We’ve been over the “2020 has given us so many things we’ve never experienced before” take a bunch this year, from sports bubbles to just about everything else.
Here’s one more to throw on to the pile, and it’s not ONLY because of COVID-19 that everything’s different: Thursday night marks the beginning of the 2020 NBA draft process with the lottery that determines who will get the top picks. And this year’s draft is the most uncertain ever.
It was shaping up that way before college basketball — including the 2020 NCAA tournament — was shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the top names has its own set of flaws.
LaMelo Ball, the younger brother of Lonzo Ball, has questions about his defense and shooting. And does it help or hurt that he played in Australia?
James Wiseman seemed like a candidate to go No. 1 overall, but he played three games before he left Memphis amid a suspension by the NCAA. Perhaps if scouts had seen him play more, he’d be a more certain pick.
Georgia’s Anthony Edwards has some highs and lows on both ends of the floor in 2019-20.
You get the idea. And yes, there were years when there were questions about who the top picks should be. In 2017, there was Markelle Fultz, Jayson Tatum and Ball’s brother Lonzo. Remember when Anthony Bennett went first overall in 2013 over Victor Oladipo and Otto Porter? You could go all the way back to 1998 when Michael Olowokandi was a surprise No. 1 overall.
But here’s the difference: all of those years had tourneys and full seasons of college basketball and overseas hoops. We didn’t get to watch this year’s Ja Morant explode toward the end of the season to solidify his status as one of the top picks.
So we can heap the 2020 uncertainty on top of the questions about who’s the best player in this group and we’ve got one way to describe what’s about to happen: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
It may be team need that leads to the No. 1 pick. But whatever decides it, we’re entering unknown territory in the 2020 draft. Let’s get nuts!
