The NBA season is just over the horizon, but with Kevin Durant joining the Golden State Warriors in the offseason, it’s hard to imagine too many teams not named the Cleveland Cavaliers competing with them for an NBA title. Durant’s decision was a seismic shift that should ultimately shape the direction of several franchises throughout the league. Most organizations simply aren’t capable of competing for the title in the next several years given the talent that resides in the Bay Area, which means their front offices and their fans should be plenty interested in the upcoming draft class.
While the 2016 NBA Draft was a two man show headlined by Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram, the 2017 class contains a number of potential All-Star level talents, many of whom likely would have been selected ahead of Simmons and Ingram last June. That should intrigue a litany of fan bases looking to find the next young talent who could turn their team into a championship contender.
Obviously, it’s difficult to project a draft order this early in the process given that there is an entire season to be played, but luckily we have a good hand guiding our way. We’ll be using Andrew Johnson’s win projections for the 2016-17 season to settle our selection order. Andrew’s projections have won the APBRmetrics’ win predictions contest for the past two seasons, so they’re as reliable as it gets at this stage. With that in mind, the Los Angeles Lakers are on the clock.