And with the 58th pick in the NBA Draft, the first leg of what is already panning out to be a long off-season is officially in the books.
In what is always a beautiful night for young players achieving their dreams and fanbases watching their dreams crumble before their very eyes, this year’s draft didn’t disappoint, giving out its fair share of winners and losers as it always does.
Fans were treated to games of “will-they-won’t-they” from the second and third overall picks, smokescreens for the ages with teams speculating about trading up or down in the draft (only to not do it), the NBA’s very own prospective set of Sedin twins and oh so much more.
With all that in mind and with months ahead before we can fully gauge the results of this crop of rookies, here are the winners and losers of the 2023 NBA Draft.
Winner: The San Antonio Spurs and “Jorts”
Anyone could’ve pencilled this team in as an obvious winner the second deputy commissioner Mark Tatum announced they’d secured the first overall pick. It’s almost too easy.
But tonight felt like the official start of something new, as Victor Wembanyama put on the Spurs’ hat and validated Gregg Popovich and San Antonio’s year of rest of relaxation (if you can call tanking relaxation).
With the first overall pick they not only acquired the most mind-bending talent the league has seen in 20 years, but they also drafted a player mature beyond his years, serious about making a mark in this league, and according to JJ Redick, “enlightened.” His reaction to hearing his name called — despite knowing for a year that he’d be first overall — was humble, true and sentimental.
Wembanyama showed tonight that he can be everything the Spurs dreamed of and more. We knew they’d be winners, but now it’s official.
Another big winner for San Antonio here was the triumphant return of jorts (jean-shorts for the uninitiated), as the emcee for the Spurs Draft Party at the AT&T Center in San Antonio wore them so well you’d question why they went out of style. Oh, he also had maybe the sickest fade you’ll see in your life.
Loser: The Charlotte Hornets, or at least the fans that wanted Scoot Henderson
To call the Hornets losers here feels wrong considering just how magnificently talented Brandon Miller is. He wasn’t the consensus No. 2 player in this draft by any means, but he certainly wasn’t the consensus No. 3 either. The debate about who should’ve gone behind Wembanyama between Scoot Henderson and Miller is one that will be rocking the airwaves until they both retire.
Odds flipped between the two on an almost-daily basis leading up to the draft, with Henderson on top not 12 hours before the ceremony. With reports that current-but-on-the-way-out owner Michael Jordan is going to have the final say on the pick, gambling on who would end up in Charlotte might have been an ill-advised decision. Yet many a Hornets fan bet their life savings of optimism on the hope that they would select the G League Ignite product.
Many Hornets fans, including Hugo the Hornet (the team mascot), were left broke and disappointed.
In the minds of many, the Hornets ultimately decided to go with fit rather than best player available, choosing to pair incumbent point guard LaMelo Ball with the hyper-athletic and talented three-level scorer Brandon Miller. Not necessarily the wrong choice, but clearly not the one most were hoping for.
Winner: The Portland Trail Blazers and the off-season drama machine
It’s great that in a poor free agency class, teams have decided to create drama in fun new ways by turning the trade market into a free agency of its own.
We began this tumultuous off-season with the Wizards finally blowing it up, sending away Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis to create two new big threes in Phoenix and Boston.
Then, as rumours swirled around the Trail Blazers and the choices they were going to have to make after securing the third overall pick, the Hornets decided to force them to face that fork in the road of contending with Damian Lillard or finally accepting the youth movement.
Portland’s point guard of the future just fell into their lap in Henderson while Lillard just became the most attractive asset on the market, allowing them to cash in for additional pieces and expedite their rebuild.
Additionally, this is a massive win for every team looking to enter the Lillard-sweepstakes. Hope you didn’t like the idea of Miami too much Jaime Jaquez, because you are officially on the trade block. Same with you Kobe Bufkin, don’t get too comfortable in Atlanta. Don’t think we forgot about you Noah Clowney and Dariq Whitehead, the draft might’ve been held in Brooklyn but don’t think about signing a lease just yet.
The off-season has just begun, and considering the Blazers are unlikely to field three diminutive point guards on the court at once, we’re in for a pretty fun one.
Loser: Every fan base that thought they were going to jump into the top three
It’s rare that teams actually find ways to jump all the way up to the top of the draft, but in a year where the top three is as talented as this, imagining a way for any team to get there felt like a long shot.
But the rumours were rampant, as names of superstars were floated around, hinting the possibility of some massive shift. Fanbases of teams like the Toronto Raptors or New Orleans Pelicans spent collective years on websites like fanspo trying to figure out ways for Portland or Charlotte to give up their selections for packages centred around stars like Pascal Siakam or Zion Williamson.
It was all for naught, as no trades were seen until the Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards swapped the seventh and eighth picks for a light package involving future second rounders.
The rumour mill felt as though it had come to a standstill once Portland said they weren’t going to field any more calls about Lillard before the draft. Then a report from TNT’s Chris Haynes said that teams were more skeptical of trading for Siakam because he was unlikely to sign an extension and would prefer to stay in Toronto.
Draft night was slower than expected, and though Twitter fingers were clicking through the night, Woj or Shams bombs were relegated more towards smaller trades and draft pick announcements.
Winner: The Houston Rockets
When the Rockets fell into the fourth overall pick, the general consensus around the league was that their tank job had failed and they just missed out on the players that could right the ship.
Instead, they landed Amen Thompson, who was considered the third-best player in the class at points this season. In him they found a proper complimentary piece to the dynamic youngsters already on their roster such as Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr.
Thompson is one of the best distributors in this class, showing an adept feel for the game and an astute ability to make the right play and do it with flair. He’s one of the most athletic players you’ll ever see and with him running the floor alongside Jalen Green, the Rockets’ transition game could be one of the most electric in the league.
Then at pick No. 20, a player nobody expected to fall outside the top 10 landed in their laps in Cam Whitmore. The Rockets had reportedly been considering Whitmore with the fourth-overall selection but instead got their guy by sitting pretty and waiting for him.
The Rockets already have the youngest roster in the league, filled to the brim with raw talent eagerly waiting to be developed. In Thompson and Whitmore, they added two more guys widely considered to be top 10 players, effectively turning them into the big winner of the night.
Loser: Cam Whitmore
Houston’s win was Whitmore’s loss. He wasn’t supposed to land here, at least not with the 20th pick. Mock drafts routinely put him in the top 10 and seeing him fall past Utah at nine felt like an oversight.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on the broadcast that Whitmore had a combination of poor workouts and individual interviews in the pre-draft process, effectively lowering his stock.
When a run of teams that need wings like the Lakers, Heat and Warriors at 17-19 all pass on you, questions about what really went wrong start to get brought up. Though no official reports have been put out regarding the severity of his individual workouts and interviews, to have your draft position fall nearly 10-15 picks is astounding for someone as talented as Whitmore.
It’s estimated that with the fall from a potential top five pick to the 20th selection, Whitmore may have lost $14 million. Not an easy pill to swallow for an 18-year-old.
Winner: Every single Raptors fan’s TikTok algorithm
The Toronto Raptors didn’t just get the best shooter in this class, they got the funniest guy in this draft class bar none.
They made it clear that they weren’t drafting for fit, they wanted the best player available. In Gradey Dick they found both. They were likely looking for more shooting, not necessarily someone to lighten the spirit in a locker room that seemed tired at times. And yet, in Gradey Dick they found both.
As soon as the Kansas product was selected, a TikTok he posted earlier this year went viral on Raptors Twitter, showing the wing not known for his athleticism, busting a move like the scouting reports of him don’t know a thing.
Pair that with an all-time draft suit and Gradey Dick made sure to announce his presence to his new fanbase, adjusting algorithms city-wide like the Joker spreading laughing gas in the skies above Gotham.
As for his abilities on the court, for the third-worst shooting team in the league last season, bringing in a 40 per cent shooter that can hit it off of any action seems like the right call to transform your offence. Having him fall into their laps at 13 with rumours about him going 11 to the Magic or 12 to the Mavericks is just icing on the cake.
