Which teams won and lost the 2023 NBA draft? We won't really know that answer, of course, until years down the road when we see how players develop and which ones live up to expectations, fall short or exceed them.
That said, teams don't get to draft with a crystal ball, which makes grading their process of selecting players a fairer measure in many ways than after-the-fact history that's subject to hindsight.
With that in mind, let's grade how all 30 teams did in Thursday's draft, which was marked by a lack of major trades in the first round before a flurry of them in the second round. Generally speaking, my grades for teams are based on how well they maximized the picks they entered the draft with rather than simply how much talent they accumulated, given that's more a product of last season's record (or past trades) than decision-making in the draft.
I'm also grading on a curve with an average distribution of a "B," making an "A" grade something a team truly has to earn. Let's get to the grades.
Jump to a team:
ATL | BOS | BKN | CHA | CHI | CLE
DAL | DEN | DET | GS | HOU | IND
LAC | LAL | MEM | MIA | MIL | MIN
NO | NY | OKC | ORL | PHI | PHX
POR | SAC | SA | TOR | UTAH | WAS
Atlanta Hawks: B
Round 1: Kobe Bufkin (No. 15)
Round 2: Mouhamed Gueye (No. 39), Seth Lundy (No. 46)
The Hawks' deep rotation gave them the luxury of taking the best player available with the first pick outside the lottery. Bufkin, expected to go a few picks higher, fit the bill. How he fits in a backcourt with Dejounte Murray and Trae Young is unclear, but by the time Bufkin is ready to step into a larger role, Atlanta's guard rotation might look totally different.
Lundy is a shooter with size, an archetype teams can never have enough of, while the Hawks added another second-round pick via trade to take Gueye.
Boston Celtics: B+
Round 1: None
Round 2: Jordan Walsh (No. 38)
A flow chart is necessary to trace the Celtics' series of four trades down from the 25th pick, acquired from the Grizzlies in Wednesday's three-team trade that landed Kristaps Porzingis in Boston, to ultimately taking Walsh 38th and adding future second-rounders from three different teams (Atlanta, Detroit and Sacramento).