CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — In a year where two top prospects have Arizona ties, the Phoenix Suns picked a perfect time to end a 50-year drought and capture the first choice in June's NBA Draft.
The Suns had the best chance to land the top spot at 25 percent after finishing a league-worst 21-61 and came through in Tuesday's NBA Draft Lottery to own the first pick for the first time in club history with Sacramento second and Atlanta third.
This year's NBA Draft will be staged June 21 at the Barclays Center in New York.
“This is a loaded draft,” Suns general manager Ryan McDonough said. “We're excited to have our choice of whoever we want.”
Deciding will be the tough part for a team that hasn't reached the playoffs since 2010, endured its second-worst campaign in club history and will boast the NBA's first European born head coach in Serbian Igor Kokoskov.
“All the guys in the grouping we look at have a high level of talent,” McDonough said. “Where we dig deeper is the mentality, the work ethic, the basketball IQ. I think some of that we can see on film. Some of that we see from our in-person scouting. A lot of it will be part of the interview process and workout process.
“We have a handful of players in mind. We'll workout as many guys as we can to be in that mix.”
That lineup is believed to include three 19-year-old star prospects — Phoenix-born forward Marvin Bagley from Duke, Arizona's Deandre Ayton and Slovenian guard Luka Doncic.
Ayton, a 7-footer (2.16m) from the Bahamas, averaged 20.1 points, 11.6 rebounds, 1.9 blocked shots and 1.6 assists a game for the University of Arizona Wildcats this past season.
Bagley, a 7-footer (2.11m) who grew up in Phoenix, averaged 21.0 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists a game for Duke, which reached the final eight in this year's US college championship tournament.
Doncic won the EuroLeague's Rising Star Award for the second year in a row in his third season for Real Madrid.
The Suns had the second overall pick in 1987 and when they were founded in 1969 after losing a coin flip with Milwaukee to decide which team received the top pick. The Suns landed Neal Walk second after the Bucks took legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who became the NBA's all-time top scorer.
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