With Lottery On Tuesday, NBA Draft Will Be Coming Into Focus Soon

The NBA draft lottery will take place Tuesday night in Chicago, which is a bit of a change from New York.

With that in place, the draft will begin to take shape and as soon as everyone who realizes they have no shot at getting picked pulls out, we’ll have a much better idea of who will go where.

The top three picks are generally believed to be DeAndre Ayton, Luka Doncic and Marvin Bagley, but it all depends on how the lottery shakes out and of course on any trades that are arranged afterwards.

The team that could be the most interesting to watch though is Sacramento.

The Kings picked Duke’s Harry Giles last year and held him out due to his knee issues. However, reports are that he he is now fully healthy, has wowed everyone in practice and should be a really good presence for the Kings going forward.

Between Giles, Willie Cauley-Stein and De’Aaron Fox, the Kings have 3/5 of an incredible running lineup. If it was us, we’d look for the fastest guy we could find and keep building on speed because this team should be amazing in the open court when everyone is healthy (it’s a bit early for this but it would be a great place for Zion Williamson to ultimately end up too).

We haven’t looked at the draft in terms of speed so we’re not sure who would be ideal here. It could be that Doncic would be the dream pick as he would probably play well off of Cauley-Stein and Giles and he’s a superb passer and long-range shooter. He isn’t immensely athletic but he runs the court well and really knows what to do with the ball when he has it.

That would mean a huge move up the big board though. More realistically they have a shot at Trae Young, who was so spectacular for Oklahoma for much of his freshman season.

However, another guy who would be a great fit, although he probably won’t be an early pick would be Miami’s Lonnie Walker. He barely got to show what he could do this year but he’s big, strong and fast for a guard. He’d be a nice piece to work with Fox.

Of course, they’d probably be thrilled to get either Ayton or Bagley, both of whom are talented bigs who can get up and down the floor. They’d just have to make some decisions about who could become trade bait down the road.

Anyway, keep an eye on the Kings Tuesday night. With a couple of breaks, this could be the next great NBA team.

And also remember to watch the Boston Celtics as GM Danny Ainge has accumulated a lot of draft picks that he can package to go after a player or players he really wants.

Note: if the Lakers manage to move up to between 2-5, then Boston gets that pick.

• 2018 NBA Draft Lottery odds, standing: Suns, Grizzlies own best shot at No. 1 overall pick