NBA Draft: Regrading all 30 teams for the 2020 NBA Draft

No draft in NBA history has ever been perfect. In fact, they are far from perfect; history tells us that a lot more chance goes into the draft than NBA front offices would like to admit. Whether the player they took turns into a star or bust is absolutely knowable, but it’s far from a sure thing.

Nikola Jokic just won the league’s MVP award after falling to the second round. 27th-pick Rudy Gobert won Defensive Player of the Year. Future stars fall in the draft every year. On the flip side, players such as Anthony Bennett or Josh Jackson prove to be massive disappointments despite their elite draft equity.

After a season of basketball, we have more data with which to evaluate the 2020 NBA Draft. We regrade all 30 teams on their picks in last November’s draft.

With that in mind, let’s look back at how all 30 teams in the NBA did in the 2020 NBA Draft. We’re seeking to analyze not the overall quality of the players taken, but how each team with its own draft capital. Memphis gets more credit for taking Desmond Bane at 30 than Minnesota does for taking Anthony Edwards at 1, because Memphis got a much better return on their draft slot.

Nailing the best player in the draft with the first pick would be an excellent grade, but the Timberwolves got the third-best. They still get a strong grade, but not as much credit as the Grizzlies.

Trades, made before or after the draft, are largely not figured into the calculus here, although in the case of the Los Angeles Lakers — who traded out of the draft completely — we will comment on it. The overall rankings of players one year later is the opinion of the author, and can roughly be seen in the 2020 Redraft here.

The average grade for a team is C+, so to reach an A a team has to maximize the potential of each of its draft picks. We’ll start with those teams that did maximize the draft capital they brought to the draft last November, beginning with a team that generally does not maximize anything it has.