The 2018 NBA Draft might be crazy … and, of course, it might not. Here are five bold predictions as we cross our fingers and hope it’s the former.
On average, there seems to be about one trade involving a starting-caliber, veteran player on NBA draft night.
We can hope for that, as well as teams that are good for at least one boneheaded move a year showing up for the party, and players rocketing up the draft order. And there’s the likes of San Antonio, Golden State, Houston, and others who always seem to ace the latter portions of the draft, buying picks from others and creatively filling out their rosters.
Last year, of course, Jimmy Butler was traded from Chicago to Minnesota in exchange for Jimmy Butler, Kris Dunn while the Bulls and Timberwolves also swapped draft selections. Two years ago, Serge Ibaka went from Oklahoma City to Toronto. Three years ago, it was more a smattering of rotation players, such as Mason Plumlee, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Jon Leuer, among others. The year before that, Arron Afflalo changed teams.
While the top pick is all but a sure thing and the No. 2 selection is starting to look that way as well, that doesn’t mean we can’t go out on a few only moderately sturdy limbs in examining what will take place this evening.
Let’s take a stab at a few fun predictions.