The New Orleans Pelicans landed the No. 1 pick, immediately raising huge questions about an Anthony Davis trade that hovers over the NBA.
- Teams like the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers made big jumps up into the top four while the tanking teams — New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Phoenix Suns — all fell.
- We outlined some winners and losers from a lottery night that will send ripples through the NBA.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories
The NBA draft lottery on Tuesday might have been the wildest in league history.
With huge stakes attached to the picks, the revised lottery odds produced some big results.
The Pelicans, with only a 6% chance at the top pick, landed No. 1, giving them the rights to Zion Williamson, just as their previous No. 1 pick, Anthony Davis, asked to leave town.
Meanwhile, teams like the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers made big jumps up into the top four while the tanking New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Phoenix Suns got the third, fifth, and sixth picks, respectively. Will this solve tanking?
Take a look at some of the biggest winners and losers from a draft lottery that will send ripples throughout the league.
WINNER: New Orleans Pelicans
Nuccio DiNuzzo/AP
The Pelicans didn’t just land the No. 1 pick — they got the chance to save their franchise.
By all accounts, the Pelicans will take Zion Williamson with the top pick, a player projected to be a franchise superstar. It seems, at worst, that he’ll be a borderline All-Star who can fill the seats with his electric play (a big deal for a team in a struggling market).
But the Pelicans may now also be able to convince Anthony Davis to stay by giving him a co-star to play with, in Williamson. If the Pelicans are unable to change Davis’ mind, then they could trade him for a haul and get more assets to use to build around Williamson.
LOSER: Phoenix Suns
Matt York/AP
The Suns were in a three-way tie for the best lottery odds. They won just 19 games this year.
For all of their losses, they fell to the sixth pick in what’s considered a top-heavy draft. The NBA world won’t have much sympathy for a team that has picked in the top 5 the last three years and four of the previous six years, but it still must sting in Phoenix.
WINNER: LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers
Mark J. Terrill/AP
The Lakers made a surprising leap to the fourth pick, considering they had just a 9.4% chance at leaping into the top four.
Now they have a pick with which they can get a young player to add to their young core, or an asset to trade to get LeBron James some help.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- The New Orleans Pelicans ticket office went berserk when they won the NBA Draft Lottery and the rights to Zion Williamson
- The NBA draft order is official, and the new lottery odds threw a major wrench into things as the Pelicans landed the No. 1 pick
- The new NBA draft lottery odds have the potential to be devastating for the league’s worst teams
Source: Business Insider – sdavis@businessinsider.com (Scott Davis)