Markelle Fultz became the first UW player to be selected first in the NBA Draft.
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After the Knicks selected promising French guard Ntilikina, who is flying right back to Strausbourg to help his club try to win their league championship, two other worldwide players were taken in the first round.
“But”, he said, “we feel like we performed well”. “Once he figured out I had a chance to go there, he started showing more love and everything like that”. He found one in Butler, who the Wolves acquired along with the 16th overall pick for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the No. 7 pick, which ended up being – what else? – another freshman, Arizona’s Lauri Markkanen.
The 6-4 Fultz was the team’s target all along, which is why the Sixers sent the No. 3 pick and a future No. 1 selection to Boston to secure the overall No. 1 pick. In his sophomore season, the 20-year-old swingman took on a much heavier workload and dramatically improved his game on both ends of the floor.
Beyond the scouting, strategy and suspense of teams trying to select the right player for their slot in the NBA Draft, a spate of trades spiced up the proceedings at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Thursday.
Before whispers of the trade surfaced with Boston and Philadelphia, Fultz was scheduled to work out for the Celtics.
Oops. In case you can’t read the embedded tweet, Fultz said that he was “Excited to head to (City) and join the (team name)”, all while happily pointing out that the message was sponsored by watchmaker Tissot.
“We want to turn the team around and build the brand of the Sixers, on and off the court”, Fultz said, a day after the draft, after a formal introductory press conference on the Sixers’ practice floor.
“Markelle is a tremendous athlete”, Bryan Colangelo said.
“Tonight was supposed to be a good night”.
Then Keith hit me up and said, “New plan”. He’s got all the tools to be a good inside presence but just hasn’t put it all together.
Phoenix selected versatile forward Josh Jackson from Kansas with the fourth choice before ultra-quick point guard De’Aaron Fox of Kentucky was snapped up by the Sacramento Kings. Nothing materialized, though coach Stan Van Gundy said he told the entire team: “I’ll never, ever say to anyone, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll never trade you'”. Either the player doesn’t fit the system or adds to a logjam at the position. The Chicago Bulls traded away their best player in Jimmy Butler and began their long-awaited rebuilding process. (They were even teammates on a Latvian age-group national team, and Pasecniks followed the Porzingis line by playing in the strong competition of Spain’s Liga ACB before going into the draft.) Philly addressed a pressing concern in the first round, twice.
The Chicago Bulls made headlines for all the wrong reasons on Thursday night.
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Still, other conferences are doing their best to maintain relevancy in the college game, none more so than the Pac-12. And that’s before going into free agency searching for leadership and more shooting, possibly a starter for the backcourt and possibly a backup.
