Category: NBA Draft Blog

NBA Draft blog

San Antonio Spurs select Victor Wembanyama with first overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft

The San Antonio Spurs today selected Victor Wembanyama with the first overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

The first French player selected No. 1 overall in NBA Draft history, Wembanyama (Wem-ban-YAH-muh) joins David Robinson and Tim Duncan as the only top overall picks in Spurs franchise history.

Wembanyama, 7-3/225, most recently played with French-club Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 in the LNB Pro A French League during the 2022-23 season, where he helped lead the team to the LNB Pro A Finals and a 23-11 regular season record. In 34 regular season games with Mets 92, he averaged 21.6 points, 10.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 3.0 blocks in 32.3 minutes. In 10 postseason games, Wembanyama averaged 17.3 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.7 blocks and 2.7 assists.

The Le Chesnay, France native wrapped up the season being named league MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Best Young Player, Scoring Champion, Blocked Shots Champion and was named to the All-LNB First Team. Throughout his career, he’s earned Best Young Player three times (2021, 2022, 2023), is a two-time LNB All-Star (2022, 2023), named to the All-LNB First Team twice and won the 2022 LNB Pro A Championship with ASVEL Basket.

Wembanyama played his first games in the United States in October 2022 during a pair of exhibition games against the G League Ignite in Las Vegas. In his U.S. debut, he recorded 37 points, 4 rebounds and 5 blocks. In the second game, he had 36 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks in a Metropolitans 92 win.

The 19-year-old started his professional basketball career at the age of 15 with Nanterre 92 in the Euro Cup League from 2019-21. Prior to joining the Mets 92 for the 2022-23 season, Wembanyama played for the French club ASVEL Basket from 2021-22.

Wembanyama will wear No. 1 for the Spurs.

Spurs select Victor Wembanyama first overall in 2023 NBA Draft

Via ESPN.com:

The Victor Wembanyama era has officially begun in San Antonio, as the Spurs made him the No. 1 overall pick in Thursday’s NBA draft.

Wembanyama, a 7-foot-5 French phenom with an 8-foot wingspan, walked across the stage at the Barclays Center in New York to shake NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s hand and formally mark the start of his new career.

Wembanyama, 19, is considered by many to be a generational talent — a player who can defend and play above the rim but also move with such fluidity that he can also hit step-back 3-pointers off one leg.

When the Spurs won the right to draft Wembanyama by winning the lottery on May 16, Spurs managing partner Peter J. Holt leaped with joy from his seat on stage inside Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center.

On the Pelicans and the 2023 NBA Draft

Via the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

This year, there is more uncertainty about whom the Pelicans will take in the first round. They have the 14th selection in Thursday’s draft. Earlier this week, the Pelicans came up with a list of players their front office and scouts liked. The names were in double digits. In the past few days, the Pelicans have tried to whittle that list down. They are exploring various scenarios where they trade up or down as well.

If the Pelicans stay at 14, a shooter such as Kansas’ Gradey Dick or Connecticut’s Jordan Hawkins would make sense. Choosing Dick, a 6-7 wing who nailed 40.3% of his 3s on nearly six attempts per game last season, is a no-brainer if he lasts until 14. Hawkins is more of a question mark. He is an electric shooter who can run around screens all game, but he does not have great size for a shooting guard and there are questions about how he can affect games outside of his ability to make 3s.

The Pelicans have identified outside shooting and rim protection as their two biggest needs this offseason.

On the Rockets and the 2023 NBA Draft

Via the Houston Chronicle:

Our long near-month wait between the lottery and the 2023 NBA draft has nearly come to an end, and as draft night approaches, the Houston Rockets will look to take their first steps in what could be a roster overhaul before the start of the 2023-24 season.

We have a general feel for what will happen for Houston on draft night. Amen Thompson is the (very) likely choice at No. 4, and the No. 20 pick will likely be used to add another youngster or a win-now veteran piece via trade. But as we learned last year, the best laid plans for any team can go awry on draft night. As the Rockets desperately eye a move into Phase 2 of their rebuild on Thursday night, a litany of contingency plans are likely in place. Outside of the Spurs snagging Victor Wembanyama at No. 1, there are no guarantees for the rest of the draft league-wide.

On the Jazz and the 2023 NBA Draft

Via the Salt Lake Tribune:

The NBA draft is here. And the Utah Jazz will be big players in how it unfolds.

A year after having zero picks in the draft, the Jazz have three in the first round this time, at Nos. 9, 16, and 28. At least for now.

Naturally, this became the year that the front office decided not to disclose the players coming in for workouts and interviews. While some prospects inevitably spilled the beans themselves with Instagram posts, the braintrust was nevertheless looking to gain a competitive advantage by not giving too much away.

On Wednesday morning, Bart Taylor, the Jazz’s Vice President of Player Personnel, addressed a few media members to provide at least a little context about how the team’s process has unfolded since the season ended.

Taylor: “We have tons of conversations constantly of, ‘Where do you think your guy is?’ ‘Where do you think they’re gonna go?’ with the agents, with other teams. We’re trying to figure that out, even as of [Wednesday], who might be there. And then that way we can have those conversations [Wednesday, Thursday] leading into the draft of, ‘OK, if these two guys are there, who are we taking?’ We’re trying to get all that out so that we’re not on the clock, like, ‘Well, who are we taking?’ and then we have Ryan [Smith] sitting looking at us like, ‘Do you guys know what you’re doing?’ We try to figure all that out before so that we look at least semi-educated.”

On the Warriors and the NBA Draft

Via the Bay Area News Group:

In November 2020, the Warriors drafted James Wiseman with the No. 2 overall draft pick, their highest pick since they took Mike Dunleavy Jr. third overall out of Duke in 2002.

Three years later, though, Wiseman is no longer with the team, and Dunleavy, despite once being made scapegoat for Warriors fans’ frustrations after years of futility, is the team’s new general manager.

The Warriors have gambled in the last three drafts, taking some high-upside teenage players with the hopes to groom them to one day take the baton from the dynastic trio as it ages out.

But with Stephen Curry still a top-five NBA star at the age of 35, the Warriors should be looking to maximize the here and now. And the process of retooling their roster to be a championship contender once again starts with the No. 19 pick in Thursday’s draft.

On the Kings and upcoming free agency

Via the Sacramento Bee:

All eyes in Sacramento will be on the forward positions as the Kings hurtle closer to the 2023 NBA draft and the start of free agency.

Harrison Barnes is an unrestricted free agent this summer. So is Trey Lyles. Keegan Murray will return after a stellar rookie season, but there’s no telling who will man the other forward spot as Sacramento seeks even greater heights after reaching the playoffs as the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.

The Kings hold the draft rights to EuroLeague MVP and Olympiacos star Sasha Vezenkov, but they can’t sign him until after Thursday’s draft. The Kings have signaled their intention to bring Vezenkov to Sacramento if they can agree to a contract, but barring a major trade Sacramento will need more reinforcements in the event that Barnes or Lyles are not retained.

Murray and Kessler Edwards are the only forwards the Kings have under contract next season.

New Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. faces big decisions in draft, free agency

Via the San Jose Mercury News:

Dunleavy and his team will have to take a hard look at the roster and make a plan for where to go from here. Their first major test will be the NBA Draft, where they hold the No. 19 pick.

Other questions facing the Warriors are whether they can retain Draymond Green and find ways to capitalize on Stephen Curry’s prime by bolstering their roster, despite having little flexibility.

The Warriors are handicapped in their current financial situation.

If Green exercises his $27.6 million player option for next season — a decision he has to make by June 29 — the Warriors will be projected to dish out more than $205 million in salaries alone. That’s well above the tax line, and with a repeater penalty also in play, Golden State could be paying a whopping $250 million in luxury tax, according to The Athletic.

San Antonio Spurs win 2023 NBA Draft Lottery

The NBA today announced that the San Antonio Spurs have won the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery, which was conducted at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago earlier this evening. The Spurs will have the first overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft that will be held on Thursday, June 22.

“The team and the city that sticks with us and put so much effort and love into the organization, it’s just amazing for them to get rewarded,” said Spurs Managing Partner Peter J. Holt immediately following the Lottery. “So many folks have been with us a long time and now everybody can feel rewarded and excited. My joy was a ‘we’ type of fun and joy.”

For the third time in franchise history, San Antonio holds the top overall pick with the previous two being Hall of Fame big men David Robinson in 1987 and Tim Duncan in 1997, who helped the Spurs start their NBA record 22-year Playoff streak from 1998-2019.

Going into tonight’s lottery, the Silver and Black held a 14.0% chance to land the No. 1 pick. Since the Draft Lottery was introduced in 1985, San Antonio has owned seven total lottery picks, fewest in the NBA.

Ties broken for order of selection in 2023 NBA Draft

Six ties among teams with identical regular-season records were broken today through random drawings to determine the order of selection for NBA Draft 2023.

The drawings were conducted by NBA Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars at the NBA office in Secaucus, New Jersey. The tiebreaker process was overseen by Marie Dhimmar, a partner from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young.

The results of the drawings:

The Houston Rockets (22-60) won a tiebreaker with the San Antonio Spurs.
The Indiana Pacers (35-47) won a tiebreaker with the Washington Wizards.
The Chicago Bulls (40-42) won a tiebreaker with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Miami Heat (44-38) won a tiebreaker with the Golden State Warriors and the LA Clippers. Second and third place in the tiebreaker drawings went to Golden State and the LA Clippers, respectively.
The Phoenix Suns (45-37) won a tiebreaker with the Brooklyn Nets.
The Memphis Grizzlies (51-31) won a tiebreaker with the Cleveland Cavaliers.