Rich Weighs In on the NBA Draft Lottery’s Biggest Winners & Losers

Rich did his read on the NBA Draft Lottery the morning after, with a winner everyone saw coming and a loser nobody fully appreciated until the team's general manager started apologizing publicly.

The Wizards won the lottery and will draft AJ Dybantsa, the BYU prospect projected as the consensus number-one pick. Dybantsa's poker face on stage when his name came up became its own story. Rich was not interested in reading into it.

"He's been trained to not show any emotion," Rich said. "And there's two things I have to say about that. One is, if he got drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, I would have loved to see what his face would do."

The point being, the room around him deserved the cool reaction. Washington is the prize.

"The folks in DC are going to love this guy and he's going to love them at the end of the day," Rich said. "It's going to be a freaking love affair from jump."

The Wizards have not been players in the East for years. They have been in the apologizing-for-rebuilding phase. The pick changes that. Rich noted the pattern that has now happened a few times.

"If you want the first overall selection to drop in your lap, just trade for Anthony Davis," he said. The Pelicans did it and landed Zion Williamson. The Lakers did it in their orbit. The Wizards, who have now joined the AD trade alumni, just landed Dybantsa.

The biggest loser was the team most fans were not watching. The Pacers.

Indiana traded for Ivica Zubac at the trade deadline. The cost, Rich enumerated, was significant. Bennedict Mathurin. Isaiah Jackson. A 2029 first-round pick, unprotected. A 2028 second. And, most painfully, this year's fifth overall pick, which now belongs to the Clippers.

Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard knew what was coming. He went on the Pat McAfee Show before the lottery aired to get out in front of it. He apologized to fans on the spot.

"He's also appeared, talk about getting in front of something, like Maya," Rich said. "Folks, I know this is not good. I know this is bad. I know we just went through a season where we tanked and we tanked for nothing."

Rich was careful not to call the Zubac trade a mistake in isolation. The hand was largely forced by Tyrese Haliburton's Achilles injury, which Indiana hopes he recovers from. The trade was the smart play given the moment. The lottery just punished the timing.

The lesson, Rich said, is the one the Wizards just illustrated. Get young. Pile up assets for next year. Trust the math. Indiana tried to play differently. The math came due anyway.