nba draft lottery reax
Yesterday I took a shot at predicting the NBA draft lottery.
Boy howdy was that an interesting lottery and a generally weird first round. Charlotte, Utah, and Washington taking Kneuppel, Bailey, and Johnson at 4/5/6? Loved all three picks and all three landing spots. Yeah, the Bailey/Utah fit is imperfect, but I generally don't put too much stock in "oh, he didn't want to go there" reporting.
Brooklyn taking Demin at 8? Hated it. Toronto defying the conventional wisdom and snagging Murray-Boyles at 9? Loved it. Phoenix taking Maluach at 10 after trading for Mark Williams and already having Ighodaro and Richards on the roster? Super weird. Memphis moving up to 11 to take Coward? Loved it. He's a great replacement for Bane.
Anyway, here's how I went with my predictions.
1: Flagg ✅
2: Harper ✅
3–6: Edgecombe, Bailey, Johnson, Kneuppel (in some order) ✅✅✅✅
I think Brooklyn will trade up to grab Bailey... ❌
Edgecombe is Philly's guy... ✅
I can see Fears, Maluach, or Queen going at 5 or 6 but I don't think it'll happen... ✅
7-11: Fears, Maluach, Queen, Jakucionis, Bryant (in some order) ✅✅❌❌❌
Surprised that Queen, Jakucionis, and Bryant fell out of this tier, but not particularly surprised Demin was picked in it.
12-14: Essengue, Sorber, Demin (in some order) ✅❌❌
Of these three, both Essengue and Demin could go earlier. ✅
So yeah, all told I didn't do too poorly. I even managed to swing two more deals in one of my dynasty leagues while watching and reacting with everyone. All told, a great night.
As for tonight's second round? I have a lot of thoughts but some of my dynasty buddies read this and I don't want to tip my hand. That said, the first handful of picks off the board will almost certainly include Ryan Kalkbrenner, Kam Jones, Noah Penda, and Rasheer Fleming.
🏀 but
🏀🏀 time
🏀🏀🏀 will
🏀🏀🏀🏀 tell