Original Pick: Cade Cunningham

Cade Cunningham’s Original Draft Position: No. 1

Keeping Cunningham at No. 1 is not a no-brainer. Evan Mobley and Franz Wagner, in particular, have strong cases.

Skeptics will harp on early-career availability and lackluster efficiency when debunking Cunningham’s credentials. That is fair if you’re weighting track records over this season and what follows.

Still, Cunningham is the best passer of this draft class. Alperen Şengün has a claim, but Cunningham’s lift on the Detroit Pistons has always been heavier. And while his inside-the-arc finishing may never be fully up to snuff, his three-point shooting and volume, defensive size and improvement, presence on the glass and overall on-ball gravity gives him the ceiling required to edge out the next few names to follow.