The team a prospect gets drafted by can have as much of an impact on that player’s career as raw talent. These NBA Draft prospects are headed to the best situations.
Players undoubtedly have to be a special kind of talented to succeed in the NBA, but the situation they enter after the NBA Draft can have just as big of an impact on their career as anything.
You can look at Pascal Siakam of the NBA champion Toronto Raptors, who was given the chance to develop and then playing time to develop into the quality player he is now. Last year, players like Kevin Huerter and Mitchell Robinson outperformed their draft position and made the All-Rookie team because they were given opportunities to succeed.
The 2019 draft was a little wacky with the insane number of trades and a few…questionable…selections, creating the likelihood of a few steals popping up late in the first round and early in the second (Nassir Little, Keldon Johnson, and Nicolas Claxton immediately come to mind).
This was billed as a three-player draft as teams had a general consensus that Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, and RJ Barrett were the best prospects available, and the uncertainty the followed created a lot of that chaos. Every team seemed to have a different set of players at the top of their draft board, and that can be a good or bad thing for the players they selected.
So, while players obviously want to be drafted as high as possible for the larger rookie contract, who picks them is also just as important.
Which players are going to the best situations? Here are the five that have been given the greatest chance to succeed.