Lottery luck wasn’t with the Nuggets, but not against them either. On Tuesday night, they learned they will select seventh in the June 25 NBA draft, staying in the same spot in which they finished, record-wise, in the regular season.
The seventh slot was the highest probability for the Nuggets, with a 59.93 percent chance of getting that pick. It will be the Nuggets’ highest pick in the draft since they selected third overall in 2003, the year they took Carmelo Anthony.
“The seventh pick gives us an opportunity to add an impactful player,” Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly said. “Certainly we had our fingers crossed that we were going to move up, but at the end of the day, we stayed where we’re supposed to be slotted. We’re excited to know where we are and start to really pick apart the guys in that group.”
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Now the detail work begins. Beyond the two elite big men, Duke’s Jahlil Okafor and Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns, the draft could go in any direction. Point guards Emmanuel Mudiay and D’Angelo Russell are the two next most-coveted players, and then it starts to get murky.
The players falling to the general area of the Nuggets will be center Kristaps Porzingis, forward Mario Hezonja, forward Justise Winslow, power forward Willie Cauley-Stein and Arizona small forward Stanley Johnson.
“That second tier is probably about six or seven guys,” Connelly said. “They all project as potentially impactful players, and what’s good is there’s not a huge drop-off in that second tier.”
The Nuggets will get a number of those players, and others, in for workouts in June.
Nothing is off limits for the Nuggets in getting the player they want, Connelly said.
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“Everything is on the table,” Connelly said. “We’d be content to pick at seven — there’s some guys we really, really like in that range. But we’ll be very aggressive identifying the guys that we want and not being reluctant to aggressively pursue those guys. If that guy is at seven, then great. If we feel like we have to maneuver in the draft a little bit, then we’ll be aggressive in doing so.”
The big news of the night was the New York Knicks dropping from the second-worst record to picking fourth. And they dropped to the benefit of the Los Angeles Lakers, who vaulted into the top three and will pick second. The Philadelphia 76ers pick third.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Timberwolves, who had the highest-percentage chance of getting the top pick, actually got it, and gain another top pick to go along with their young star, Andrew Wiggins, who just won rookie of the year.
