Five months later than originally scheduled, the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Anthony Edwards with the first pick of the 2020 NBA draft on Wednesday night.
The Golden State Warriors took center James Wiseman with the No. 2 pick, and guard LaMelo Ball followed as the third pick to the Charlotte Hornets.
Edwards, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound guard from Atlanta who spent his lone collegiate season at Georgia, joins a young Timberwolves core led by star center Karl-Anthony Towns and point guard D’Angelo Russell. Edwards led all Division I freshmen with 19.1 points per game and was the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year.
Edwards joins Markelle Fultz as the only players in the lottery era to go No. 1 overall coming from a program with a record of .500 or worse in his final college season, according to Elias Sports Bureau research. The Bulldogs went 16-16, including 5-13 in the SEC.
“It is an indescribable feeling,” Edwards said on ESPN shortly after being selected. “My family is emotional. I feel like when I get off of here, I am going to be emotional. I am just blessed beyond measure to be in this situation.”
Edwards, Wiseman and Ball were each, at different times, projected to be the top pick in the draft. Edwards, however, was the best positional fit for Minnesota — Wiseman shares the same position as Towns, and Ball shares the same position as Russell — and had emerged as the likely top pick in the days leading up to Wednesday’s draft.
Wiseman, a 7-foot-1 center, played only three games last season for the University of Memphis because of eligibility issues and a 12-game suspension over rules violations. He gives Golden State a dose of physical skill to go alongside Draymond Green in the Warriors’ frontcourt and can potentially help shore up the team’s defense after the Warriors, following five consecutive trips to the NBA Finals, fell to the bottom of the standings amid injuries to Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Wiseman was emotional after being taken with the second pick. He said he believes he can adapt quickly to his new team’s vaunted culture.
“It’s great in terms of my concept because I can be able to learn, be able to grow my game, being able to adapt in that type of environment, which I can,” Wiseman said. “And just going in there and just learning, just helping grow my game. … I just had to bust out in tears because I’ve been through a lot of adversity in my life. But I’m ready to go into Golden State with a great mindset, with a different mindset, ready to go in there and just learn as much as possible, grow my game and just adapt, and just work my tail off.”
Wiseman said he already has a relationship with Curry and is looking forward to working with the rest of the organization’s core.
“I have a great relationship with Steph,” Wiseman said. “Obviously, I went to his camp so he taught me a lot. When I was in high school, he taught me a lot about the game of basketball, gave me a lot of information. I actually took a picture with him, so that’s my guy.”
Ball, younger brother of New Orleans Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball, is a gifted passer who will give the Hornets some desperately needed star power. He has had a winding road to getting to this point, going to play in Lithuania and then Australia before being taken by Charlotte on Wednesday night.
Ball averaged 17.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.0 assists in 12 games for the Illawarra Hawks in Australia’s National Basketball League.
LaMelo and Lonzo, who was the No. 2 pick in 2017, are the first pair of brothers in NBA history to be drafted in the top five, per Elias research.
LaMelo said he didn’t consider falling to the third pick a letdown.
“I definitely feel great falling to [Charlotte],” Ball said. “But the way I’ve fallen down, I never looked at it like that because, like I say, whatever happens happens, and I feel like it’s God’s plan. So wherever he wanted to put me, that’s where he put me, and I feel like he’s going to let me blossom there.”
The intrigue in the draft began with the No. 4 pick, where the Chicago Bulls took Florida State forward Patrick Williams. In the days leading up to the draft, rival teams were unsure what Arturas Karnisovas, the first-year executive vice president of basketball operations in Chicago, would do overseeing his first draft. Ultimately, the Bulls chose the fastest-rising player on draft boards leading up to draft night.
LaMelo Ball celebrates as he is selected as the third pick in the 2020 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets.
Williams shot up from the late lottery to the top five in the weeks leading up to the draft. The ACC Sixth Man of the Year last season, he became the highest-drafted Seminole since Dave Cowens was taken fourth by the Boston Celtics 50 years ago.
Asked why he’s confident he belongs in the NBA despite not being a starter in college, Williams said, “If you put in enough work day to day, I mean, you can’t have nothing but confidence. And I just give the credit to my college teammates, my college coaches. They continued to encourage me all season, to put me in positions to succeed all season, so I give the credit to, of course, my work and then my coaches and teammates.”
After the Bulls took Williams, the Cleveland Cavaliers — picking fifth for a second straight year — selected Auburn wing Isaac Okoro, who averaged 12.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists last season, his lone year with the Tigers.
Okoro was a second-team All-SEC selection, as well as making the all-freshman and all-defensive teams. After drafting guards Collin Sexton and Darius Garland the past two years, Cleveland adds a wing player to go alongside them.
Okoro said he is excited to bring his defensive skills to the Cavs, who had the NBA’s worst defensive efficiency last season (114.8 points allowed per 100 possessions).
“I’m looking forward to guarding everyone in the NBA,” he said. “I’m looking forward to guarding the best players on the other teams.”
The rest of the lottery picks:
- 6. Atlanta Hawks: Onyeka Okwongwu, C, USC
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7. Detroit Pistons: Killian Hayes, PG, France
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8. New York Knicks: Obi Toppin, PF, Dayton
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9. Washington Wizards: Deni Avdija, SF, Israel
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10. Phoenix Suns: Jalen Smith, PF, Maryland
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11. San Antonio Spurs: Devin Vassell, SG, Florida State
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12. Sacramento Kings: Tyrese Haliburton, PG, Iowa State
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13. New Orleans Pelicans: Kira Lewis Jr., PG, Alabama
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14. Boston Celtics: Aaron Nesmith, SF, Vanderbilt
After the lottery played out without a single trade being made, several were made over the back half of the first round.
It began with the 16th selection, which the Portland Trail Blazers initially traded to the Houston Rockets as part of a deal for forward Robert Covington earlier this week. Houston then traded that pick to Detroit along with Trevor Ariza on Wednesday for a future first-round pick. The Pistons took Washington center Isaiah Stewart with that pick and then grabbed Villanova forward Saddiq Bey with the 19th pick, a selection they gained as part of a three-team trade that saw guard Luke Kennard go to the LA Clippers and Landry Shamet go to the Brooklyn Nets.
The Oklahoma City Thunder continued their busy week, trading Ricky Rubio, the 25th pick and the 28th pick to the Timberwolves for the 17th selection, which the Thunder used to take Aleksej Pokusevski, a skilled 7-footer from Serbia.
After trading up to No. 23 earlier in the day in a deal with the Utah Jazz, the New York Knicks then flipped the pick to the Timberwolves, who used it to take Argentine playmaker Leandro Bolmaro, who plays for FC Barcelona.
The Denver Nuggets took big man Zeke Nnaji with the 22nd pick, and then, per ESPN’s Zach Lowe, traded a protected 2023 first-round pick to the Pelicans to take RJ Hampton with the 24th pick.
The Boston Celtics dealt the 30th pick to the Memphis Grizzlies, who used it to take TCU forward Desmond Bane.
Wednesday night’s draft was originally scheduled to take place in June, as it typically does, but was pushed back until after the NBA completed its season in a bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic also led to a change in venue for the draft. Rather than taking place in New York, as it typically does each June, it was instead held virtually at ESPN’s campus in Bristol, Connecticut, with NBA commissioner Adam Silver conducting the first round and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum the second as usual.
The delay in holding the draft because of the pandemic both allowed for more time than ever before for NBA teams to prepare for the draft and also meant prospects have spent more time away from the court upon entering the NBA than they ever have.
As a result, rather than going from the draft to the NBA’s annual summer league in Las Vegas, rookies will instead be going almost directly into their initial NBA seasons, as training camps around the league are scheduled to begin on Dec. 1.
