NBA Draft 2023: Overall takeaways and key grades from draft results

Fairly Chalky Lottery

From there, the remainder of the lottery essentially went as expected. Bilal Collibaly, a late riser in the pre-draft process after his strong playoff performance with Mets 92, went 7th with the Wizards having to trade up a slot to select him. The Pacers likely had other teams trying to move up for Coulibaly, forcing the Wizards to give up two future second-round picks to nab the Frenchman.

The biggest surprise was probably the Magic taking Jett Howard 11th, with Gradey Dick and Jordan Hawkins still on the board. I had Howard 19th on my board, Dick 11th, and Hawkins 15th, so I don’t necessarily agree with it, but if the Magic were targeting a shooting wing, then I don’t think this is too big of a reach. Dick slid to 13 to the Toronto Raptors, and Hawkins went 14th to the Pelicans.

There was a swap between the Mavericks and Thunder where the Thunder moved up from 12 to 10 to select Kentucky’s Cason Wallace. The Mavericks took their frontcourt piece of the future in Duke’s Dereck Lively, while they offloaded the contract of Davis Bertans. I’m curious if Wallace was a candidate to get sniped at 11, but this is a big win for the Mavericks who got the guy they seemingly always wanted, and were still able to move off a contract. Oklahoma City has certainly had success with Kentucky guards before, and Wallace should bring some defensive intensity to their backcourt.