NBA: Spurs win Victor Wembanyama draft lottery, Raptors get the 13th pick

Victor Wembanyama was called maybe the greatest prospect in team sports history by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Tuesday at the NBA Draft Lottery. This draft lottery, all the attention was focused on who would get Wembanyama. He’s being billed as a generational talent and the consensus number one pick, regardless of who wins the draft lottery. If all this is true, on Tuesday the sports world found out where Wembanyama will play next year.

Wembanyama to the Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs won the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday, they now have the number one pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. The Spurs were tied for the best odds to win the lottery on Bet99 at +560 with the Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons. Each team had a 14 per cent chance to win the lottery. The Charlotte Hornets won the second pick and the Portland Trail Blazers won the third pick. The Trail Blazers had the fifth best odds to win the draft at +780.

The dynamic duos came to play in Game 1 😤 pic.twitter.com/LkCQoEQIBY

— ESPN (@espn) May 17, 2023

Now the Spurs have the chance to draft Wembanyama at the 2023 NBA Draft on June 22. Wembanyama is a near lock to be the pick. He has -10000 odds to be the first overall pick on Tonybet. Scoot Henderson has the second best odds at +3300. There’s almost no doubt who will be the first pick, but the rest of the draft is uncertain.

Who will be the second and third pick

The Hornets have the second pick in the draft. Right now, Scoot Henderson has the best odds to go second with -227 odds on Tonybet. Henderson is a 6’2 guard who has been considered the second best prospect in this draft by many analysts and experts since the beginning of the season. The Hornets winning this pick could cause Henderson to fall. The Hornets star player is Lamelo Ball. Pairing Henderson with a point guard who isn’t known for his defense might not be in the best interest of the Hornets. Alabama forward Brandon Miller has the second best odds to be the second pick in the draft at +154 odds.

The Trail Blazers, barring a trade, will pick third in the 2023 NBA draft. Every year it seems there are questions around Damian Lillard’s future with the Trail Blazers. Those questions haven’t gone away. The Trail Blazers could try to trade the pick, but currently Miller has the best odds to come off the board at this spot at +136 odds. Henderson is second at +180. Twins Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson from the Overtime Elite league have the third and fourth best odds to be the third pick. Amen has +451 odds, and Ausar has +1105 odds.

"He gets up higher than you think!"

Jamal Murray and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope talk about Jokic's spin move and dunk in Game 1.#NBAConferenceFinals presented by @GooglePixel_US pic.twitter.com/ESk2YAvxmH

— NBA (@NBA) May 17, 2023

Toronto Raptors land the 13th pick

The Toronto Raptors walked out of the draft lottery with the 13th pick. The Raptors entered the lottery with a 1 per cent chance to win the first pick and +7900 odds on Bet99. It looks like the Raptors will have to find someone other than Wembanyama to help bolster their roster. A lot of great players have been selected outside of the top 10. The Raptors have proven they can do it, Pascal Siakam was the 27th pick in the 2016 draft and Fred VanVleet was undrafted. 

The Raptors could have potentially increased their chances at the number one pick if they chose to trade away one or a couple of their better players at the trade deadline. Instead, the organization chose to trade for Jakob Poetl. The Raptors finished with a 41-41 record. The team with the worst record in the NBA, the Detroit Pistons, didn’t win the number one pick, so there is no guarantee the Raptors would have won the lottery with better odds.