Winners and Losers of the Draft

[NOLa.]

We are nearing the end for the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft, the first draft in which we selected from a pool of college imported players rather than based on real players. When the vote was official to begin the new college system, the league immediately knew that we could no longer grade the prospects based on real life expectations. The mystery and intrigue was exciting, because three players had a case to be the #1 pick, and the selection of guards and small forwards were bare outside the top 3. We also had prospects with skill sets we've never seen before! If you want the best example, check out the Heat's first round center Gary Perez.

So with the first new draft system, which team came out on top? Which teams came out on the bottom?


WINNER

Vancouver Grizzlies Team Page

Because it's straight fire.


LOSER

76ers Offseason Luck (or lack of)

Same team, different season, same results. The 76ers tied the Magic with the worst record in the league, and because of the new Charlotte expansion franchise, ended up dropping to the #5 spot. A way to think about this is it is possibly the biggest ever drop that has, and probably will, ever happen all because of the Charlotte Bobcats. The optimistic way to look at this is that the draft was regarded as being 5 deep and they ended up drafting Grimaldi, a developing prospect who will be a #1 option scorer.


WINNER

Orlando Magic

On the opposite side of things, the Orlando Magic were lucky enough to stay in the top 3 and were able to draft Harland Ellinger, combo guard from Oklahoma State. Ellinger is another player with an interesting skill set: he's tall and athletic and will be a dominant offensive threat, but his lack of defense is reminiscent of Jerry Stackhouse. The ceiling is high for him, but will his defense hold the team back as a starter?


LOSERS

Any Team in the Draft That Did Not Need A Big Man That Ended Up Drafting a Big Man

This draft was absolutely wonky. After the first three picks, the availability of guards became almost non-existent. Chet Dooley went to the Knicks and the Stark boy headed north to Minnesota (just now traded to the Golden State Warriors). Every other player was a frontcourt piece. What made the draft even more odd was that the power forwards and centers all looked basically the same. McNary was the best big man prospect, and even he wasn't without faults.


WINNERS

Any Team in the Draft That Needed A Big Man That Ended Up Drafting a Big Man

If you were reading the above writeup thinking to yourself "Hey at least I needed one", congratulations. We're proud of your achievement.


LOSERS/WINNERS

Pacific Division

Hard to put a category on this, but the Pacific division is on another level lately. 4 of the 5 teams in the newly reformed division has a #1 overall draft pick on their teams, and the Lakers now have 2 at the same time. This may be why the Pacific division has been the Western division finalist in 6 of the last 7 seasons, a very impressive run since 4 different teams make up that total. The division has just welcomed two of the top three picks in this draft, adding to a division that is accumulating young talent while the veterans such as Love and Durant take over. Hard to put a winner or loser tag on this, so we are all both.


LOSER

Charlotte Bobcats

No fault to the new GM here, but the league very heavily decided in a vote that the new guy needed to prove himself before being given talent when we set the Bobcats at the #4 spot. This particularly hurt whenever the draft import happened, and it became obvious this was a 3 man draft. There was some hope that the Bobcats could trade up or perhaps luck out if a team above them selected someone else, but the new guy will learn this league is full of experienced GMs who know what they're doing.

[Darth Vegito]

LOSER

Charlotte Bobcats

No fault to the new GM here, but the league very heavily decided in a vote that the new guy needed to prove himself before being given talent when we set the Bobcats at the #4 spot. This particularly hurt whenever the draft import happened, and it became obvious this was a 3 man draft. There was some hope that the Bobcats could trade up or perhaps luck out if a team above them selected someone else, but the new guy will learn this league is full of experienced GMs who know what they're doing.

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[Inner_GI]

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