Pistons’ Cade Cunningham, Cavs’ Evan Mobley will always be linked by NBA Draft lottery luck originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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If the ping pong balls had been drawn differently, Cade Cunningham and Evan Mobley may have ended up on opposite sides of the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers playoff series.
They’ll always be linked by how close together they were in the 2021 NBA Draft.
The Pistons won the No. 1 pick in the lottery and took Cunningham, who was the consensus top choice.
The Cavs ended up No. 3 and got Mobley.
As every NBA fan knows, the lottery goes all sorts of ways, and it could’ve flipped here.
Detroit was one of three teams with 14% chance at the top pick, as one of the bottom-three from the year before, and got that spot.
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Houston, which also had a 14% chance, got the second pick. The Rockets chose Jalen Green.
The Cavs were tied for the fourth-best odds at No. 1, at 11.5%, but ended up No. 3. That’s where they got Mobley.
The top-10 after these guys, starting with pick 4:
- Raptors: Scottie Barnes
- Magic: Jalen Suggs
- Thunder: Josh Giddey
- Warriors: Jonathan Kuminga
- Magic: Franz Wagner
- Kings: Davion Mitchell
- Pelicans: Ziaire Williams
At least from Barnes through Wagner, those are some quality picks. A case could be made for Barnes and Wagner as being better than Mobley, but a case can be made the other way, too.
Cunningham’s selection has aged well as the clear top player from this draft.
Mostly, it’s a fascinating example of the luck of the draw. All it took was a certain combination for the Pistons to come out winners and get Cunningham. But the Cavs still got enough luck to move a bit up the board and end up with Mobley.
Now, they’re locked in a big-time playoff series against one another, five years later.