Final thoughts
Well, that was an eventful first round: Paolo Banchero went first overall, the Thunder made moves, the Kings threw everybody a curveball and the Knicks acquired literally nothing. While there’s still a second round to go, that will be the end of our live coverage. Thanks for all who followed along, including those who chimed in. Ciao!
The Denver Nuggets select Peyton Watson at No 30
The Nuggets finish up the first round by selecting UCLA guard/forward Peyton Watson.
One more bit of first-round trade business:
The Timberwolves traded 29 and future seconds for 26 to take Wendell Moore, sources told @TheAthletic.
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) June 24, 2022
Memphis Grizzlies select TyTy Washington Jr at No 29
As a straight-up point guard, Kentucky’s Washington probably the best in the draft. In the days when teams were more locked into looking at specific positional needs, he might have gone higher. The Grizzlies got a steal.
The Memphis Grizzlies are on the clock now, assuming that they don’t make yet another trade. Just two picks left in the first round.
Golden State Warriors select Patrick Baldwin Jr at No 28
The Warriors go with Wisconsin’s Patrick Baldwin Jr, whose stock dropped a bit over his college career but it’s hard to think of a better landing spot for a potential project.
The Golden State Warriors are on the clock. Good luck at trying to figure out what their needs could possibly be, it feels like they are pretty complete already.
Miami Heat select Nikola Jovic (JOVIC) at No 27
The Miami Heat take forever to make their selection. It doesn’t even leak, as far as this writer can tell. It’s very inconsiderate of them.
Oh coolness, they take Serbian forward Nikola Jovic, who again is NOT that other guy with the similar name.
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I guess the Knicks have traded for cap space this draft night and that’s it? Thankfully they have such a great track record in free agency.
The Dallas Mavericks select Wendell Moore Jr. at No 26
What can we say? NBA teams love Duke products. The Mavericks pick the fourth Blue Devil of the draft with forward Wendell Moore Jr.
Now on the clock? The Dallas Mavericks. Kentucky’s TyTy Washington Jr. is still on the board and might be worth taking despite one’s internal needs.
We’ll see.
San Antonio Spurs select Blake Wesley at No 25
The Spurs take Notre Dame shooting guard Blake Wesley at number 25. The Celtics fan in me makes a point to remember that name and selfishly root against him.
The San Antonio Spurs are up next with the draft pick they received from the Boston Celtics in the Derrick White trade. The Celtics would do it all over again if they could, one thinks.
Milwaukee Bucks select MarJon Beauchamp at No 24
The Bucks select forward MarJon Beauchamp who was playing for the G League Ignite after exhausting multiple options to break into the NBA. A wonderful story, the G League Ignite is really changing the basketball landscape.
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Philadelphia 76ers select David Roddy at No 23 (for the Memphis Grizzlies)
Colorado State guard David Roddy is heading to Memphis via Philadelphia. So much for there not being a lot of trades this evening.
Philadelphia 76ers have now traded the number 23 pick to the Memphis Grizzlies for De’Anthony Melton.
Memphis Grizzlies select Walker Kessler at No 22 (for the Minnesota Timberwolves)
With the pick that is going to Minnesota, Memphis goes with 7-foot-1 Auburn center Walker Kessler, who averages over six blocks per game.
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Denver Nuggets select Christian Braun at No 21
The Nuggets go with the far less funny option of picking Kansas guard Christian Braun, who is constantly called “solid” here, which is sort of damning with faint praise.
The Denver Nuggets are on the clock and the funniest thing that they could do would be to draft Nikola Jovic to go with Nikola Jokic.
San Antonio Spurs select Malaki Branham at No 20
The Spurs, as is their habit, make the wise decision here at number 20. A fantastic three-pointer out of THE Ohio State University (as we are legally obligated to call it), Branham shot 41.6% last season. That’s worth a look at this point in the draft, even if a team might have to hide him on the defensive end of the ball.
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San Antonio Spurs are on the clock, with a pick they got from the Toronto Raptors.
Minnesota Timberwolves select Jake LaRavia at No 19 (for the Memphis Grizzlies)
The Grizzlies go with Wake Forest forward Jake LaRavia with the 19th pick and he’s... not even on the mock draft I had prepared. Welp.
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Minnesota Timberwolves trade the No 18 pick to the Memphis Grizzlies
Never mind, whoever the 18th pick is will be going to Memphis.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are picking next. I’m guessing Malaki Branham finally gets his name called here.
The Chicago Bulls select Dalen Terry at No 18
The Bulls go with Dalen Terry, forward out of Arizona with the 18th selection. The experts describe him as a “glue guy,” which means “the stats aren’t impressive, but teammates love him.”
Chicago Bulls, with their own pick, are up next.
Houston Rockets select Tari Eason at No 17
And with the 17th pick, the Houston Rockets cash in one of the picks they got in the James Harden dump on LSU forward Tari Eason. My favorite name so far. He was first-team All-SEC and Sixth Man of the Year in his conference.
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The Houston Rockets are on the clock with a pick they got from the Brooklyn Nets. Oh no, I think that’s a James Harden-related pick. Some buyer’s remorse must be going on at Barclays.
The Atlanta Hawks select AJ Griffin at No 16
Another player from this year’s Blue Devils team: AJ Griffin is a fantastic scorer, and natural three-point shooter, whose talent in that department should translate well in the big leagues. The main issue with Griffin is that he has already battled through a knee injury so he has some health issues.
Okay I guess I understand Charlotte’s deal a little bit more here. Apparently the Knicks are also involved with the Pistons deal?
The Pistons ARE getting Jalen Duren ... and the Knicks, more crucially for immediate free agency matters, are shedding Kemba Walker's salary to Detroit to help fund their free-agent pursuit of Jalen Brunson. https://t.co/DDs1fk3JGC
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 24, 2022
Charlotte Hornets select Mark Williams with the No 15 pick
Even as a seven-footer, Williams never got all the attention he probably deserved at Duke, as fellow big man Banchero received most of the headlines, Williams still averaged 11.2 points and 7.4 rebounds in his sophomore season. Over at the Ringer, Kevin O’Connor made a case for him being the kind of old-school center that any team could use.
The Hornets are now back on the clock with their selection they received from the Pelicans, I guess this explains their “immediately flip” decision. They made the pick for the Pistons and now they’re going to select the player they have actually targeted.
Unless that pick, was Agbaji, in that case they outthought themselves.
Cleveland Cavaliers select Ochai Agbaji at No 14
Cleveland Cavaliers go with Kansas guard Ochai Agbaji, who was voted the Most Outstanding Player after Kansas defeated UNC in this year’s NCAA men’s championship game. To his discredit, that was his senior year and it’s likely that he’s one of those players that might get a recency bias boost from his recent tournament run. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that playing one’s best on the biggest possible stage isn’t a bad skill to have.
And that will take us out of the lottery portion of the evening.
Charlotte Hornets trade Jalen Duran to the Pistons?
So apparently, the Hornets have already traded Duran to the Pistons. At least that’s what Woj is saying, we’ll update once that’s finalized. Cleveland Cavaliers are now on the clock.
The Charlotte Hornets select Jalen Duren at No 13
Memphis’s Duren is the third-best center in this year’s draft, after Holmgren and Banchero. There’s plenty of value there, even if he doesn’t have the upside of either. Duren’s shot-blocking skills could play in the league now and he hasn’t even turned 19 yet. This is the exact right spot for him to go, both in terms of ranking and team.
Updated
Thunder have basically already won this draft, it feels like. Or butchered it badly, if the worst-case scenario with Holmgren happens. There’s not an in-between here, which are my favorite kind of draft-days.
Charlotte Hornets are up next!
Oklahoma City Thunder selects Jalen Williams with the No 12 pick
We told you that they had a lot of picks in this draft, enough to trade up with the Knicks. They select Santa Clara shooting guard Jalen Williams who is the first player I do not have a prewritten spiel about. At least I made it through the top ten.
Sounds like the Knicks are definitely in rebuild mode and the Thunder organization is not.
New York Knicks trade Dieng to the Oklahoma City Thunder for multiple picks
Okay that was fast. Well I guess he won’t worry about all the booing New York fans. Great get for OKC.
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New York Knicks select Ousmane Dieng at No 11
A mixed reaction as the Knicks select forward Ousman Dieng from the New Zealand Breakers with the eleventh pick. The mostly highly regarded foreign player in the draft. He has a lot of useful made-for-the-NBA skills, but unfortunately, he’s lacking on the most fundamental one of them all: consistent scoring. He only shot 35.6 percent from the field over in the NBL.
New York Knicks time! As always, the tradition is for the New York fans who have scored seats for the NBA draft to boo their selection. Let’s see how this goes.
Washington Wizards select Johnny Davis at No 10
Washington Wizards choose Wisconsin guard Johnny Davis. Davis averaged nearly 20 points per game with Wisconsin but there’s some concerns that his body type won’t translate in the NBA. Might be a perfect energy-of-the-bench guy for a team, which maybe isn’t a great ceiling? Like him for Washington, however.
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Big news for both Australia and Canada in this draft:
Montreal has put a lot of talent into the NBA of late, but Bennedict Mathurin becomes the city's first lottery pick as he's taken by the Indiana Pacers at No.6.
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) June 24, 2022
No trades yet. Interesting. Assuming that trend holds, the Washington Wizards choose next.
San Antonio Spurs select Jeremy Sochan at No 9
The San Antonio Spurs select Baylor forward Jeremy Sochran. Sochan’s had an interesting career, helping Poland qualify for EuroBasket before playing for Baylor. Playing starters minutes in a bench role, he averaged 9.2 points and 6.4 rebounds and earning him Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year honors. He’s a defense-first player whose main weakness might just be in long distance shooting.
From the AAP on Dyson Daniels:
With his playmaking and defensive skills, the 19-year-old guard from Bendigo stormed into NBA calculations during his lone season with G-League development team Ignite after graduating from Canberra’s NBA Academy.
Daniels gained traction with analysts after impressing in the draft combine and during workouts with seven different franchises.
“There are so many roles I can play in a team,” Daniels said. “My best NBA-ready skill is my defence and being able to step on the floor and guard the best player, use my size, my lateral quickness to be able to cause trouble for players.
“I can definitely step on the floor and impact straight away. Whatever a team needs - whether it be a point guard or a backup, playing off the ball - I feel like there is no real weakness where you can say ‘put him here and he won’t be as good’.”
Daniels’ father, Ricky, is American and moved to Australia to pursue a basketball career with the Bendigo Braves after playing for NC State in college.
New Orleans Pelicans pick Dyson Daniels at No 8
The Pelicans select Dyson Daniels! The G League Ignite was put together to provide a home for highly talented young players who wanted to skip the exploitative college basketball route. Australia’s Dyson Daniels is this year’s big hope, a skilled passer and ballhandler who may need to work on developing a reliable three-point shot and working on improving that 73.3 free-throw percentage. Still, he’s only just now turned 19 and has earned raved reviews for his basketball decision-making skills.
“That’s the Australian way,” Daniels has said.
Updated
Next up is the New Orleans Pelicans, who have a pick from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Portland Trail Blazers select Shaedon Sharpe at No 7
The Trail Blazers go with Shaedon Sharpe, our designated “mystery player” of the draft. He never played a minute for John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats and the hype has mostly revolved around some highly impressive highlight reels and very little in-game experience. In fact, he mostly sat out to preserve his “top prospect” standings, which means that teams might worry about his competitive drive they should not worry about his decision-making skills because it seems to have panned out.
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Okay we’re officially in the Wild West portion of the draft. I mean, theoretically, we were there when the Kings passed on Ivey but that’s not really much of a shocker. Time for the Portland Trail Blazers!
Indiana Pacers select Bennedict Mathurin at No 6
With the sixth pick, the Indiana Pacers choose Bennedict Mathurin. Not the sexiest name in the 2022 NBA Draft but he averaged 17.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, can shoot from long-distance and has some upside at defense if he works at it. He’s also a little turnover-prone, which might be fresh on teams’ minds after watching the Celtics throw away a shot at the title.
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The Indiana Pacers are selecting here at No. 6. It turns out that falling just out of the Top Five is a commonplace thing in Indiana
Detroit Pistons select Jaden Ivey at No 5
Jaden Ivey has spent his offseason garnering headlines for what he hasn’t been doing, meaning meeting with teams. Most notably, the most highly-touted guard in the draft expressed a disinterest in talking with the Sacramento Kings which obviously altered the course of this entire draft. Ivey has a gift for getting to the basket that could make him NBA-ready.
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Detroit Pistons are on the clock for the fifth pick, gonna guess they let Ivey fall to them.
Congrats on Jaden Ivey dodging the Kings.
— Semi-Charmed Kinda Nugg Life (@Duudder) June 24, 2022
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I feel like that was the most predictable choice ever (erases the “No 6” I had placed next to Murray’s name). I feel like I should have been able to guess that.
The Sacramento Kings select Keegan Murray at No 4
Keegan Murray’s strengths are also his weaknesses: he’s an experienced player and teams can pretty much know what they are getting with him. On the other hand, that’s also because he will be 22 years old in his first year in the NBA, making him closer to fully-formed than most of his peers in this year’s draft. Upside should be a factor when you’re trying to plot for your franchise’s future, however.
Kangz gonna Kangz.
Sacramento’s Draft Unsuccess: The 2022 draft is set to be another pivotal episode in the ownership of Vivek Ranadivé’s. Since Ranadivé took over the team in 2013, the Kings haven’t been the model of draft success, earmarked with the recent trades of Marvin Bagley and Tyrese Haliburton. In fact, De’Aaron Fox is the only player, who the Kings have taken inside the lottery, to receive the rookie extension under Ranadivé.
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Okay with the Sacramento Kings go with a talented player who seems not to be the perfect organizational fit or will they once again reach for a clearly inferior player?
Houston Rockets select Jabari Smith Jr at No 3
A versatile power forward who, at 6-foot-10, could probably also play center in a pinch. Smith is a much safer choice than Holmgren, that’s for sure, and maybe the safest pick in the Top 5. He’s a two-way player, the rare player with a killer jump shot who is willing to play tenacious defense on the other side of the court Maybe the safest pick in the Likely Top Five.
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The Houston Rockets are up next and this is a no-brainer if there ever was one. They might have gone with Jabari Smith Jr. at number one if they had their pick.
Oklahoma City Thunder select Chet Holmgren at No 2
The Thunder go with Holmgren, who is the most talented player in the draft—the kind of prospect that they created the term “unicorn” to describe—so why wasn’t he the consensus number one? Well, there’s a reason why you don’t see many unicorns in the wild. If the razor-thin Holmgren doesn’t work on building up muscle, he won’t survive long enough in the NBA for his transcendent three-and-D skills to play out. Maybe, but that 7’6 wingspan certainly looks tantalizing, I can’t blame OKC for the selection.
Chet Holmgren’s Ceiling: With his ability at both ends of the floor, Chet Holmgren is arguably the most prized talent in this year’s draft. In fact, compared with some of the NBA’s best big men – Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, Karl Anthony Towns and Jaren Jackson Jr – Holmgren’s freshman stats suggest he may already be ahead of his peers on the path to being the game’s best.
Updated
Oklahoma City Thunder is on the clock now for the second pick. It seems that the question is Jabari Smith Jr. v Chet Holmgren.
“I can’t believe that this happened,” Banchero says. Neither can most of us, so many ruined mock drafts.
Oh look there’s a Coach K cameo. He cannot stay out of the limelight, can he?
Orlando Magic select Paolo Banchero at No 1
When you help lead the Blue Devils to a Final Four, during Coach K’s final year no less, your stock is going to go up on Draft Day. At six-foot-ten, Banchero can double as a center and he scores like a wing player: averaging 17.1 points per game in his one-and-only season at Duke. Might need to work on his three-point shot.
Does top-three equal top talent? Getting a top-three pick doesn’t guarantee you a star - and there have been more than a few busts down the years. But there are also plenty of All-Star nominations and NBA titles among the top guys in the draft in the last 20 years. Interestingly, the stats below suggest the No 3 pick often has more success than the No 2 pick, at least in these limited categories.
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And Woj says that Orlando is going for Duke power forward Paolo Banchero. That would certainly be a curveball given this morning’s consensus.
The Orlando Magic is on the clock. The team has five minutes, but it feels like they should have already made their decision but I guess they needed the added drama.
The NBA Draft begins
Oh wow, we’re already begun. Adam Silver isn’t just lollygagging around like Roger Goodell. He talks up Title IX and the WNBA, as he should.
Email from Michael C:
I am an Australian currently in the USA on holiday and my son works on the Pacers medical support team. He has tried patiently to explain to me how the draft system works. My head hurts trying to follow this, but I will enjoy watching how things pan out over the next few hours!
Here’s the short answer: assuming that a team has their first-round draft pick (i.e. they haven’t included it in a trade to another team), their position in the draft is determined by a combination of their record the previous year and a lottery system that adds a bit of randomness into the equation that (theoretically) prevents outright tanking as we see in the NFL.
I feel like I understand it less after reading my own explanation. The main thing is that the worse off a team is, the more likely they are to get a higher pick of the premiere young basketball players (mostly out of college, but not always as we’ll see).
Email from Pedro Maia:
Hi and thanks for showing live this Pre-Lakers Meltdown formality ;)
A player that’s really enticing to watch is Scottie Pippen Jr. Amazing in offense, hard-forged by 3 years of college, pretty stable background and motivation, yet some lists place him outside the draft entirely.
How strange.
Keep up with the good work,
I didn’t stumble upon Pippen Jr’s name in any of the mock drafts that I followed. If he goes, he’ll be in the second round and that might not even be guaranteed. Apparently the Vanderbilt product is too small at 6-foot-1. I’m sure his college track record and famous name will mean that someone will give him a shot, he might have to go through the G League.
As we’ve mentioned before, there’s a problem between the Kings and likely No. 4 pick, Purdue shooting guard Jaden Ivey. This is familiar territory as the Kings have a slight problem with nailing their high draft picks, as this photographic evidence reveals:
this is legitimately staggering pic.twitter.com/ShwwPxGxB2
— claire de lune (@ClaireMPLS) June 23, 2022
In the interest of fairness, others have also pointed out, fairly, that it’s partly bad drafting and partly bad development on the Kings’ part.
My favorite thing about NBA draft day is seeing which players dress conservatively and which players take a fashion cue from Batman villains. I prefer the second kind.
Paolo Banchero Draft Night Fit
— Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) June 23, 2022
🥶🥶🥶 pic.twitter.com/oRH4al0ogG
Prediction
The Orlando Magic has the top overall pick and while most other places have them being rather more conservative, why shouldn’t the Magic take the big gamble of seeing where Chet Holmgren could take the team?
They almost certainly won’t, it sure looks like Smith Jr is the guy for them. Oh well, here is my list of who should be in the Top 5, solely based on how much I like them. The teams hired to make decisions, all of whom know more than me, might think differently.
1. Chet Holmgren, C, Gonzaga
2. Jabari Smith Jr, PF, Auburn
3. Paolo Banchero, PF, Duke
4. Jaden Ivey, SG, Purdue
5. Shaedon Sharpe, SG, Kentucky
Do you have thoughts? Once again, feel free to email them (to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com) or tweet them (to @HunterFelt) our way.
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Listen, maybe he won’t thrive in the NBA, but Chet Holmgren is certainly the most fun player available in the lottery.
it’s hard to score against Chet pic.twitter.com/3DKqZJE7p3
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) June 22, 2022
So, the 2022 draft is taking place at Barclays, home of the Brooklyn Nets. I wonder if there has been any news coming out of the Nets camp in recent days?
Sources: Kevin Durant is monitoring the Brooklyn Nets’ situation and considering options with his future.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 23, 2022
This now opens the path for Kyrie Irving to proceed on finding a new home via opt-in and trade.
Oh. That could be a thing: there are conflicting reports, but it’s not impossible that the Brooklyn Nets could be breaking apart. It’s almost as if Kyrie Irving isn’t the kind of player you want to entrust your franchise’s future with.
It’s okay, if Irving leaves, it sure does sound like a vocal segment of Lakers fans are interested. For those of us who enjoyed the Dwight Howard-Steve Nash experiment, there’s a certain car crash appeal of shipping him off to an LA team desperate for a quick fix.
Our own Daniel Levitt has created some infographics for today’s draft, so in theory, I’ll be posting them throughout the day’s events. If I’ve figured out how to do this correctly.
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While we’ll only be covering the first round of the NBA draft here, it’s probably worthwhile to note that the total event will only last 58 picks rather than the usual 60. The Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat both lost second-round draft selections for violating the league’s oblique and occasionally downright absurd tampering rules last offseason.
Preamble
Every year, I forget how soon the NBA Draft comes after the NBA finals. If they had lasted until a Game 7, it would have been played on Sunday. As Draymond Green would eagerly remind you, that did not happen as the Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics in six games. Now, after giving us just a brief pause to catch our breath, the NBA is flinging itself face-first into the future as teams select the young players they hope will eventually help catapult them into a future finals.
The Orlando Magic has the top overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft while the Oklahoma City Thunder owns the second, their highest of three picks. Experts have suggested that it’s not impossible we see a lot of NBA teams trading up over the next few hours. It seems, however, doubtful, that there will be as much movement as we saw during NFL Draft Day: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and company won’t be coming to us live from Las Vegas, so maybe their draft won’t be quite as manic as the football one.
The conflict in this year’s draft seems to be potential upside vs. NBA readiness. The most talented player just might be Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren but there are concerns that the rail-thin center simply doesn’t have the right body type to survive at the NBA level. Still, expect him to go in the Top 3 alongside Duke’s Paolo Banchero and Auburn’s Jabari Smith Jr, both of whom seem to be safer bets. Jaden Ivey looks like the clear No. 4 pick, but that happens to be owned by the Sacramento Kings and, well, that could end up being an issue. After that, well it’s a bit of a free-for-all, but that’s always the fun of these yearly events.
We’ll be covering the next few hours of the NBA draft chaos here at the Guardian. If you want to join in, feel free to email us your thoughts at hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com or tweet them to @HunterFelt and we’ll use them throughout the liveblog. The 2022 NBA Draft is set to begin at 8:00 pm EST at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center but we’ll be back well before then to catch you up on all the league happenings.
Hunter will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a brief rundown of tonight’s proceedings.
Venue: Barclays Center, Brooklyn.
Start time: The draft is due to begin at 8pm ET/1am UK/10am AEST.
Television: In the US, the first-round will be on ABC and ESPN. The second round will be shown only on ESPN. In Canada, it will be shown on SportsNet and TSN; on Sky Sports in the UK; and Kayo Sports in Australia.
First round order:
1) Orlando
2) Oklahoma City
3) Houston
4) Sacramento
5) Detroit
6) Indiana
7) Portland
8) New Orleans (from Los Angeles Lakers)
9) San Antonio
10) Washington
11) New York
12) Oklahoma City (from Los Angeles Clippers)
13) Charlotte
14) Cleveland
15) Charlotte (from New Orleans)
16) Atlanta
17) Houston (from Brooklyn)
18) Chicago
19) Minnesota
20) San Antonio (from Toronto)
21) Denver
22) Memphis (from Utah)
23) Philadelphia
24) Milwaukee
25) San Antonio (from Boston)
26) Dallas
27) Miami
28) Golden State
29) Memphis
30) Denver (from Oklahoma City via Phoenix )
