Washington Wizards NBA Draft 2015 Reactions: Biggest Surprise, Biggest Steal, More

The NBA Draft didn’t go quite as we predicted earlier. What was the biggest surprise, in your opinion?

John: The biggest surprise in my opinion was the Lakers passing up Duke big man Jahlil Okafor and drafting guard D’Angelo Russell.

Two days before the draft, the basketball world went into a fever pitch when there was some rumbling coming out of Sacramento that head coach George Karl and All-Star Center DeMarcus Cousins couldn’t co-exist and the Kings were looking to move Cousins.

One of the scenarios involved the Lakers giving up the number 2 pick.

Then on draft day, we had heard through the media that Portland forward LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Love both let the Lakers know that they were interested and that the Lakers were legitimately thinking of going with Russell instead of Okafor.

I think most people looked at that as a smokescreen to throw people off which is standard operating procedure for NBA teams as time gets closer to the draft, but we now know that wasn’t a smokescreen after all and that the Lakers might be working on something or a deal to send waves in the free agency market of 2015 for them to hopefully become contenders once again.

David: For me, the biggest surprise in the NBA draft was easily the stunning drop of Justise Winslow all the way to the 10th pick.

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In future years, we very well may look back at the 2015 NBA Draft and remember Justise Winslow as the single best player of this class.

Winslow is a freak athlete and a freak competitor, a proven winner with dynamite two-way upside and the potential to be a true superstar in this league.

And he went behind Kristaps Porzingis. He went behind Willie Cauley-Stein and his bum foot.

He went behind Frank Kaminsky. He went behind Stanley Johnson, a man who plays the same position but is demonstrably inferior in just about every respect.

I had him going eighth to Detroit in our most recent mock draft, and even then I thought it was a big time steal for the Pistons. At 10, to the Heat, is nothing short of grand larceny. Of course this dude ended up in the Washington Wizards’ division.

Oz: The biggest surprise to me had to be Ernie Grunfeld moving up from 19 to 15 for a player who he clearly liked and thought represented a great value.

It’s very out of character for EG to move up in the draft for a player in his time here at least and I would have assumed he would have been content to sit back and see if Bobby Portis, Sam Dekker, or Kelly Oubre made it back to the Washington Wizards at 19.

Trading the future second round picks to move up was not surprising. The Wizards haven’t gotten productivity from a second round pick since Dominic McGuire in 2007.

A close second was Justise Winslow dropping to Miami with the 10th overall selection. I don’t think of Winslow as a franchise type of player but it was surprising to see him slip through the cracks. I think being a bit undersized to play the 3 and questions about his jumpshot were the factors that pushed him down most team’s boards.

Next: Biggest Draft Steal