The San Antonio Spurs landed what many believe will go down as the greatest lottery prizes since LeBron James on Tuesday by securing the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA draft, which they will surely use to select an unprecedented prospect in Victor Wembanyama.
Here is how the lottery order shook out:
| Pick | Team | Pick | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Antonio | 8 | Washington |
| 2 | Charlotte | 9 | Utah |
| 3 | Portland | 10 | Dallas |
| 4 | Houston | 11 | Orlando (from Chicago) |
| 5 | Detroit | 12 | Oklahoma City |
| 6 | Orlando | 13 | Toronto |
| 7 | Indiana | 14 | New Orleans |
Now that you have the order, let's get to the lottery winners and losers.
Winner: Spurs
Twenty-six years after the Spurs fell into Tim Duncan, which began a five-title dynasty, San Antonio up and lands Wembenyama, another potential generational player. Not much else to say. San Antonio struck gold here.
Winner: Victor Wembanyama
Wemby found a great home in San Antonio, where he'll be under the tutelage of an all-time coach in Gregg Popovich and won't bear the burden of immediate expectations for a franchise in transition. The Spurs will put everything they have as an organization -- which is a lot -- into developing Wemby into the megastar he is seemingly destined to become. They've done it before with Hall of Fame big men Tim Duncan and David Robinson. Perimeter pieces are in place in Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell.
Would it have been fun to see Wembanyama paired with LaMelo Ball in Charlotte? Of course. Would Detroit have been a good on-paper fit with the backcourt in place in Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey? Sure. But give me the stability of the Spurs to not screw up a prospect like this. Long term, Wembanyama should feel fortunate it went this way.
Loser: Pistons
The Pistons entered as one of three teams (Houston and San Antonio) with the highest 14% chance of landing the top pick, and they didn't even manage to stay in the top three for a play at Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson (Miller likely would've been the play with Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey in place. The Pistons instead end up at No. 5. Tough break.
Loser: Knicks
New York would've gotten the Mavericks' 2023 pick, as the last piece of the Kristpaps Porzingis trade, had it fallen outside the top 10. It landed 10th. Dallas keeps it. New York is now in line to get Dallas' pick either next year or in 2025, with a top-10 protection on both, but Dallas expects to be a playoff team again soon. This was arguably New York's best shot to end up with another lottery pick from Dallas.
Winner: Trail Blazers
This one could go either way. On one hand, reports indicate that Portland was this close to nabbing the No. 1 pick, which, I suppose one could argue, makes them a tough-luck loser in the Wemby sweepstakes.
The San Antonio Spurs won the NBA Draft lottery and the right to select Victor Wembanyama with the ping pong ball combo 14, 5, 8, 2.
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 17, 2023
The Portland Trail Blazers held the combination 14, 5, 8, 3. They missed by just one number on the final ball.
Having said that, the Blazers entered the night with a 10.5% shot at the top pick, fifth-best on the board, so jumping into the top-three is a big win in my book. There's a good chance that highly coveted point guard Scoot Henderson will be available at No. 3 with the Hornets, who already have LaMelo Ball, picking No. 2.
That's good for Portland, which will almost certainly look to trade this pick as it continues its efforts to arm Damian Lillard with a contending roster. With Henderson in play, this pick now holds tremendous value on the trade market. It's not the No. 1 pick, but this is the blue-chip asset Portland needed.
Loser: Rockets
Houston, along with Detroit and San Antonio, entered with the highest possible odds of getting the top overall pick and fell to No. 4, jumped by Portland and Charlotte. Of course they were hoping for Wemby, but Scoot Henderson (to be done with this Kevin Porter Jr. point guard experiment) or Brandon Miller would've been great consolations. Staying on the top three would've guaranteed Houston one of those guys. No such luck.
Winner: Hornets
Charlotte jumped from the fourth-best lottery odds to the No. 2 slot, where it will have its choice between Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller. It might feel like a redundant fit to pair Henderson with LaMelo Ball, but drafting this high typically means taking the best player available and figuring out the fit later. After all, who knows if Ball will even be in Charlotte beyond his rookie deal. Lot more options here for the Hornets than they would've had outside the top three.
Loser: Bulls
In order to keep its 2023 pick, Chicago needed to land in the top four. That didn't happen. The Bulls end up with the 11th pick, which now goes to the Magic as the final piece of the Nikola Vucevic trade. And what a disaster of a trade that turned out to be for the Bulls, who have up Wendell Carter Jr., Franz Wagner and now the 11th overall pick in 2023 for Vucevic. Yikes.
Winner: Mavericks
Dallas punted when it was still alive for the postseason for the sole purpose of retaining this pick, which,. as mentioned above, would have gone to New York had it fallen outside the top 10. It landed right on the spot at 10. Dallas breathes a heavy sigh of relief. The tank, embarrassing as it was after trading for Kyrie Irving, wasn't for nothing.
Loser: Wizards
Washington, which entered the night with less than a 7% chance to landing the top overall pick, reportedly upped its chance to better than 50% by the time it got down to just 11 numbers remaining.
The San Antonio Spurs won the NBA Draft lottery and the right to select Victor Wembanyama with the ping pong ball combo 14, 5, 8, 2.
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 17, 2023
After the first three numbers were picked, the Washington Wizards had 6 of the possible 11 remaining numbers (7, 9, 10, 12, 13) and barely missed.
Man, that's pretty tough. The Wizards were right there to stumble into Wembanyama, and instead came out with the ho-hum No. 8 pick, exactly where they were slotted to start the night. What a buzz kill.
