NBA Draft Lottery winners and losers: Spurs, Victor Wembanyama a perfect marriage; Blazers get blue-chip asset

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The San Antonio Spurs landed what many believe will go down as the greatest lottery prizes since LeBron James on Tuesday by securing the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA draft, which they will surely use to select an unprecedented prospect in Victor Wembanyama. 

Here is how the lottery order shook out:

PickTeamPickTeam 1 San Antonio 8 Washington 2 Charlotte 9 Utah 3 Portland 10 Dallas 4 Houston 11 Orlando (from Chicago) 5 Detroit 12 Oklahoma City
6 Orlando 13 Toronto
7 Indiana 14 New Orleans

Now that you have the order, let’s get to the lottery winners and losers. 

Winner: Spurs

Twenty-six years after the Spurs fell into Tim Duncan, which began a five-title dynasty, San Antonio up and lands Wembenyama, another potential generational player. Not much else to say. San Antonio struck gold here. 

Winner: Victor Wembanyama

Wemby found a great home in San Antonio, where he’ll be under the tutelage of an all-time coach in Gregg Popovich and won’t bear the burden of immediate expectations for a franchise in transition. The Spurs will put everything they have as an organization — which is a lot — into developing Wemby into the megastar he is  seemingly destined to become. They’ve done it before with Hall of Fame big men Tim Duncan and David Robinson. Perimeter pieces are in place in Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell. 

Would it have been fun to see Wembanyama paired with LaMelo Ball in Charlotte? Of course. Would Detroit have been a good on-paper fit with the backcourt in place in Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey? Sure. But give me the stability of the Spurs to not screw up a prospect like this. Long term, Wembanyama should feel fortunate it went this way. 

The Pistons entered as one of three teams (Houston and San Antonio) with the highest 14% chance of landing the top pick, and they didn’t even manage to stay in the top three for a play at Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson (Miller likely would’ve been the play with Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey in place….

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-draft-lottery-winners-and-losers-spurs-victor-wembanyama-a-perfect-marriage-blazers-get-blue-chip-asset/

Author : Brad Botkin

Publish date : 2023-05-17 03:04:42

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