Jalen Suggs — the Orlando Magic’s lottery pick from last June — was high school teammates with 2022 potential No. 1 pick Chet Holmgren. They played on the same youth teams, the same high school team (Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis), and were together at elite camps. Suggs spent one season at Gonzaga, and Holmgren followed in those footsteps.
Now they could be teammates again in Orlando.
The Orlando Magic won the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday night and are on the clock for the NBA Draft next month. Holmgren is on the top of a lot of team draft boards.
Magic celebrating getting the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft. pic.twitter.com/VmmITM5QiL
— Khobi Price (@khobi_price) May 18, 2022
Orlando’s young core — Franz Wagner, Suggs, Cole Anthony, Wendell Carter Jr., Markelle Fultz — showed flashes of promise this season. They should get the best of the group healthy and back next season in Jonathan Isaac (he was out all year following knee surgery).
Now they will add a No. 1 pick to that mix. Things could get interesting in Orlando in a few years.
Here is how the NBA Draft Lottery shook out.
1. Orlando
2. Oklahoma City
3. Houston
4. Sacramento
5. Detroit
6. Indiana
7. Portland
8. New Orleans (via LA Lakers)
9. San Antonio
10. Washington
11. New York
12. Oklahoma City (via LA Clippers)
13. Charlotte
14. Cleveland
Some other notes from how the NBA Draft lottery broke down.
• The big winner was Sacramento, who jumped from the seventh-longest odds to the top four (in a draft where some scouts see a fall off after four).
• This was an important lottery for Portland, which is trying to rebuild on the fly around Damian Lillard — jumping up the board in the draft would have helped that cause a lot (they had a 37% chance of getting into the top four). Instead, they fell one spot to No. 7 (Sacramento leapfrogged them).
Damian Lillard’s reaction to the Trail Blazers falling to 7th in the #NBADraftLottery pic.twitter.com/KDy5Z9Z4qM
— Aaron J. Fentress (@AaronJFentress) May 18, 2022
• Oklahoma City has two lottery picks, their own (the No. 2 pick) and the No. 12 pick from the Clippers, which was part of the Paul George trade. While not tanking with the intensity of the process 76ers, Thunder executive Sam Presti has gone with the same general theory: Stockpile draft picks to get as many swings as you can. There will be misses, but get enough chances and there will be hits. With the No. 2 pick, there is a genuine chance of a future star here.
• Detroit was one of the top three in lottery odds, but slid down a couple of spots
• New York didn’t climb up the board, but at least this year they didn’t get knocked down as well.
• Orlando has made three other No. 1 picks in franchise history, and all three are or will be Hall of Famers: Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber (who they traded), and Dwight Howard.
• This is considered by many a draft with at least three potential elite players at the top: Gonzaga’s Holmgren, Duke’s Paolo Banchero, and Auburn’s Jabari Smith (different teams seem to have them in different orders). Some scouts NBC Sports has spoken with would put Purdue’s Jaden Ivey in that class as well.
Here is the non-lottery portion of the NBA Draft.
15 Charlotte (via New Orleans)
16 Atlanta
17 Houston (via Brooklyn)
18 Chicago
19 Minnesota
20 San Antonio (via Toronto)
21 Denver
22 Memphis (via Utah)
23 Philadelphia
24 Milwaukee
25 San Antonio (via Boston)
26 Dallas
27 Miami
28 Golden State
29 Memphis
30 Oklahoma City (via Phoenix)
The NBA Draft takes place on June 23 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.