2015 NBA Draft: Who Are The Biggest Winners and Losers?

The NBA Draft is as unpredictable as any event in sports, and last night didn’t disappoint.

There were fewer significant trades than anticipated, but surprising picks came early and often starting with the Los Angeles Lakers selecting Ohio State guard D’Angelo Russell No. 2 overall despite being widely projected to take Duke big man Jahlil Okafor.

ALSO ON HOOPSHABIT: NBA Draft: Best Player Ever Selected in all 60 Spots

While certain surprises, like the Lakers’ selection, weren’t necessarily questionable, others were absolutely befuddling. It will be a few years before the 2015 NBA Draft’s true winners are revealed, but for now, early speculation can’t hurt.

Thus, here are the top winners and losers from the 2015 NBA Draft:

Winners:

Honorable Mention: Chicago Bulls, Oklahoma City Thunder, Philadelphia 76ers and Houston Rockets

Miami Heat: The NBA Draft’s No. 10 overall pick has a long history of producing stars, and the Heat may have just added another in Duke’s Justise Winslow.

Coming into the day, nobody expected Winslow to fall to the Heat at No. 10, and some even speculated that New York would draft him with the No. 4 selection. He showed immense talent and upside while helping Duke to a national championship, and he’s one of the safest picks in this year’s class.

Winslow is close to a lock to be a valuable defender in the NBA.

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As a freshman at Duke, he consistently took it upon himself to guard the opponents’ top wing and usually shut them down. His rare combination of size, strength and athleticism makes him the ideal wing defender at the next level.

Offensively, Winslow is no slouch, as he has a lot of potential putting the ball on the floor and getting to the rim. He can shoot the ball from the outside, as he made an excellent 41 percent of his three-point attempts with the Blue Devils.

Heat general manager Pat Riley should be ecstatic that Winslow fell so far. His potential to defend top wings and become a legitimate scoring threat as wing makes him a phenomenal fit in the Heat’s rotation.

This is an A+ pick for the Miami Heat.

Denver Nuggets: Like the Heat, the Nuggets saw tremendous value fall into their lap with international guard prospect Emmanuel Mudiay.

While Mudiay’s fall was somewhat expected, he was touted as a top-4 prospect for the majority of the season. He has great size at 6’5”, 190-pounds, and he excels scoring and passing in the pick and roll.

Mudiay could prove to be a huge steal for Denver. Also enables them to trade Lawson. Big upside there.
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) June 26, 2015

The selection likely means that the Nuggets are ready to move on from Ty Lawson and start a youth movement behind Mudiay and last year’s first round picks in Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris. Mudiay will excel in head coach Mike Malone’s up-tempo offense and should be a contributor from the time he steps onto the court in Denver. It will be interesting to see how the Nuggets shape out their roster in the coming months, but Mudiay is an absolute steal and a fantastic addition to a young Nuggets core.

Minnesota Timberwolves: The Timberwolves are a given on this list, but it’s hard to ignore the talent they took away from in this year’s NBA Draft. Not only did Flip Saunders take home the draft’s best prospect in Kentucky big man Karl-Anthony Towns, but he also picked up a very talented Minnesota-native in Duke guard prospect Tyus Jones.

With three straight No. 1 overall picks in Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins and now Towns, the Timberwolves have legitimate star potential. Throw in young studs like Ricky Rubio, Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng, and the Timeberwolves are absolutely loaded with young talent. Saunders didn’t just hit a home run in terms of best player available, but he also nailed drafting for fit.

The Timberwolves desperately needed interior defense and a backup point guard, and Towns and Jones fit those respective molds. Towns led the nation in defensive rating and win shares per 40 minutes–he’s also a very versatile and effective offensive player–while Jones dished over 200 assists on his way to championship.

Minnesota’s rebuild has been textbook thus far, and Wolves fans should be absolutely giddy about their future.

Phoenix Suns: The Suns are another beneficiary of a falling talent with Kentucky sharpshooter Devin Booker marking their No. 13 selection. Booker projects to be a flat out stud. At 6’6”, he has great height for an NBA two-guard and he will be able to knock down three-pointers from day one.

As a freshman, Booker showed his shooting skill and potential while nailing 41 percent of his three-point attempts while shooting 54 percent from inside the arc. He was primarily a spot-up shooter, but he also showed potential attacking closeouts with drives and pull-up jumpers.

Booker is often compared to Klay Thompson because his shooting and physical tools are quite reminiscent of Golden State’s guard. He also shares a similar blend of speed and quickness that will fit beautifully in pushing the tempo with Eric Bledsoe, much like Thompson pushes the tempo with Stephen Curry.

At the minimum, if Booker provides the same elite shooting that boosted Kentucky’s offense throughout their historic season, the Suns will be in excellent shape going forward.

Losers:

Boston Celtics: The Celtics made the “losers” list from the minute they selected Louisville guard Terry Rozier with the No. 16 pick. It’s not just that Rozier is a fringe first round prospect and is a major reach at No. 16, but his fit in Boston is difficult to swallow.

Terry Rozier -first major surprise of the draft in terms of a guy rocketing up and being selected way ahead of projections. Very interesting
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 26, 2015

Rozier lives off of his defense, as he’s not particularly good shooter with a 35 percent field goal percentage away from the rim, and he’s undersized for an NBA combo guard at 6’1”, 190-pounds. While the defensive guard is coveted in the NBA, and Rozier may find a role in the NBA, he’s redundant in a backcourt that features two two defense-first guards in Avery Bradley and last year’s No. 6 pick in Marcus Smart.

After a questionable-at-best pick at No. 16, the Celtics finally found some value at No. 28 with Georgia State’s R.J. Hunter. While Hunter is potentially a steal in the late 20s and should provide Boston with some much-needed outside shooting, it’s hard to figure out how he’ll find minutes in a backcourt that features Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart, James Young and now Terry Rozier.

The Celtics also ended up finding some more value in the second round with LSU big man Jordan Mickey at No. 33 and Saint Mary’s guard Marcus Thornton at No. 45, but it’s still hard to call the Celtics’ draft night anything but puzzling with three guard additions and a major reach at No. 16.

Charlotte Hornets: The Charlotte Hornets took an excellent prospect at No. 9 in Wisconsin big man Frank Kaminsky, but given the players on the board and the fit with their roster, it’s hard to justify the pick here.

Kaminsky does a lot of things well. He can score down low, space the floor with outside shooting and pass off of the post, but he’s not much of a defender or rebounder.

While Kaminsky is a safe pick and will be a nice offensive role player at the next level, his fit with Charlotte is less than ideal.

With Al Jefferson, Cody Zeller and Spencer Hawes on the roster, the Hornets have an abundance of floor spacing big men who don’t contribute much on the defensive end. Unless they plan to move one of them for a defensive big or keep Bismack Biyombo in free agency, it’s hard to figure out how they will divide the minutes and create a combination that can provide decent defense.

The Hornets’ pick is also troubling in that they had better options on the table, especially given their needs. They desperately need outside shooting from their wings–though Nicolas Batum‘s addition helps–and it’s hard to justify passing on two 41 percent three-point shooters and top talents in Winslow and Booker.

The Hornets certainly added a nice talent in Kaminsky, and if they truly believe he was the best player on the board, it’s hard to knock them for taking the reigning Wooden Player of the Year. Regardless, they will have some work to do figuring out their roster and creating fit within a seemingly unbalanced lineup.

Milwaukee Bucks: The Bucks are not getting enough heat for their strange draft night decisions.

Milwaukee picked up a nice offensive prospect in UNLV’s Rashad Vaughn, but head coach and top decision maker Jason Kidd may have done more harm than good by sending out a future first and a second round pick for Toronto Raptors’ guard Greivis Vasquez.

While Vasquez is a solid rotation player, it’s hard to justify sending out two picks, especially a first rounder, for a guard who averaged 9.5 points and 3.7 assists while shooting 41 percent. He was effective as a bench guard with Toronto, but he doesn’t present an underlying efficient or upside that merits a future first.

With Michael Carter-Williams, Tyler Ennis, O.J. Mayo and Jerryd Bayless already on the roster, it’s also hard to figure where Vasquez, and Vaughn for that matter, will fit in. Unless Ennis and Vaughn are bound for the D-League or they’re gearing up for another trade, they’re just aren’t enough minutes to go around in Milwaukee’s backcourt.

Like the Celtics and Hornets, Milwaukee will have a lot of work to do in figuring out their roster situation in the coming months.

Next: NBA Draft: Best Player Ever Selected in all 60 Spots

Winners:

Losers:

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