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The Detroit Pistons won the right to select Cade Cunningham with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft.
The Pistons were one of three franchises that entered the draft lottery with the highest probability of landing the top selection.
Detroit will be followed by the Houston Rockets, Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors in the draft order on July 29.
The majority of draft experts believe Cunningham will be the top selection, so the draft could start at No. 2 with the Rockets.
Evan Mobley from USC and Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs will likely be the next two players off the board and they could be followed by two players that chose the G-League route to the NBA: Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga.
Mobley, Suggs, Green and Kuminga probably will not spend much time with the Pistons in the pre-draft process.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Cunningham will visit with just one team ahead of the July 29 selection process.
ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell have Cunningham listed as the No. 1 pick in their early mock drafts. The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie listed the Oklahoma State guard as his top prospect in the draft class.
The experts begin to differ at No. 2. Givony has the Rockets landing Green, while O’Donnell has Mobley going to Texas.
The Rockets already have an athletic big man in Christian Wood, so a case could be made for them to go after Green, a guard who played with the G-League Ignite squad.
You could also argue that Houston needs the best talent available to energize its rebuild after dealing away James Harden and Russell Westbrook last season.
Cleveland appears to be in line to select whichever one of Green or Mobley does not land at No. 2. The potential addition of Mobley would help the Cavs replace Andre Drummond, who was bought out and landed with the Los Angeles Lakers this season.
Suggs, who marveled during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament with Gonzaga, would be a nice fit with the Raptors at No. 4.
Toronto enters the summer with a giant unknown in its backcourt due to Kyle Lowry’s impending free agency. The availability of Suggs at No. 4 would allow the Raptors to feel more comfortable in moving on from their veteran point guard.
The Orlando Magic will have one of the most important decisions to make at No. 5 with Kuminga, Scottie Barnes and a few other intriguing prospects available.
Orlando has the No. 5 and No. 8 selections since the Chicago Bulls dropped out of the top four into the eighth position.
The Magic could package those picks together to move up into the top four, or they could be utilized to accelerate their rebuild after the departures of Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon.
Orlando is one of two teams with multiple lottery picks. The Golden State Warriors are slated to pick at Nos. 7 and 14 and they could be one of the popular trade candidates because of their potential to rebound when Klay Thompson gets healthy.
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