This is the principle of the NBA Draft Lottery: every year there are winners, every year there are losers. As for the winners, we have three franchises who are not unhappy with the results tonight. Hawks, Rockets and Spurs leave with a pick higher than what was announced, and even with one more pick for the last ones.
Let there be no nonsense, the big winners of this Draft Lottery are of course the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta simply⦠gained 9 places in the Draft (compared to projections) by capturing the first pick this year. Difficult to do better, this is one of the biggest surprises in the history of the NBA Lottery. The Hawks did not even have a 14% chance of finishing in the top 4, and only had a 3% chance of obtaining this first pick: in short, the Falcons carried out the heist of the year. Landry Fields is probably still smiling right now. Well done raptors.
HAWKS GET THE NO. 1 PICK π€―π¨ pic.twitter.com/cnbgH2ucmE
β Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 12, 2024
Always in the unexpected climbs, we find the Houston Rockets. This year’s Nets pick was reserved for the Rockets (James Harden transfer), and boy did they take advantage of it. With the Nets’ record, the Rockets had a 20.3% chance of finishing in the top 4. Guess what? Well Houston moved up six spots in the Draft. While they were supposed to pick in 9th according to predictions, they will finally pick in third place in June. Very lucky, this Ime Udoka. The reconstruction of the Rockets is going well, they who distinguished themselves in previous Drafts with good picks. So, whose turn is this year?
The #Rockets last 4 years in the draft:
2021 β Jalen Green β pick #2
2021 β Alperen ΕengΓΌn β pick #16
2022 β Jabari Smith Jr. β pick #3
2022 β Tari Eason β pick #17
2023 β Amen Thompson β pick #4
2023 β Cam Whitmore β pick #20
2024 β pick #3 π
What a rebuild. pic.twitter.com/62q2FTk1r7
β Bradeaux (@BradeauxNBA) May 12, 2024
In San Antonio, we salute the Canadian nation. Indeed, the Raptors pick was supposed to go to the Spurs if Toronto fell out of the top 6. Well, imagine that the Raptors finished in eighth place. And that therefore makes a bonus pick for the Spurs, who have also moved up slightly in terms of their own pick. San Antonio was in fact more likely to finish outside the top 4 than to join it (42.1%). With these two picks (#4 and #8), the Spurs have additional arguments to go after Trae Young, they who have already recovered the Hawks’ Draft choices between 2025 and 2027.
The Spurs got Victor Wembanyama! Now, the Spurs have the 8th pick and the 4th pick! The NBA Gods are smiling on the city of San Antonio. pic.twitter.com/MEzCHvezKe
β PJ Hoops (@RealPjHoops) May 12, 2024
Three big winners in this 2024 Draft Lottery, the Hawks, Rockets and Spurs have reason to celebrate this evening. Of course you have to know how to maintain reason, because going to the Draft is useless if you draft badly. It’s now up to General Managers to do the job and bring back good players who meet the needs of their teams.
2024-05-13 14:01:36
#NBA #Draft #Lottery #big #winners
