Next month, 22 NBA teams will head to Orlando to finish the NBA season and crown a champion. For the other eight teams, there seasons are over. While the majority of NBA star power will be down in Florida, notable guys like Steph Curry, Karl-Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell, Trae Young, Derrick Rose, and more won't be making the trip.
With the NBA all about new ideas right now, from play-in tournaments to potentially shifting their calendar for good, the Complex Sports team wanted to present our idea: a fantasy draft where the 22 teams heading to Orlando got to add one player from the teams that didn't make it. This would secure all the star power would be included and add some real intrigue to the games. Could you imagine Steph Curry joining Bradley Beal on the Wizards for eight games? Chaos.
Now, this is something that the NBA would never do, and that's fine. It's a fantasy draft for a reason. We're just trying to add some fun to the mix. We broke down the full draft on this weeks episode of the pod, which you can listen to here, but the process was pretty simple. Zion, Adam, and myself alternated picks until we were through the 22 teams. The draft order was done from the worst record of the 22 teams to the best, with the Wizards picking first and the Bucks picking last. You could pick anyone that wasn't set to play for one of the 22 teams. We also pretended like injuries didn't exist, so guys like Klay Thompson and Blake Griffin were included in the player pool.
Pretty simple and a lot of fun. Check out the order and results below. Yes, Steph Curry wasn't taken No. 1 overall. Adam Silver, please contact our legal team if you'd like to use this idea. Thank you. Full explanations of each pick can be heard on the latest episode of the Load Management podcast here.
Draft Results
Wizards (Zion) - Karl-Anthony Towns
Suns (Adam) - Steph Curry
Spurs (Chopz) - Klay Thompson
Kings (Zion) - Blake Griffin
Pelicans (Adam) - Draymond Green
Blazers (Chopz) - Kevin Love
Magic (Zion) - Trae Young
Nets (Adam) - Andrew Wiggins
Grizzlies (Chopz) - Andre Drummond
Mavs (Zion) - Zach Lavine
76ers (Adam) - D'Angelo Russell
Pacers (Chopz) - Otto Porter Jr.
Rockets (Zion) - John Collins
Thunder (Adam) - Mitchell Robinson
Heat (Chopz) - Julius Randle
Jazz (Zion) - Nic Batum
Nuggets (Adam) - Derrick Rose
Celtics (Chopz) - Tristan Thompson
Clippers (Zion) - Clint Capela
Raptors (Adam) - Collin Sexton
Lakers (Chopz) - Vince Carter
Bucks (Zion) - Devonte Graham
