The luckier you are, the more unlucky you are? Is this NBA rookie class really so bad that even the No. 1 pick is worthless?
The Hawks won the No. 1 pick with a very low probability of 3%, the Rockets had only a 5.2% chance of winning the third pick, and the Spurs won the 4th and 8th picks in the first round with two picks... Beijing time in May On the 13th, the 2024 NBA Lottery drawing ceremony was held in Chicago. As soon as the results came out, the media began to name this year's "lucky team." But at the same time, there are also opposing voices, thinking that "the luckier you are this year, the more unlucky you may be."
Photo, Chicago, April 17, 2024, Hawks player Capela fights during the game.
On that day, in the 2023-2024 NBA playoffs, the Chicago Bulls defeated the Atlanta Hawks 131-116 at home.
This time the Eagles won the No. 1 pick for the first time in 49 years since 1971. At the same time, they had a 3% probability of winning the lottery, which also set a new record for the lowest probability of winning the No. 1 pick under the current lottery rules. After the Hawks won the No. 1 pick, they took photos to celebrate on their official social media and posted: "3% is enough."
The Rockets, who won the third overall pick, also became the team with the highest pick in the Western Conference. The Rockets picked the 12th pick in their own first-round pick and failed to make the top four, but with the unprotected first-round pick sent by the Brooklyn Nets, they finally got the No. 3 pick - this was the reward for trading Harden that year. . As soon as the results came out, the Rockets officially wrote: "We have the third overall pick in this year's draft! What do you think?" The Nets' pick was originally expected to be the ninth pick, but now it suddenly jumped six spots to the third pick in the first round. This result not only exceeded everyone's expectations, but also gave the Rockets a more favorable position in the future draft market - they can completely trade him away in exchange for more favorable chips.
Some people sign good luck, and some people sign bad luck. In this lottery draw, the Detroit Pistons only received the No. 5 pick despite having the worst record for two consecutive years.
However, many people hold the opposite view regarding this result, because the quality of this rookie class is evaluated by the outside world as the worst class after the 2000 class. According to US media, individual general managers in the league evaluated this draft. Their conclusion was: This draft is really bad. How bad is it? Whoever gets the No. 1 pick will be fired, which means this class is so bad that even the No. 1 pick is worthless!
After all, the team will give the top pick an annual salary of tens of millions of dollars, but if you choose a parallel import, firstly, it has no trading value, and secondly, it will be ruined in your own hands, which is really difficult to deal with.
But some fans soon refuted this view, "The so-called big and small years of the draft are simply predictions without factual basis. In the history of the NBA, there are many examples of the so-called big year of the draft overturning. There are also examples of counterattacks in young years.”
Take the so-called draft year as an example. In the past 20 years, there have been two counterattack drafts! First of all, of course, the 2009 rookies. Before the draft, all walks of life were not optimistic about young people such as Curry, Griffin, Harden, and DeRozan. However, in fact, it was the 2009 rookies who became the first draft picks after the 2003 draft. A generation that is equally dazzling one generation after another.
In the 2011 draft two years later, the rookies who were still not optimistic about it also achieved a counterattack - Irving, Klay, and Leonard were all core members of the championship team, and Paul George, Kemba... Walker, Butler, and Thomas are all All-Star players.
So, can these teams that got good signings this year get what they want? Maybe we have to let the answer "fly" for a while.
