With the NBA Draft Lottery order set, teams can start scouting their prospects and thinking about potential trades. Here are a few that would be fun to see.
The 2019 NBA Draft order was finalized on Tuesday evening, with the New Orleans Pelicans and Memphis Grizzlies both jumping up six spots to claim the top two picks in the draft.
While the Pelicans are likely to select Zion Williamson, the talented freshman from Duke University, with the first overall selection, the organization has an unanswered question with the status of their current franchise player, Anthony Davis.
The impression Davis gave the Pelicans was that he wanted to be traded to a different team, stating publicly and through anonymous sources his desire to play elsewhere.
“All 29 other teams are on my list,” Davis said on NBA TV during the All-Star break. “I don’t have a preferred destination. I just want to win. It could be big market, small market. I don’t care. I want to win. obviously, whatever team I get traded to, play for for a year or whatever, if I get traded, I’m not sure. But make the best of it. When free agency comes I’ll see what happens. I can’t tell the future, but all 29 teams are on the list.
But that was before the Pelicans added a generational talent like Williamson to their roster. Perhaps the addition of the heralded forward will change Davis’ opinion on basketball in the bayou.
The lottery results didn’t only have a dramatic effect on the Pelicans. Teams ranging from the Grizzlies at second overall all the way to the Celtics at fourteenth overall are going to be talking with the other teams in the league to see if they can add assets to their teams through a trade rather than by using their draft pick. Here are a few potential trades for teams to explore now that they know where they will be picking on June 20.