NBA Draft 2020: Biggest winners and losers from the Draft Lottery

Loser: New York Knicks 

It may be cruel to pile onto the Knicks at this point. After all, they’ve dealt with a rather unfair share of disastrous lottery luck in the last two decades. They’ve dropped from their pre-lottery spot 14 times since 1985, when they won the Patrick Ewing sweepstakes, an amount of franchise-altering sorrow that only trails Minnesota (15 drops). And in the years that they didn’t slide, the Knicks stood pat following the lottery drawing, never again improving their draft position.

This year was more of the same, with the 21-45 Knicks dropping two spots to No. 8, once again missing out on the premier talent available at the top of an otherwise lackluster draft class. LaMelo Ball or Anthony Edwards (to a lesser extent) would’ve been fine additions to a roster that, outside of RJ Barrett and perhaps Mitchell Robinson, lacks real building blocks for the future. Recent draftees Frank Ntilikina and Kevin Knox have yet to pan out, whether from inconsistent rotations amid coaching changes, nagging injuries, or in Knox’s case, talent.

There is talent scattered throughout the first round, and Leon Rose, the newly established President of Basketball Operations, should have decent prospects to choose from when the Knicks are on the clock. One of Killian Hayes or Tyrese Haliburton (a client of CAA, Rose’s former agency) could slide out of the top-7, and Tyrese Maxey, a two-way combo-guard from Kentucky, could be considered at No. 8 given his ability to play with and without the ball — and it doesn’t hurt that the Knicks just hired former Kentucky assistant coach Kenny Payne.

The Knicks will have options, but another year of worsened draft positioning nonetheless stings and puts a greater emphasis on the front office doing its homework and coming to the best decision it can. What could possibly go wrong?