DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA – JANUARY 07: Cooper Flagg #2 of the Duke Blue Devils dunks against the … More
The NBA Draft Lottery is Monday night, where one team will walk away with the right to select first, and thus have the opportunity to acquire Duke forward Cooper Flagg.
But, who needs the young star the most?
Three teams have 14% chance of winning the lottery, and those the Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards, and Charlotte Hornets.
If we use that trio of teams as our starting point, which organization is outright in the biggest need of a major franchise player?
Utah Jazz
This team definitely needs something. Despite having Lauri Markkanen on its roster, the Jazz don’t have a lot else, and that’s despite carrying multiple players on rookie contracts, most of whom seem fairly pedestrian compared to how Flagg projects.
Will Cody Williams or Isaiah Collier pop, and become stars? That seems like a stretch.
Utah definitely needs a player to reset their whole time table, which would also allow them to pivot off Markkanen in order to find a playmaking guard to pair with Flagg long-term.
Yet, from an organizational perspective, the Jazz have a fairly rich history. They were in back-to-back Finals in 1997 and 1998, and have since made the postseason 16 times, including the Western Conference Finals in 2007.
While the roster is absolutely thirsting for a young star, the Jazz as a team hasn’t had as depressing a past as our next two candidates.
Washington Wizards
Since the team won the championship in 1978, 47 years ago, they’ve made the playoffs just 18 times, losing in the first round a whopping 12 of those times.
If that isn’t already rough enough, here’s some brutal honesty which only makes their case for Flagg even stronger: They’ve become fairly irrelevant.
Not a lot of people pay attention to the Wizards, and their fan base is among the smallest in the NBA. They also ranked 29th in attendance this season, underlining how the organization sorely needs an intoxicating player to attract interest.
The Wizards are further ahead of Utah in terms of leaning fully into a rebuild, and their young pieces do have more upside. That’s a notch for the Jazz, but when you factor in the overall lack of noise surrounding the organization, they move ahead of Utah.
Charlotte Hornets
This is a tricky one. On the one hand, they have a star in LaMelo Ball, meaning the need for a true star isn’t as great as the other two.
However, Ball is rarely available, and their product is often poor and uninspiring. They don’t produce wins, and they aren’t particularly exciting of a watch either.
Adding Flagg, with the noted benefit of him playing at local Duke, would obviously be tremendously exciting and instantly turn the Hornets into a team you have to watch more often than not.
Yet, their fan base is fairly stellar, and with the team already in possession of Ball, not to mention Brandon Miller, it’s nearly impossible to make a valid argument for the Hornets ranking over Washington as a team in the most need of Flagg.
Conclusion: Washington needs him the most.
If you wish to hear more on this subject, you can listen to a podcast I recorded with Dan Favale on the show Hardwood Knocks, where this exact subject is covered.
Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.