In one of the bigger draft surprises, the Clippers traded up to the 33rd pick.
This trade was a bigger surprise when factoring in the very few news outlets that even reported on it. The Minnesota Timberwolves still have their post showing that they picked Daniel Oturu up on Twitter. He was then thrown over to the Knicks, and then finally, to the Clippers.
Oturu had a rough draft night after being bounced around, but he did manage to end up out here in sunny Southern California. He will be on a mission to prove to those two other states that they both made mistakes in letting him slip all the way out to the west coast.
According to his draft report, he was averaging 20.1 points, 11.3 assists, and 2.3 blocks per game. Yes, you read that right, he was averaging slightly over 20 points and 10 assists per game. The 6’9″ 240 lbs point center is a powerful force on the floor, and his offensive capabilities exploded from his freshman to sophomore year in college.
Looking back at that report, his defense is still rather shaky, but really think about a guy that is averaging 20.1 and 11.3, you are going to pick that up every time for just a 2023 2nd rounder. Many people were talking about the next pick being an absolute steal, but I’m putting my money on this being one of the biggest steals in this whole draft. Having the 26th best scorer in the nation is a nice little treat for a team that was supposed to only draft once.
With the amazing G-League developers waiting for Oturu in Ontario, this is a really promising pick. If he develops fast enough, we could see a lot of really fun minutes for him dunking over the competition. Speaking of promise though, the next pick was on that same level of future brightness.