Winners and losers of the 2018 NBA Draft Lottery

Winner: Phoenix Suns

The Phoenix Suns have been a franchise for 50 years without ever winning a championship or earning the No. 1 overall pick. Ideally, checking off the latter box for the first time will help them check off the former at some point down the road.

Either way, the Suns will have a hard time missing here. Luka Doncic is a 19-year-old phenom in the second-best basketball league in the world and has played — and thrived — under new head coach Igor Kokoskov with Team Slovenia. Deandre Ayton is a local product from U of A who looks like the second coming of David Robinson — the very player the Suns missed out on the last time they had a top-two pick.

This is the most important summer in franchise history. The Suns have a new head coach, the No. 1 overall pick, two other picks in the top 31, cap space and a general manager ready to be aggressive to put a winning group around Devin Booker and Josh Jackson. For the first time in 50 years, Lady Luck responded to one of the Suns’ desperate “U up?” texts at the draft lottery.

Loser: Memphis Grizzlies

Oof. You could argue the Memphis Grizzlies needed the No. 1 pick as badly as anyone. Not only because of their second-worst record, but also because even with a fully healthy Marc Gasol and Mike Conley, Dillon Brooks is the closest thing they have to a future franchise cornerstone once the last remnants of the Grit-N-Grind era are finally dealt away.

Rather than secure a pick that could’ve nabbed Doncic/Ayton to replace Conley/Gasol, the Grizz fell to No. 4, despite having the second-best odds at the No. 1 overall pick.

There are plenty of great prospects available in the top six or seven picks, but the Grizzlies needed a game-changing, franchise player. They needed a sure thing. They won’t have that luxury entering draft night.