NBA draft winners and losers: Mavericks take their guy; Pelicans take risks

NEW YORK — Kevin Durant, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Jordan Poole all got traded in the week leading up to the NBA draft, but Wednesday night at Barclays Center belonged to the incoming rookie class.

Cooper Flagg went first to the Dallas Mavericks and Dylan Harper went second to the San Antonio Spurs as expected. From there, the evening featured some surprising turns but didn’t produce any major blockbuster trades.

Here’s a rundown of the winners and losers from the first round of the NBA draft and the action-packed week that proceeded it.

1. Winners: Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks need Flagg, a blue chip prospect with franchise player potential, even more than it might seem at first glance. After the inexplicable decision to trade Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February, the Mavericks were left with a veteran-dominated roster led by Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. That might sound okay on paper, but Davis is 32 years old and has never been the top option on a contender, and Irving is 33 and recovering from season-ending knee surgery.

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers just reached the NBA Finals with young and deep rosters, a formula that Dallas will struggle to compete with given its major financial commitments to Davis, Irving and 35-year-old forward Klay Thompson. Flagg, 18, said he looks forward to being a “sponge” in Dallas given its collection of future Hall of Famers, but it’s possible the Mavericks’ next championship window won’t open until the former Duke forward has blossomed into the team’s best player.

Imagine what Dallas’s future would look like if it hadn’t lucked into Flagg by beating 1.8 percent odds to win the draft lottery: The Mavericks would be stuck with an aging, expensive and injury-prone core and no clear bridge to the future while operating in the dark shadow cast by the Doncic trade. Instead, Flagg brings a heavy dose of hope and a polished all-around game to help Dallas fans embrace the franchise’s next chapter.

2. Losers: New Orleans Pelicans

The Pelicans replaced David Griffin with Joe Dumars as their head of basketball operations in April, and the new regime has wasted little time making moves. Unfortunately, the first wave of moves doesn’t make a ton of sense.

New Orleans acquired Poole in a trade with the Washington Wizards for CJ McCollum, a reasonable bet on a scoring-minded point guard who will help fill in for the injured Dejounte Murray. However, the Pelicans then drafted Jeremiah Fears, another scoring-minded point guard, with the No. 7 pick. New Orleans then took another questionable turn when Dumars traded the No. 23 pick and an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks so he could move up to select Maryland center Derik Queen with the No. 13 pick.

Fears is a fascinating prospect and has star potential; Queen is a skilled low-post scorer who was projected to go earlier in the draft by many analysts. Even so, both players arrive in New Orleans facing immediate fit questions: Poole’s presence will marginalize Fears, and New Orleans already had an undersized big man in Zion Williamson before selecting Queen. The Pelicans have dealt with serious spacing concerns and holes in their defense, and their incoming lottery picks won’t address either issue in the near future.

Worst of all, the Queen trade is a severe misevaluation of New Orleans’ short-term future. The Pelicans finished 14th in the 15-team Western Conference and are unlikely to be serious playoff contenders given Williamson’s injury history, Murray’s ongoing absence and the decision to trade Brandon Ingram to the Toronto Raptors in February. This is the type of team that should absolutely be protecting its 2026 first-round pick, rather than sacrificing it to move up 10 spots in a draft that wasn’t especially deep to grab a player in Queen who projects as useful but not extraordinary.

Pelicans fans will rightfully be furious if the team’s struggles continue next season and Dumars is forced to hand over a top-five pick to the Hawks. Needless to say, Wednesday didn’t qualify as a great first impression.

NBA draft winners and losers: Mavericks take their guy; Pelicans take risks

3. Winners: Philadelphia 76ers

The 76ers found themselves embroiled in the week’s biggest soap opera when Rutgers forward Ace Bailey canceled a predraft visit to Philadelphia. That left 76ers General Manager Daryl Morey with a few choices: Take Bailey without meeting him, draft someone else or trade the pick.

Morey made the right call by selecting Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe, a serious-minded Bahamian guard who projects as a two-way impact player. While Joel Embiid and Paul George loom as major question marks over Philadelphia’s present, Edgecombe brings significant athleticism and defensive potential to a young backcourt that includes Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain. It might take two or three years to unfold, but the 76ers have a real chance to be fun again.

While Bailey was the more highly touted high school prospect, Edgecombe enjoyed a more efficient freshman season in college and played winning basketball for a Baylor team that made the NCAA tournament. No one should be all that surprised if Edgecombe winds up being the better NBA player.

4. Loser: Ace Bailey

Even before his predraft workout high jinks, Bailey faced questions about his maturity, shot selection and impact on winning after Rutgers missed the NCAA tournament. Once he arrived in New York for draft week, the 18-year-old forward gave no clear explanation for his approach to the draft process and dodged all questions about whether he was trying to land at a preferred destination.

After the Utah Jazz selected him with the No. 5 pick, Bailey admitted he had “no idea” it was going to take him. The question remains: Was Utah really where Bailey wanted to land?

The Jazz has missed the playoffs for three straight seasons, and it lacks a proven point guard to aid Bailey’s acclimation. Bailey seems to have designs on becoming a household name, yet Salt Lake City has produced few all-stars since the days of John Stockton and Karl Malone. While Utah desperately needs star power and perimeter scoring, Bailey must grow up fast to earn the respect of no-nonsense coach Will Hardy.

On top of those potential concerns, Bailey will miss out on roughly $9 million in salary over his four-year rookie contract by slipping from the third pick to the fifth pick.

Ace Bailey went to the Utah Jazz with the No. 5 pick in the NBA draft. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

5. Winners: Boston Celtics

The 76ers and Phoenix Suns proved last season that there’s nothing worse than having an expensive veteran roster with no shot at making noise in the playoffs. The injuries mount, the disappointment seeps in, and the finger-pointing begins.

Boston was at risk of a similar fall from grace if it had been in denial about the likely repercussions of Jayson Tatum’s Achilles’ tear. If Celtics General Manager Brad Stevens had kept the band together, he would have been staring at a preposterous $500 million bill for salaries plus luxury tax penalties on a team with no chance to win the 2026 title.

Instead, Stevens deftly pivoted by trading Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers and Porzingis to the Hawks this week. Despite the 35-year-old Holiday’s age, Stevens avoided attaching any picks to ditch his expensive contract and somehow received two second-round picks back from Portland along with scoring guard Anfernee Simons. In the Porzingis deal, Stevens again executed a straightforward salary dump even though the Latvian big man has had significant injury issues and had a long-term illness down the stretch of last season.

Boston’s plan to retool once Tatum is back healthy remains right on track, and it still has a shot to make the 2026 playoffs in an injury-depleted Eastern Conference. More important, Stevens saved new owner Bill Chisholm more than $200 million on next season’s salaries and luxury tax bill while increasing his flexibility for his next round of roster additions.

6. Losers: Portland Trail Blazers

Are the Blazers coming or going? Are they coming and going at the same time? Is that even possible? Would it be a good thing if it is?

Portland’s moves this week lack a cohesive strategy. By acquiring Holiday from the Celtics, the Blazers parted with a younger guard in Simons plus draft capital to improve their perimeter defense and locker room leadership. The goal, it seemed, was to snap a four-year streak of missing the playoffs.

On draft night, the Blazers went the other direction by using the No. 16 pick to select Chinese center Hansen Yang, who had been a projected second-round pick. Yang, 20, is 7-foot-1 and displays some intriguing skills in his highlight tapes, but he joins a crowded center rotation that includes veteran DeAndre Ayton and 2024 lottery pick Donovan Clingan. Drafting a mystery man such as Yang is a move for a team with its eyes on the future.

Blazers General Manager Joe Cronin’s next goal should be to trade Ayton and Jerami Grant, two overpaid and underperforming veterans. Dumping both would clear room for Portland’s younger players, but it would also leave Holiday looking out of place. When the dust settles on the Blazers’ moves, it’s likely that they will amount to much ado about nothing unless Scoot Henderson, the No. 3 pick in the 2023 draft, can finally enjoy a breakout season.

Chinese center Hansen Yang went to the Portland Trail Blazers at No. 16 in the most surprising pick of the first round. (Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)

7. Winner: Kevin Durant

Durant is on the move yet again after the Suns agreed to send him to the Houston Rockets. There’s no sugarcoating it: His Phoenix tenure, replete with coaching changes and leadership questions, will go down as a disaster.

Still, his summer could have gone much worse. Durant has landed on his feet with the Rockets, who desperately need his efficient shooting while also possessing a deep cast of young defenders to make his life easier on that end of the floor. Durant’s Suns teams failed because they had no money to pay anyone to rebound, play defense or do the dirty work; the Rockets won’t suffer from that problem.

Houston has re-signed veterans Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams this summer, carefully keeping together the key contributors to its surprising 52-win team from last season. With Durant in the fold, Rockets Coach Ime Udoka can trot out a starting lineup featuring multiple backcourt ballhandlers flanked by a long and athletic front line.

While Durant will turn 37 in September and no longer seems capable of being a traditional No. 1 option on a contender, Houston’s balanced approach will give him a decent shot at reaching his first conference finals since he departed the Golden State Warriors in 2019.

8. Losers: Phoenix Suns

The Suns should be thrilled that Duke center Khaman Maluach fell to them at the No. 10 pick they acquired in the Durant trade. Maluach is an enormous, defensive-minded big man who finishes well around the basket and is working to develop his three-point shot. In three years, there’s a good chance NBA fans will look back and wonder why he wasn’t a top-five pick. That’s not why the Suns are losers.

The Suns are losers because the Durant era is officially over after producing only one playoff series victory. Remember, new owner Mat Ishbia acquired Durant in February 2023 with dreams of winning a championship. To land Durant, Ishbia parted with a package that included Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and four first-round picks. Less than 2½ years later, Ishbia sent Durant to the Rockets for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, Maluach and five second-round picks.

Memo to Phoenix: The goal is to buy low and sell high, not the other way around. Bridges and Johnson are both more valuable players in a vacuum than Green. Even worse, Green plays the same position as Devin Booker and Bradley Beal — Phoenix’s two highest-paid players. The Suns’ pick depreciation from the first Durant trade to this week’s deal is simply horrendous. No wonder Ishbia had to hire a new front office and coach this summer.

9. Winners: Washington Wizards

Speaking of Beal, the Wizards’ decision to ship him to the Suns in 2023 continues to pay dividends. Washington holds control of several of Phoenix’s future picks, and the Suns appear destined for a multiyear rebuilding cycle. Meanwhile, Phoenix still must sort out how to part with Beal, who is owed more than $110 million over the next two seasons.

By trading Poole to New Orleans for McCollum and Kelly Olynyk, who are both on expiring contracts, Washington has set itself up to potentially have more than $100 million in cap space next summer. Rather than being fully hamstrung by Beal’s contract, the Wizards have assembled a young core over the past three drafts and grabbed Texas guard Tre Johnson with the sixth pick on Wednesday.

Johnson, like Edgecombe, enjoyed a more efficient freshman season than Bailey, and his three-point shooting ability will fill a clear need in Washington. The Wizards are headed for another losing season in 2025-26, but their optionality next summer will give them a shot to be major players for the first time in a long time.

The Washington Wizards took Tre Johnson with the No. 6 pick as their lengthy rebuilding effort continues. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

10. Losers: Brooklyn Nets

Kudos to the Nets, who became the first team in NBA history to select five players — five! — in the first round. For the record, their picks were: Egor Demin (No. 8), Nolan Traore (No. 19), Drake Powell (No. 22), Ben Saraf (No. 26) and Danny Wolf (No. 27).

While Brooklyn’s developmental coaches are clear winners because of their increased job security, such a large influx of talent is bound to create competing interests. Only so many young players can be treated as a priority at the same time, and the Nets’ holdover players are surely left wondering whether their futures are about to be in flux.

The most important question to ask, though, is whether any of the Nets’ five picks has star upside? Brooklyn has lacked a franchise player — or potential franchise player — since shipping out Durant, Irving and James Harden in quick succession, and it theoretically had enough assets to move up the draft board to land a bigger fish. Will the Nets look back and wish they had made a consolidation move?

11. Winners: Oklahoma City Thunder

Thunder envy is real and growing: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver drew loud boos from the Brooklyn crowd when he opened the draft proceedings by congratulating Oklahoma City on its first championship.

The NBA calendar moves so fast that the Thunder held its championship parade Tuesday, exactly one day before General Manager Sam Presti selected Georgetown center Thomas Sorber with the 15th pick.

Sorber, 19, looks like an ideal fit for Oklahoma City as a backup center who displayed an impressive defensive impact on the college level. The Thunder’s deep roster lacked any glaring needs, but adding size and depth behind centers Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren makes all the sense in the world. Though Sorber is still working his way back from season-ending foot surgery, Oklahoma City has the luxury of taking things slowly. Don’t forget: The Thunder will soon welcome back Nikola Topic, its 2024 lottery pick, after he sat out his entire rookie season while recovering from knee surgery.

Georgetown center Thomas Sorber joins the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder. (Adam Hunger/AP)