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| Wemby received the top shot-blocker award pre-game |
The 7'4" (without shoes!), 230 pound French phenom with a ridiculous 8'0" wingspan actually just capped the regular season of the Pro A in France earlier in the day with a tough win. After dealing with foul trouble in the first half, he finished with 22 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks to help Metropolitans 92 secure the #2 seed in the playoffs, and he clinched leading the league in points, rebounds, and blocks despite only turning 19 in January. He will likely earn MVP honors with final averages of 21.6 points, 10.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 0.7 blocks, 3 blocks, and 2.6 turnovers with 47%/27.5%/82.8% shooting in 32.2 minutes (of 40 minute games there) while playing all 34 games. Credit to RealGM.com for his season-long totals coming into this game.
And Wemby caps the regular season with this coast to coast dunk to seal the W and secure the #2 seed for #GoMets92.
— Dave Giovanazzi (@SF_DavidGio) May 16, 2023
He also finalizes the scoring title, rebounding title, and blocks title in the French Pro A league. After only turning 19 in January, folkspic.twitter.com/DLFXrjdljl
You can check out what I wrote in March about the style of Wemby's game, but I want to come back to what I said about the Spurs standing out as the best possible fit:
"Maybe it's just me, but it's just felt destined that he will land in San Antonio given their track record with international players and Hall of Fame big men taken 1st overall. Unsurprisingly, they have executed this rebuild in fine fashion with some nice young players, a ton of cap flexibility, and a bounty of draft assets thanks to the DeMar DeRozan, Derrick White, Dejounte Murray, and Jakob Poetl trades. There is a wide open spot for a star big man to bring it all together behind Jeremy Sochan, Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell, Malaki Branham, and the like. Ironically, Wemby used to play for the French team that Spurs legend Tony Parker owns, ASVEL Basket, before a somewhat acrimonious departure last summer for Mets 92 in order to be developed more as a featured player under France national team coach Vincent Collet."
Now the Paris prospect will in fact join one of the best run organizations in the league; learn from one of the greatest coaches of all time, Gregg Popovich; and have a young supporting cast that should fit him well with a ton of flexibility to add more talent going forward. Bringing in a more dynamic playmaker than Branham, Blake Wesley, or restricted free agent Tre Jones is probably the most important thing for Wembanyama going forward. It really was the least surprising result, especially after the Murray trade last summer indicated they'd go into a complete teardown to help their odds at the top pick. By tying for the second-worst record in the league, they were among the three teams with the best chances of winning the lottery at 14%.
This now makes four straight years that one of the teams with that 14% chance ended up with the #1 pick. Ironically, the team with the worst record didn't get it for five straight years now, which is ever since the current system went into place. This is the first time that the worst team, the Detroit Pistons, fell completely out of the top-4, though (47.86% chance of happening). This is also the first time that one of the teams with the best odds, the Houston Rockets, fell to the #4 pick (11.97% chance) after there had oddly been three straight years where the team in the 7th spot moved up to the #4 pick (8.5% chance).
The #2 pick went to the Charlotte Hornets after moving up from the 4th spot (12.23% chance). The Portland Trail Blazers' blatant tanking paid off after moving from around the 10th spot with a month left to the 5th-best odds, which resulted in the #3 pick (10.56% chance) and possibly (likely?) a huge trade chip. They actually almost paid off in an even bigger way as The Washington Post's Ben Golliver reported that the Spurs' winning lottery combination was 14-5-8-2 while the Blazers' owned 14-5-8-3. Update: The NBA's annual video of the actual drawing is now up (actions starts around 5:07), and combinations owned by San Antonio, Charlotte, and San Antonio again hilariously kept coming up for the #4 pick to provide priceless reactions. The Spurs REALLY had luck on their side!
I absolutely love details like that from the drawing room. There is just so much drama around this event, which extends to the determination of whether protected picks will convey or not. The most controversial situation was with the Dallas Mavericks since they owe a top-10 protected pick to the New York Knicks from the Kristaps Porzingis trade and were fined for sitting their players down the stretch to move into the 10th spot...despite being in the Play-In race! The basketball gods did not punish them like Adam Silver, however, as the 79.8% chance of them keeping their pick came through, so it will remain top-10 protected through 2025 before becoming a 2nd rounder that year if New York doesn't get it by then. Like with Portland, that's big for them to have as a trade piece now to get back to the playoffs, and with how the draft order shook out, I wouldn't be surprised if there a lot of trades with lottery picks moving around.
The Chicago Bulls were on the other side of the coin as they fought hard to justify going so all-in on this team in 2021. They ended up winning one Play-In game and finished in the 11th position, resulting in their 8.5% long shot of keeping their top-4 protected pick not coming through. Now they're sending the #11 pick to the Orlando Magic to complete the Nikola Vucevic trade, which already provided Wendell Carter Jr. and the pick that became Franz Wagner.
On that note, I wanted to look back on the final results of which 1st round picks were sent out in trades as an astounding 10 of them are not with their original team. The Bulls' pick is the highest one exchanged, and here is a summary of the rest in descending order along with the 1st rounders that didn't convey this year like the Mavs':
Jazz receive the #16 pick from the Timberwolves
Sometimes it's kind of amazing when a move that was so universally criticized like the Rudy Gobert trade backfires spectacularly. Not even getting to the questionable fit of the behemoth center next to incumbent franchise big man Karl-Anthony Towns, the price that Minnesota paid for him and his $169.7 million contract was absurd. Utah received this pick as the first of four future 1st round picks and a swap, Walker Kessler as a terrific replacement at center who finished as a Rookie of the Year finalist, and three veterans that were eventually flipped for more assets: Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley, and Patrick Beverley.
And after that bounty, the Wolves lost in the 1st round again after having to work a couple of Play-In games...the first of which Gobert was suspended for after hitting his own teammate in the huddle.
Rockets receive the #20 pick from the Clippers with the Clippers receiving the #30 pick from the Bucks; Thunder don't execute swap with Clippers
When the Eric Gordon trade happened, I underestimated how big of a gap there would end up being between Los Angeles and Milwaukee by the end of the season. So Houston deserves more credit than I initially gave them for turning a veteran on what was essentially an expiring contract for them into a nice jump up in the 1st.
Milwaukee initially sent this pick out to Cleveland way back in December 2018 when acquiring George Hill and shedding the salaries of Matthew Dellavedova and John Henson. They then amended it from 2022 to 2023 in the 2021 trade for P.J. Tucker that eventually helped them win that year's title. That deal allowed Houston to swap the #31 pick for #24, which they used on Josh Christopher, and they originally had the 2022 pick from the James Harden trade.
I'm still not sure essentially replacing Luke Kennard with Gordon was worth this pick swap for LA, but the veteran did have his moments for the Clips in his second stint as he provided tougher defense in the playoffs than the younger guard would have. They did recoup three 2nd round picks in that deal after sending out three 2nd rounders elsewhere, and now they have the option of whether to keep Gordon and his non-guaranteed $20,917,902 salary. Lastly, LA owed a pick swap to OKC from the Paul George trade in 2019, but it didn't convey since the Clippers finished with a better record.
Nets receive the #21 pick from the Suns
The first of the picks that Brooklyn is receiving from the Kevin Durant trade ended up being a little better than expected, in part because he suffered a freak ankle injury when slipping in warm-ups a few games into his Phoenix career. That contributed to him playing just eight regular season games for the Suns, and as I noted at the time of the trade, the Nets actually had the better record when it was agreed to. Now they'll actually pick back-to-back at #20 and #21.
Trail Blazers receive the #23 pick from the Knicks
Josh Hart proved to be a seamless fit for New York's rotation and helped them win a playoff series for the first time in 10 years, so I think it's safe to say that this trade was worth it. The real question is how big of a contract they will re-sign him to after he declines his player option as expected.
It also remains to be seen whether Portland will re-sign Cam Reddish after he had some solid play for them after the trade. This pick was the main part of the deal, though, and it ended up probably lower than they hoped since the Knicks finished 17-9 down the stretch.
Pacers receive the #26 pick from the Cavaliers
This pick from the Caris LeVert trade ended up not conveying last year since it was top-14 protected and Cleveland lost in the Play-In, and that really ended up working out for them. Had they won one of those games, they would've sent the #16 or #17 pick then instead of this now. On the court, LeVert was about as expected as a supplemental offensive threat on the wing, and now they have a decision to make with him in free agency.
Cleveland making a leap this season ended up to the detriment of Indiana for the 1st round pick, but there was another part of this deal involving a swap of 2nd rounders. Instead of having the #56 pick, the Pacers had the #31 pick that they used on promising guard Andrew Nembhard, who barely missed out on making an All-Rookie Team.
Hornets receive the #27 pick from the Nuggets (via Thunder and Knicks)
This pick has been on quite the journey! Tracking this kind of thing is why I'm writing this post to look back on past deals.
To start, Denver traded this pick to Oklahoma City back during the 2020 Draft for the #23 pick, R.J. Hampton. Later that season, Hampton was flipped with another pick and Gary Harris for Aaron Gordon, so it worked out for them.
OKC then traded this pick to New York during last year's draft as part of the package for the #11 pick, Ousmane Dieng. Hilariously, part of the reason that the Thunder made this deal was to ensure that no one jumped ahead of them picking at #12, where they had targeted the ROY runner-up, Jalen Williams. I'm always curious how teams decide who to take first when picking back-to-back, and it turns out that they picked Dieng with the traded pick in case their agreement somehow fell through.
Finally, NY sent it to Charlotte with four 2nd rounders to get the #13 pick, Jalen Duren, before re-routing those drafts rights to Detroit in the Kemba Walker salary dump where they got Milwaukee's 2025 1st back. That helped clear enough cap space to sign Jalen Brunson, so safe to say this worked out for them.
Jazz receive the #28 pick from the 76ers (via Nets)
Before the more famous Gobert and Donovan Mitchell trades, Utah launched a thousand memes (Brian Windhorst was right!) with the Royce O'Neale deal. The prototypical 3+D wing turned in a career-high 163 splashes from deep and is on a nice contract, $9.5 million that is actually only partially guaranteed for next season, so this worked out well for Brooklyn.
They got this pick from Philadelphia as part of the James Harden trade, which also provided the Trade Exception that O'Neale's contract was absorbed into, so you can pretty much include this deal as an extended part of that one. And even with another meek Harden flameout (after arguably his two best playoff games ever, to be fair), that trade was well worth it considering how much of an albatross Ben Simmons' contract is.
Not the first time Harden's been eliminated in this passive way
— Dave Giovanazzi (@SF_DavidGio) May 14, 2023
2015: 2-11 FGs, 14 points, 5 assists, and 12 TOs in G5
2017: 2-11 FGs, 10 points, 7 assists, and 6 TOs in G6
2022: 4-9 FGs, 11 points, 9 assists, and 4 TOs in G6
Today: 3-11 FGs, 9 points, 7 assists, and 5 TOs in G7 https://t.co/4s27WBU57P
Pacers receive the #29 pick from the Celtics
The Malcolm Brogdon trade looked like a clear win for Boston last summer and definitely does so now after he won Sixth Man of the Year, helped them finish with the second-best record in the league, and is currently helping them in the playoffs still as they start the Eastern Conference Finals.
This is about as low of a return on the draft pick as Indiana could have gotten, but at least 23 year old Aaron Nesmith turned in a decent season with 10.1 points and 3.8 rebounds per game in just 24.9 minutes across 73 games with 60 starts. They do have more cap flexibility now, and you could say that giving Tyrese Haliburton free rein helped lead to his All-Star season.
Picks that did not convey
With the worst record in the league, the Pistons didn't come close to sending the top-18 protected pick that they owe from their trade for Isaiah Stewart during the 2020 draft. The pick initially went with Christian Wood in a sign-and-trade to the Rockets, they sent it with a 2023 Wizards 1st to OKC during the 2021 draft for Alperen Sengun at #16, and then it and the Wizards pick went to the Knicks in the Dieng trade mentioned above. Detroit's pick is still protected for the top-18 through next year, the top-13 in 2025, the top-11 in 2026, and the top-9 in 2027, at which point it would convert to a 2nd rounder that year.
That Wizards pick came from the swap of John Wall for Russell Westbrook and is still protected for the top-12 next year, the top-10 in 2025, and the top-8 in 2026 before becoming 2026 and 2027 2nd round picks. So for those scoring at home, the Knicks at one point could have had as many as four 1st round picks this year, but between the protections and sending out theirs, they instead have zero.
Also during the 2021 draft, the Hornets sent a top-16 protected 1st to the Knicks to land Kai Jones at #19, and it wasn't close to conveying either as Charlotte finished with the 4th-worst record. The pick later went to the Hawks in the Reddish trade and currently resides with the Spurs as part of the Murray trade. It is lottery protected through 2025 and then becomes 2026 and 2027 2nd round picks.
After another tank-tastic finish to the season like I mentioned, the Trail Blazers held onto the lottery protected 1st that they sent with Derrick Jones to the Bulls in the 2021 three-way trade that landed them Larry Nance Jr. It's still lottery protected through 2028 before becoming a 2nd rounder that year, but there's some talk that they might rework the protections in order to have flexibility for future trades.
Finally, the Pelicans had the right to swap picks with the Lakers as part of the Anthony Davis trade in 2019, and it seemed like that would be a pretty juicy asset early in the season. LA started 2-10 but went 41-29 after that, including a 18-8 finish once they got their new pieces at the trade deadline. Conversely, New Orleans started 23-12 and were tied for 1st in the West before going 19-28 the rest of way, so the swap rights became meaningless.
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