NBA Draft: Grades for all 30 teams in the 2021 NBA Draft

NBA Draft Grades: Southwest Division

Dallas Mavericks: The Dallas Mavericks got out of the draft early. They sent their first-round pick to the New York Knicks in the Kristaps Porzingis deal, and their second at this past season’s trade deadline in the JJ Redick transaction.

Houston Rockets: Jalen Green (2); Alperen Sengun (16); Usman Garuba (23); Josh Christopher (24)

The highest amount of NBA draft capital absolutely goes to the Houston Rockets, who walked away with four first-round picks. Jalen Green wasn’t the second player on my board, but he is an incredible talent and hard worker and the Rockets got great value in getting a player like that anywhere but first overall.

Alperen Sengun was a bit of a mystery coming in from the Turkish league, but he was the MVP at age 18 and put up stellar numbers. He was a huge value at 16 and the Rockets were right to trade in to get him, especially since the two picks they gave to the Thunder in order to do so are heavily protected picks from other teams.

The Spanish national team is competing right now with the 18-year-old Usman Garuba in their rotation. He is a special defender, a 4/5 who can guard the rim and defend in space. His offensive game is raw and he needs to improve as a shooter, but the defensive impact is so good he should have gone a few spots sooner and was a great pick at 23. Finally, Josh Christopher has scoring upside and could hit, but he was much further down my board and was the Rockets’ only “reach”. Otherwise, they nailed it.

Grade: A-

Memphis Grizzlies: Ziaire Williams (10); Santi Aldama (30)

The Memphis Grizzlies took on salary to move up to 10, where they took a swing at Ziaire Williams. Perhaps when they made the deal they hoped that Josh Giddey or Franz Wagner would be there. I really liked Williams coming into his freshman season, but he was genuinely terrible. Why did he go 41 picks ahead of BJ Boston when both were preseason top 10 picks and both had bad seasons? I like the idea of the Grizzlies going for upside given their roster depth, but this was way too early for Williams.

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Same thing for Aldama, whom I had ranked in the late 40s. He is a big with good passing skills and can play on the perimeter, but he is a long way away from being able to contribute on an NBA court and might never get there.

Grade: D+

New Orleans Pelicans: Trey Murphy (17); Herbert Jones (35); BJ Boston Jr. (51)

The Pelicans traded down to 17 in a huge salary-relieving deal, and the guy they took there was UVA wing Trey Murphy, a darling of the pre-draft process who shot up draft boards as teams started plugging him into a role in their minds. A really good shooter with the size to check forwards, he can’t do anything with the ball in his hands other than shoot off the catch. He can space the court around Zion Williamson but not much else.

Herbert Jones is a huge offensive question mark but one of the best defenders in the draft, and while he wasn’t the highest player available at 35 the value is fine. Same with BJ Boston Jr., who almost didn’t seem to get a second chance after a bad freshman season at Kentucky. He’ll likely play in the G League and rehab his value.

Grade: C+

San Antonio Spurs: Joshua Primo (12); Joe Wieskamp (41)

The San Antonio Spurs saw the ripple effects of Toronto and Oklahoma City reaching slightly for their picks and said “hold my beer.” Joshua Primo was optimistically a late first-round player on most draft boards, and an early second on the rest (31st for me). This was a gigantic reach for the Spurs, especially when players such as Moses Moody and Alperen Sengun were on the board who offered higher floors with similarly high ceilings. It’s not as if the Spurs needed another guard!

They redeemed their grade slightly by taking Wieskamp at 41, a fringe first-round player due to his shooting and size. He could be the next Duncan Robinson, not as an overhyped best-case scenario but as a reasonable outcome. He will need to get comfortable flying off of screens at the NBA’s pace, and San Antonio is a solid place to learn that.

To wrap it all up, our big NBA draft winners are Cleveland, Detroit, Orlando and Golden State; fascinating for the dregs of the Eastern Conference. On the other end, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Charlotte and Chicago were the losers, with the Los Angeles Lakers mentioned because of their questionable trade for Russell Westbrook.