NBA Draft 2020: Grades, reactions, analysis for the first round

Onyeka Okongwu being off the board at this point was quite the blow for Washington, given the need for rim protection and Okongwu’s pristine fit as a rim-runner next to Bradley Beal and John Wall, but Deni Avdija sliding to 9 was a nice consolation prize for the Wizards, who could use his complementary offense (cutting, spot-up shooting, passing) and help-side rim protection on the wing.

The team is a bit bogged down with forwards at the moment, including a few that aren’t ideal floor spacers (Troy Brown Jr., Isaac Bonga, Rui Hachimura), but betting on two-way wings with high IQ is a solid strategy in the lottery.

Grade: B

Perhaps it’s a coincidence that Leon Rose — New York’s president of basketball operations and a former agent with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) — ended up interviewing six CAA clients before hiring Tom Thibodeau, a CAA client as head coach. Perhaps it’s also a coincidence that Rose hired three assistant coaches that just so happened to be CAA clients.

And, perhaps it’s also a coincidence that Rose drafted Obi Toppin, a CAA client, with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. These are all coincidences, and not at all a string of poorly-motived decisions, right?

Agency ties aside, Toppin’s fit in New York is a concerning one. Toppin thrived in an offensive ecosystem with reliable ball-handlers and a spread five-out scheme that allowed the 22-year-old to post up and score on advantage situations, and, well, New York isn’t that. It’s also concerning that both Toppin and 7’1 shot-blocker Mitchell Robinson are at their best as lob threats, meaning they’ll be operating in the same airspace on a court that already lacks viable shooters.

Worse yet, Toppin is a bit of a defensive quagmire, lacking the load time and reach to protect the paint or the lateral mobility and hip flexibility to guard the perimeter as a four. This pick raises more and more questions for the Knicks, who likely would’ve been better off with Devin Vassell, Kira Lewis, or a number of other prospects with this pick — too bad they’re not with CAA.

Grade: D+

When diving into the potential draft targets for the Pistons last week, it was noted that, while they certainly had interesting pieces to build with, they didn’t lack a central player worth building around. There was no prospect with a conceivable All-Star ceiling, no franchise cornerstone, no bona fide building block in Detroit.

But there is one now. A 6’6 pick-and-roll creator with two-way impact as a team defender and pull-up shooter, Hayes found himself perched atop Draft Twitter big boards as one of the draft’s premier prospects.

Finding players with wing size who can dribble, pass, shoot, and defend is incredibly difficult, and the Pistons found one in Hayes, who we pegged as the team’s top option with the No. 7 pick. The team’s latter two first-round picks were questionable, but that doesn’t matter — Detroit has its cornerstone, and that’s something worth being excited about.

Grade: A+