A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Every year, the NBA draft gives the league's worst teams an opportunity to be center of attention. Last night, teams took turns in the first round of selecting eligible players. Kurt Helin is the lead NBA writer for NBC Sports. He joins us to break the draft down for us. So, Kurt, the Washington Wizards had the league's worst record. They had the first overall pick. Who'd they take, and is it a good move?
KURT HELIN: They took AJ Dybantsa out of BYU, and it's a very good move. This is...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
HELIN: ...A franchise cornerstone kind of player, the kind of guy you need in the NBA if you're ultimately going to win at the highest level, the kind of guy who can score, defend, do a little bit of everything, create his own shot. He is one of those household-name kind of guys, or has the potential to be, at least, and it's going to put Washington on the map. That's a long-suffering fan base that really has something to cheer about now.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Led the nation in scoring 25 a game. And actually, there wasn't much drama there, I guess, for the...
HELIN: No.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Second team that was picked. And that was the Utah Jazz. They would have wanted Dybantsa because he's from BYU, but they went with Darryn Peterson.
HELIN: I think they - in fact, I don't think. I know that they were very happy with this. Look, there were three guys at the top of this draft who easily could have been No. 1, and Peterson is a better fit with what's going on in Utah. The other players on that roster - they already have kind of people of size where Dybantsa would play. They get the six-five guard Peterson out of Kansas who, despite some health concerns during the last year, look, when they played BYU and Kansas met (ph), Dybantsa was the better player for the first half. He had to miss the second half with cramping. That's been the concern with him. He had, again, some health and cramping issues. But if he's past that, this is the guy that most scouts had as the person at the top of the draft board before the season started. And if he gets back to that, this is a huge win for Utah.
MARTÍNEZ: Any surprises in the draft?
HELIN: Strangely, this was not a - there are not a lot of surprises, not a lot of crazy moves. We were kind of talking about how this kind of went to form for an NBA draft that's normally filled with big trades or surprises. I think the most interesting move was Memphis kind of moving back at one point twice. They moved back five spots and picked up five second-round picks and still got the guy that they ultimately wanted. So I - that was about it. In general, this was not a draft filled with the unusual, which...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
HELIN: ...Is in of itself, a little unusual.
MARTÍNEZ: Pretty standard draft. Yeah. The one thing that surprised me was Duke guard Isaiah Evans. He was not drafted in the first round. He's probably going to be a top pick in the second round today.
HELIN: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: But he wore $4 million worth of diamonds - a brooch at 3 million and a wallet chain at a million. I don't know if he owns them. I don't know - maybe he was just kind of showing him off, but, yeah, that - to wear that kind of ice and then not get drafted, that, to me, would be a bit of a downer.
HELIN: It would be. And look, there were a few guys there who were not - and this is such a deep draft class. And that's one of the reasons that this was such an anticipated class, is that there were really good players like Evans who would normally be a first-round pick who were not.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And that's the draft - right? - because you try and build your way toward a championship, but sometimes free agency also kind of comes in and really dictates what you do. Kurt Helin, lead NBA writer for NBC Sports, thank you very much for breaking the draft down for us.
HELIN: Thank you for having me on.
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