The NBA Draft is now over and the next thing up for the new crop of NBA players in the Summer League.
There weren’t many surprises in the draft but there were a couple of shocking reports that came out surrounding the draft. One was 3rd pick Jabari Smith Jr. only working out for the Magic and Thunder because he didn’t see himself getting drafted after 2. Then he was drafted 3rd by the Rockets, a team he didn’t work out for.
Another shocking report is that 2nd pick Chet Holmgren reportedly tanked his workout with the Magic because he didn’t want to be in Orlando and really wanted to be in Oklahoma City where he landed according to Jeremy Woo of Sports Illustrated.
Speaking of teams that operate in secrecy, the anticipated-but-never-fully-confirmed marriage between the Thunder and Chet Holmgren came to fruition at No. 2, as Oklahoma City selected Holmgren over Smith. While it was never entirely clear to other teams what the Thunder were going to do, there was significant suspicion amongst rival executives that Holmgren’s camp preferred he land in Oklahoma City and not Orlando. While rumors had been flying around the league for a couple weeks about what was going on, most of them unfounded and overly speculative, as I understand things, at least one concrete maneuver was taken to steer Holmgren away from the Magic: according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, Holmgren bailed early on the last day of his Orlando visit, conducting a brief on-court shooting workout that he cut short. While I don’t know whether that impacted anything with the Magic’s decision at No. 1, objectively, it’s very hard to use a high-stakes draft pick on a player that doesn’t truly want to be part of your team.
If this is true it certainly worked and Chet got what he wanted.
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