Pelicans choose Zion to open draft, Morant goes 2nd
Tim BontempsESPN
NEW YORK — Welcome to the NBA, Zion Williamson.
The famous person ahead out of Duke was chosen No. 1 general by the Pelicans in Thursday night time’s NBA draft at Barclays Heart in Brooklyn, confirming what had been inevitable as soon as New Orleans gained the draft lottery final month.
Williamson, a generational expertise due to his mixture of dimension, power, velocity and talent, was the dominant drive in school basketball final season. As a freshman, he averaged 22.6 factors, eight.9 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.eight blocks, all whereas capturing 68% from the sector as he wowed with one spectacular spotlight play after one other en path to being named the Wood Award winner because the nation’s high participant.
PlayerTeamKareem Abdul-JabbarBucksTim DuncanSpursKyrie IrvingCavaliersLeBron JamesCavaliersMagic JohnsonLakersHakeem OlajuwonRocketsDavid RobinsonSpursCazzie RussellKnicksBill WaltonTrail BazersJames WorthyLakers– ESPN Stats & Data
“I do not know what to say. I did not suppose I would be on this place,” an emotional Williamson mentioned whereas typically pausing to compose himself. “My mother sacrificed rather a lot for me. I would not be right here with out my mother. She did every little thing for me. I simply wish to thank her.”
Williamson instantly steps in because the centerpiece for a new-look Pelicans staff that agreed to commerce star huge man Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers final week.
Like Williamson, the second and third picks additionally went in line with plan. Murray State level guard Ja Morant went second to the Memphis Grizzlies, and Williamson’s teammate at Duke, swingman RJ Barrett, went third to the New York Knicks.
Morant, an explosive athlete with a stable Three-point capturing stroke, led the Racers to the second spherical of the NCAA event, averaging 24.5 factors and 10.zero assists per recreation whereas going from a mid-first-round choose earlier than the season started to the clear No. 2 prospect getting into draft night time, in line with ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz.
PlayerTimesSchoolJa Morant14Murray St.Cassius Winston3Michigan St.Josh Sharkey3SamfordColbey Ross3Pepperdine– Assists turned official stat in 1983-84– ESPN Stats & Data
Morant steps in to a Grizzlies staff that on Tuesday agreed to commerce level guard stalwart Mike Conley to the Utah Jazz for forwards Jae Crowder and Kyle Korver, the No. 23 choose Thursday night time and a protected future first-round choose.
Barrett, in the meantime, had been hoping to hitch the Knicks all alongside. Barrett’s mom, who’s from Brooklyn, met his father, Rowan, whereas she was a monitor star and he was a basketball star at St. John’s in Queens.
“It could imply rather a lot,” Barrett, who was born in Canada, mentioned Wednesday of getting the possibility to play for the Knicks. “My late grandfather, relaxation in peace, he was the most important Knicks fan. He’d at all times inform me I would play for the Knicks. It could imply rather a lot to me.”
When he acquired his want, the group right here at Barclays Heart exploded in cheers, and Barrett — resplendent in a pink swimsuit and black shirt — walked onto the stage as the group chanted his title.
YearPlayerPoints1989Chris Jackson9652007Kevin Durant9032018Trae Younger8762008Michael Beasley8662019RJ Barrett860– ESPN Stats & Data
The presumptive No. 1 choose getting into the faculty basketball season, Barrett’s star was surpassed by the comet that’s Williamson. Nonetheless, the 6-foot-7 ahead was seen as part of the three-player tier thought of a lower above the remainder of the draft prospects after averaging 22.6 factors, 7.6 rebounds and four.Three assists at Duke final season.
Now he’ll get an opportunity to show he is as much as the problem he needed to tackle: reviving the Knicks, who had the league’s worst report in 2018-19.
“I’ve given this recreation all I’ve acquired for a very long time,” he mentioned after his choice. “I am simply prepared for this. I wanna embrace the town and embrace the staff.”
The true pleasure on the draft started with the No. four choose, which nonetheless technically belonged to the Los Angeles Lakers however has been traded twice previously week. First, it was despatched to the Pelicans on Saturday as a part of the Lakers’ bundle for Davis. Then, a few hours earlier than the draft started, it modified arms once more, going to the Atlanta Hawks in alternate for the Nos. eight (Texas middle Jaxson Hayes), 17 and 35 picks on this 12 months’s draft, plus a protected first-rounder from Cleveland subsequent 12 months.
Atlanta made that transfer to take Virginia ahead De’Andre Hunter — and that is exactly what the Hawks did (by way of the Lakers) including the rangy ahead to an intriguing younger core that features Trae Younger, Kevin Huerter and John Collins.
Hunter, who was named the ACC Defensive Participant of the Yr final season, will shore up an Atlanta staff that struggled on protection final season, posting the fourth-worst defensive effectivity within the league. No participant below contract with the Hawks for subsequent season ranked within the high 150 in ESPN’s defensive plus-minus this previous season.
The transfer marks the second 12 months in a row that Atlanta basic supervisor Travis Schlenk has made a giant transfer within the lottery. Final 12 months, it was to commerce down two spots to pick Younger, whereas additionally buying the No. 10 choose on this 12 months’s draft — ahead Cam Reddish from Duke.
With Hunter off the board, that left the Cleveland Cavaliers with the possibility to take Vanderbilt level guard Darius Garland with the fifth choose. Regardless of being in the midst of a lot of commerce discussions main as much as the choice, the Cavaliers wound up hanging onto it and taking Garland, an intriguing prospect who performed solely 5 video games for the Commodores final season earlier than struggling a season-ending knee damage. These 5 video games are the second-fewest by a university participant drafted within the high 10 for the reason that one-and-done period started in 2006.
That put the Minnesota Timberwolves on the clock, after they’d traded ahead Dario Saric and the No. 11 choose (North Carolina guard Cam Johnson) to Phoenix to maneuver up 5 slots to No. 6. With the choose, Minnesota took Texas Tech ahead Jarrett Culver, who entered the draft contemporary off main the Pink Raiders to inside a number of bounces of profitable this 12 months’s nationwide championship.
Culver going No. 6 cleared the best way for the Chicago Bulls, selecting seventh, to fill a necessity at level guard by taking North Carolina level guard Coby White, who might instantly step into the staff’s beginning spot as a rookie subsequent season.
From there, New Orleans took Hayes — giving the Pelicans one other athletic younger huge to pair with Williamson — earlier than the Washington Wizards chosen Japanese ahead Rui Hachimura from Gonzaga ninth and the Hawks, with their second choose within the high 10, took Reddish, the third participant of the night time from Duke.
The one different time since 1966, the frequent draft period, that one faculty has had three gamers chosen within the high 10 was in 2007, when Al Horford (third), Corey Brewer (seventh) and Joakim Noah (ninth) all had been chosen out of Florida.
Johnson’s shock choice by Phoenix at No. 11 gave the ACC a report with six lottery picks from a single convention. Johnson, 23, is older than his new teammate Devin Booker, who is about to enter his fifth NBA season and remains to be simply 22.
Rounding out the lottery, the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Warmth took back-to-back Kentucky Wildcats at No. 12 and 13 — ahead PJ Washington and guard Tyler Herro — and the Boston Celtics grabbed Indiana swingman Romeo Langford at No. 14.