2015 NBA Draft: Complete First Round Grades

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1. Minnesota Timberwolves

Pick: Karl-Anthony Towns, PF, Kentucky

Grade: A

The obvious pick here. Karl-Anthony Towns is one of the better prospects to come through the ranks in years. He’s big, can score, he’s athletic and he can defend. He has it all at the power forward or center position, and Minnesota is slowly but surely beginning to put together a really solid young team with Wiggins and now adding Towns.

2. Los Angeles Lakers

Pick: D’Angelo Russell, PG, Ohio State

Grade: B+

Many thought the Lakers would go with Jhalil Okafor, but you can see why the Lakers made this pick. The Lakers are in the West — the land of Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul and many other talented point guards, so the Lakers needed to fill a position that they had a gap in for years. Russell brings good scoring and really good passing ability to the Lakers, but isn’t the most athletic point guard in the draft.

3. Philadelphia 76ers

Pick: Jahlil Okafor, PF/C, Duke

Grade: A-

With the Lakers taking Russell with the No. 2 pick, the obvious choice was Okafor for the Sixers. He’s a solid big man who can score, even if he is a little suspect on defense. The one questionable thing about this pick is the fact that the Sixers already have two good big men in Joel Embid (who might not play this year, though) and Nerlens Noel, so who knows if the Sixers even keep one of the three guys. Solid pick as he’s obviously the best available. Just not the best fit.

4. New York Knicks

Pick: Kristaps Porzingis, PF, Latvia

Grade: D

The Knicks. Always provide comedy don’t they? With Emmanuel Mudiay, Justise Winslow, and even Frank Kaminski still on the board, the Knicks decide to go with the unknown commodity. But there are good things about the Latvian monster. He’s big, he can shoot, he has great upside but with the No. 4 pick I don’t think Porzingis was worth the risk.

5. Orlando Magic

Pick: Mario Hezonja, SG, Croatia

Grade: B-

The Magic needed a shooter, so they got the player who thinks Lionel Messi should be watching his games instead of the other way around. He’s cocky, arrogant, ruthless, he can dunk on you and shoot over you. The negatives is that we don’t know how he’s going to be defensively, and of course playing in Europe provides question.

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