The first trade at the 2018 NBA Draft was a blockbuster, as the Dallas Mavericks moved up from the fifth overall pick to the third pick, sending the Atlanta Hawks a protected 2019 first round pick, to select Luka Doncic while the Hawks moved back to take Trae Young.
With the eighth pick, the Cavaliers took Collin Sexton out of Alabama, leaving one other lottery-caliber point guard on the draft board in Kentucky’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Los Angeles Clippers, who held the 12th and 13th overall picks in the draft, made the second trade of the night to move up one spot to the No. 11 overall pick to take Gilgeous-Alexander, with the Hornets taking a pair of second round picks to move a spot back and land Miles Bridges out of Michigan State.
Clippers have acquired Gilgeous-Alexander in a trade with Hornets, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 22, 2018
Sources: The Clippers will select Miles Bridges with No. 12 pick and trade him to Charlotte for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 22, 2018
For the Clippers, they get their point guard of the future, with the opportunity to bring him along with Patrick Beverley in the last year of his deal and Austin Rivers also opting in for one more season. The Clippers continued building their backcourt with the 13th overall pick, selecting Jerome Robinson out of Boston College, who they’d been linked to for some time.
Sources: The Los Angeles Clippers are selecting Jerome Robinson with the No. 13 pick in the NBA draft.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 22, 2018
There is a youth movement happening in L.A., and they have positioned themselves as best as they feel they can in the backcourt, foregoing the opportunity to take Michael Porter Jr. to beef up their backcourt depth. It also signals that they were not having much in the way of traction regarding a possible trade with the Spurs to land Kawhi Leonard with those two picks.
