Wednesday night’s NBA Draft Lottery was much ado about nothing for the Nets.
Instead of winning the lottery and the right to draft Kentucky star Anthony Davis, or even moving up to the second or third pick, the Nets instead landed the sixth pick in next month’s draft after failing to have one of their ping pong balls selected.
Because of that, the Nets now don’t have a first-round pick at all, because their pick will go to Portland to complete the deadline day trade for Gerald Wallace in March. The Nets would have kept the pick if they had moved into one of the top three spots in the draft.
“I guess, going in, I didn’t expect to get the pick, so it’s not a disappointment in my eyes,” Nets general manager Billy King said afterward. “But if we’d gotten it, it would have been a nice bonus.”
The Nets had a 7.5 percent chance of landing the top pick, and a 25 percent chance of finishing inside the top three spots and keeping their pick. Instead, their pick now is in Portland’s hands, and the Nets are in danger of winding up with nothing as a result of the Wallace trade, as the veteran forward has a player option for next season and is expected to decline it and test free agency. The Hornets won the first pick and are expected to select Kentucky star Anthony Davis.
But King, as he has since the season ended, said he was confident that the Nets would be able to re-sign him, and said he still thinks it was a good trade.
“Because I think what Gerald Wallace brings to the table is a lot better than some of the younger guys,” King said. “They may take two or three years and, like I said, we’re trying to win right away.”
The push to win now has been no secret around the Nets organization, because it is part of an effort to both get star point guard Deron Williams to re-sign with the team and have a playoff-caliber roster as the franchise moves to Brooklyn and into Barclays Center this fall. King said the fact the Nets didn’t catch a break last night hasn’t changed that plan.
“This year we’re going forward and building a team to open Brooklyn with a team that can be next year at this time not sitting at the lottery, but playing in the playoffs,” King said. “That’s our goal. That’s our number one focus, number one goal, and now that this is done, I’m able to focus on achieving that.”
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Yahoo! Sports reported Wednesday Williams wouldn’t have been convinced to re-sign with the Nets if they had won the top pick and the right to take Davis — unless the pick was flipped to Orlando in exchange for Dwight Howard.
Williams himself responded to the story later in the day in a tweet, saying, “I would love to know who [Yahoo! Sports’] source is bc he knows more about what I’m thinking then I do … maybe they can help me decide?”
Williams is expected to opt-out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent this summer.