NBA Draft 2020: Grades, reactions, analysis for the first round
By Trevor Marks
Udoka Azubuike. 27. player. 118. . Center. Utah Jazz
Using a first-rounder, even a late one, on a backup center is always an underwhelming proposition, particularly when there are guards and wings who made more sense at the draft slot.
Azubuike is a daunting lob threat and will make a nice pick-and-roll partner to Utah’s ball-handlers (Mike Conley, Donovan Mitchell), but with better bets on the table, this is a pretty vanilla pick, especially considering the team used the No. 38 pick to offload former first-rounder Tony Bradley, who Utah drafted in 2017 with the hopes of being a reliable backup center. Bradley didn’t work out, but perhaps Azubuike will.
Grade: D
Guard. Boston Celtics. Payton Pritchard. 26. player. 18.
It’s not every day that you see two consecutive picks used on extreme, puzzling, inarguable reaches. And yet the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks managed to do so at the tail-end of the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft, selecting a pair of prospects that a large swath of draft evaluators viewed as late-second-rounders at best, and undrafted pickups at worst.
Boston going with Oregon’s Payton Pritchard (career 13.5 ppg on .379 3P%) — a shaky decision-maker whose athletic profile may not translate well to the NBA — despite the number of superior guard prospects available at that spot (Tyrell Terry, Desmond Bane, Tre Jones, Malachi Flynn, etc.) is questionable at best, and a horrific miscalculation at worst.
Grade: F
27. . Guard. New York Knicks. Immanuel Quickley. 25. player
The same goes for New York with its selection of Kentucky sharpshooter Immanuel Quickley, who likely could’ve been had later in the second round. Quickley did finish his college career as a 39.7 percent three-point shooter and 89.5 percent free throw shooter, but there were better shooters on the board, many of which offered superior skill sets compared to the undersized two-guard who struggles to finish in the paint and create his own offense.
Plus, it’s disappointing that the point-guard-needy Knicks failed to leave the draft with a real floor general, despite heading into the evening with a pair of first-round picks.
Poor marks all around.
Grade: F