NBA Draft 2020: Best/worst fits for this year’s consensus lottery picks
By Trevor Marks
A look at the best and worst fits for the top 14 prospects in the 2020 NBA Draft.
It’s officially draft week!
After a season that took an entire calendar year to complete, the 2020 NBA Draft is finally a few days away. We’re only 146 days late from when the draft was originally scheduled, but as the saying goes, better late than never.
This year’s draft is shaping up to be one of the more unpredictable evenings in several years, a confluence of many factors, including the absence of a consensus No. 1 pick, a relatively shallow pool of top-tier prospects, and the presence of several win-now teams picking at the top of the draft. Some players may get picked much earlier or much later than they’re expected to, a result of polarizing opinions across the league as well as the probability of draft-day trades.
As a refresher, the lottery order is as follows:
1. Minnesota Timberwolves
2. Golden State Warriors
3. Charlotte Hornets
4. Chicago Bulls
5. Cleveland Cavaliers
6. Atlanta Hawks
7. Detroit Pistons
8. New York Knicks
9. Washington Wizards
10. Phoenix Suns
11. San Antonio Spurs
12. Sacramento Kings
13. New Orleans Pelicans
14. Boston Celtics (via Memphis)
Given the weaknesses of several top prospects and the overall flat talent level throughout the class — meaning, there isn’t much separating one player from another — the fit between player and organization will be more important than ever.
That’s the purpose of this exercise: To look at the best and worst fits for this year’s projected lottery picks, accounting for roster construction, organizational direction, coaching schemes, team culture, and specific factors relevant to each individual player.
Last year, we used the incredibly useful aggregate mock draft from Hoops Hype, which averaged out rankings from nearly a dozen established publications. Unfortunately, their tool hasn’t been updated since August, so we’re doing some shoe-leather reporting this time. As to not get bogged down in the mock draft weeds, we’ll be using the most recent projections from The Athletic (Oct. 13), Bleacher Report (Nov. 4), and ESPN (Nov. 11), three publications whose experts incorporate intel in their work.
The following players found themselves at the top of the draft board more often than not: LaMelo Ball, James Wiseman, Anthony Edwards, Deni Avdija, Obi Toppin, Tyrese Haliburton, Isaac Okoro, Onyeka Okongwu, Devin Vassell, Patrick Williams, Killian Hayes, Kira Lewis, Aaron Nesmith, and Saddiq Bey. As tempting as it would be to throw in the few prospects who just missed the cut (Precious Achiuwa, RJ Hampton, Jalen Smith), we’re sticking with the top 14 for the sake of brevity.
Without further ado, here are the best and worst fits for the projected lottery of the 2020 NBA Draft.