Sources: Woj didn’t plan to pass on tweeting NBA Draft picks early anyway

Let’s be real for a moment: the 2018 NBA Draft was pretty boring. No NBA stars were traded, and the relatively few trades in the first round includes just picks. The biggest moment came early, when the Mavericks traded up for Luka Doncic. (I wrote that this was a culmination of two big bets for Dallas.)

But you know who kept the night hilarious and entertaining? ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski! This was his first draft as the Worldwide Leader’s central NBA reporter, and all indications before the draft were that he would no longer “tip” picks before they were broken on TV. In fact, Kevin Draper of the New York Times reported that none of the three major NBA news sources — ESPN, Yahoo!, or Turner Sports — would tip picks.

Oh, they tipped picks.

Woj did it with a hilarious littany of euphemisms. Louis Bien offers up a tribute to Woj’s creativity, which quickly became the story of the 2018 Draft.

So why did the pick-tipping ban end? Apparently, when the New York Times’ Marc Stein — himself previously ESPN’s lead newsbreaker — began reporting picks before they landed on TV, ESPN and Yahoo! changed their minds. NBA.com’s David Aldridge also began reporting picks as he learned of them.

But being the one in front of most and bringing out lasers, fixations, and enamoration, Woj won the night. Again.

Here’s a tracker with all of the picks from both rounds. Ricky O’Donnell graded each first round pick during the draft. Nice work, Mavs! He also offered up a list of the biggest steals.

Matt Ellentuck has the six best undrafted prospects who were available at the end of the night, and also has 10 surprises we didn’t see coming.

Already miss the draft? Don’t worry, there’s another one in a year. And Señor O’Donnell already has a mock draft for you. Bol Bol!

Seerat Sohi on the Clippers’ Jerry West draft era beginning. LA made some peculiar, but interesting, decisions. Sohi also wrote about the bizarre questions NBA teams ask prospects, and why they should stop.

I wrote about how the Sixers’ trade to move down and pick up a future pick is something you’d expect out of The Process, which proves that Hinkie remains alive in our hearts.

Kristian Winfield on PUMA trying to get back into basketball.

Mikal Bridges is a Philly dude who starred at Villanova and whose mom runs human resources for the company that owns the Sixers. And then the Sixers picked him at No. 10 ... only to trade him 30 minutes later. YIKES. $20 says Mom isn’t coming into work on Friday.

Did you think Joel Embiid would just sit back quietly and listen to the Deandre Ayton comps? No. No he would not.

Michael Porter, Jr. fell all the way to No. 14, where the Nuggets scooped him up. That’s a pretty nice high risk-reward bet for Denver, considering Porter was in play for No. 1 before his back injury and the Kings were very recently considering him at No. 2. Matt Moore is getting the sense the Nuggets might red-shirt him for the 2018-19 season, though I imagine it’s way too early for that decision to be made.

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka says he understands why teams might not be willing to help LA get star players, what with all their championship banners. Lord do I love this new Lakers regime.

So the Nets are actually planning to buy out Dwight Howard’s contract, which means he’s going to be a free agent again.

And finally: LiAngelo Ball is a free agent. Get your popcorn ready, Big Ballers.

Be excellent to each other.