The first round of the 2023 NBA draft saw a generational 7-foot-5 talent hearing his name called at No. 1, trades involving top-10 picks and one player surprisingly sliding out of the lottery.
The moves NBA teams made Thursday will have a ripple effect into free agency, the 2023-24 season and beyond.
As expected, French phenom Victor Wembanyama was drafted with the first overall pick by the San Antonio Spurs. Wembanyama's status as the most hyped NBA prospect since LeBron James in 2003 gives the Spurs hope of building around a young superstar.
Several other teams are hoping their picks will give them similar hope, including the Charlotte Hornets after drafting Brandon Miller and the Portland Trail Blazers, who selected Scoot Henderson. Twins Amen and Ausar Thompson became the first brothers taken in the top five picks of the same draft in NBA history when the Houston Rockets took Amen at No. 4 and the Detroit Pistons took Ausar at No. 5.
The first round also saw its fair share of trades, as the Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards swapped draft rights for Bilal Coulibaly and Jarace Walker, and the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks swapped draft rights for Cason Wallace and Dereck Lively II.
Our basketball insiders break down the biggest storylines from the night and what they mean for the league moving forward
Jeff Borzello: Bilal Coulibaly going at No. 7 seemed a couple spots early. Perhaps the surprise wasn't simply Coulibaly going ahead of the likes of Jarace Walker, Taylor Hendricks and Cam Whitmore, though, but his rise over the past few months. He was barely on the radar this time a year ago and was still an afterthought earlier this season. Over the past couple weeks, buzz had grown that he was going to be drafted in the lottery, and his perceived ceiling just kept rising. It's a long-term play with huge potential for the Wizards.