The years where we have several other teams’ draft picks are more fun to follow.

I enjoyed watching the Magic obliterate the Rockets yesterday, and obviously it was also good seeing the Jazz lose to the Kings.

I think there’s a realistic chance the Rockets are a bottom 7 or so team in the league still. Honestly they looked like the worst team in the league last night, but it’s too early to tell with a brand new coach and several new players. I think we’ll have some serious suspense on draft lottery night as to whether the Rockets pick will land in the top four or whether we’ll end up with an extremely valuable 5-10 type of pick.

I think the Jazz will hover right around that 10th spot (their pick is protected top 10). It’s not that they are particularly bad, per se. The league is just gonna be so damn strong top-to-bottom this year that it’s gonna be hard to pick them to really make any noise. My guess/prediction is that this pick ends up right around 11 or 12 and conveys to us.

Now, for the less exciting picks: I think the Clippers pick obviously comes down to the health of Kawhi and PG. If they are able to stay healthy all year (big if) and especially if Russ continues to play like his prime self, the Clips pick will likely be in the 22-25 range. If one of their big two gets hurt again, who knows. Could fall all the way back down to 14-18 range or so.

The Clips pick and the Thunder pick should be interchangeable in terms of which one looks like it’s gonna go to the Pacers as part of that Denver trade. My hope is that the Thunder exceed expectations greatly, the Clippers falter again (not wishing for an injury of course, just saying the ideal scenario), and that the Rockets and Jazz picks both convey so we end up with something like:

6th overall (Rockets pick)

11th overall (Jazz pick)

15th overall (Clippers pick)

20th overall (Thunder pick sent to Indiana)