2. Los Angeles Lakers – Donovan Mitchell
Originally picked 13th, it became clear very early that Mitchell was the steal of the 2017 draft. And if it wasn’t for Ben Simmons navigating the NBA equivalent of repeating a grade in school, Mitchell would have run away with the rookie of the year.
There are a lot of young players in the NBA who put up empty calorie box scores on bad teams, but Mitchell isn’t one of them. As a rookie he was the go-to scoring option for a team that beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in six games. He was the best player in a series where his opponent had three future hall of famers on its roster and sealed the series with a career-defining 38 points in the closeout Game 6.
His run in the 2018 playoffs is the most significant postseason performance of anyone in this class and earn Mitchell the 1B to Tatum’s 1A in the redraft.