With the New York Knicks selecting 8th in the 2020 NBA Draft, a review of the best players selected 8th overall in NBA history.
The New York Knicks fell in the lottery, once again. After having a 37.2 percent chance of jumping into the Top 4, they hit on their 20.8 percent odds of falling back to 8th. In other words, it was another disappointing outcome for New York’s favorite basketball team (sorry, Nets fans).
New president Leon Rose now goes to work with a lottery pick that might prove more valuable in trade than it is in selecting a young player from what is considered a weak draft class, at least at the top end.
New York also has the 27th and 38th picks, which they could package as part of a deal to move up. Of course, they could also look to trade down and gain extra assets that way.
Speculation will continue to swirl about Rose swinging a deal for a veteran star, with the 8th pick an added chip he can now offer.
But before we get into all of the trade talk, on the day after the lottery, I thought it would be interesting to look back at previous drafts to get an idea of the type of talent you can find with the eighth pick.
As disappointing as it is to fall outside of the Top 5, and even worse, to drop all the way to eighth, perhaps history will remind us there are some impressive players selected later in the lottery.
While I considered focusing only on the current generation of players, the eighth overall pick is the eighth overall pick, whether in the lottery era or not. Even when the league was in its infancy, seven prospects were picked ahead of these players in their draft year.