The 2022 NBA draft will give a selection of the league’s worst teams a chance to select a player who can improve their fortunes for next season and beyond. The Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons each have 14% odds to obtain that No. 1 pick, and it stands to reason that each is in the process of planning for that scenario and others of a less favorable variety.
But compared to previous drafts, there is less of a consensus in this year’s event on who the first pick in the draft should be. There will be no Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards or Zion Williamson at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 23, but rather a handful of potentially elite prospects including Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith and Paolo Banchero.
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The three teams mentioned above — or another team, should the lottery balls align in a certain way at the May 17 draft lottery — will have a tough choice at No. 1.
What should each member of this group of three do if they win the top pick in the 2022 NBA draft? What if they fall out of the top three? ESPN’s NBA draft experts Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz considered these questions with the draft lottery just two weeks away:
Houston Rockets
No. 1 pick odds: 14% | Top-three odds: 40%
Player the Rockets should select with the No. 1 pick: Chet Holmgren
The Rockets would surely be excited to add any of the elite frontcourt players projected at the top in Holmgren, Smith or Banchero. You could make an argument that each of them is an ideal fit considering their strengths. Smith’s combination of dynamic shooting and perimeter defense is just as much of a need as the shot-creation, passing and shot-making Banchero offers.
Holmgren gets the nod here in my view as the most talented player in the draft, as well as having the most potential to impact the Rockets’ defense, which ranked last in the NBA last year, as no other team gave up more points in the paint last season.
Holmgren’s elite combination of mobility, length and timing, which helped him…
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