The first round of the 2023 NBA Draft has come to a close, and since the second round is usually teams opening up their pull-tab tickets and hoping for a jackpot, we’ll begin to assess who comes away with the best prizes on the evening.
Here are our winners from 2023 NBA Draft Night.
Winner: San Antonio Spurs
I mean, duh. No matter what happened somewhere else in the draft, the Spurs getting their third truly franchise-changing player in the last 35 years via ping pong ball is quite the feat. A team with five NBA titles that’s nowhere near a beach shows not only great ownership, management and coaching, but a bit of luck as well.
Winner: New Orleans Pelicans
Jordan Hawkins comes in with a championship pedigree from UConn, and he’ll work as hard as necessary to get on the floor despite a crowded backcourt with C.J McCollum and Jose Alvarado. A pick like this means the Pels are trying to win sooner than later, and aren’t in develop-a-player mode.
Winner: Miami Heat
What might be the best-run organization in the league does it again, getting a pure, unadulterated bucket in UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez, Jr. Jaquez can score in anyway you can imagine, but was a bit of isolation specialist and ball stopper thanks to Mick Cronin’s offense in college.
Erik Spoelstra will find a way to put him in position to both score and be a playmaker in a big body.
Winner: Charlotte Hornets
While the Hornets fans might have wanted Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller is a complete scorer that is long, rangy, and was the key part of a team that was No. 1 in the country for a good chunk of his only college season. He’s 6’9, got 16.8 and 8.8 a game, and already had excellent defensive instincts with a 7’2 wingspan.
Especially with LaMelo Ball already on the team, Scoot Henderson wasn’t the correct pick here. Michael Jordan’s last major move for the franchise was the right one.