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Winners and losers from the 2016 NBA Draft

Boston Globe / Getty

An eventful NBA draft night welcomed 60 fresh faces to the big leagues Thursday. Here are your winners and losers:

Losers: No luck for the Celtics

The trouble with assets is that someone has to think of them as valuable, and therein lies the problem for Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge.

Having entered the draft with dreams of prying Jimmy Butler, the Celtics reached for Jaylen Brown at No. 3, shocked the world by nabbing Frenchman Guerschon Yabusele, then scraped two second rounders for a 2019 first. Nobody took Ainge's bait, and he walked away with very little NBA-ready talent after years of careful asset accumulation.

The Celtics did make out like bandits with Demetrius Jackson at No. 45, but they had grand designs for a home run and got no more than a single.

Ainge won't be deterred. He'll be back on the trade market hunting for superstars in no time. But the draft was his chance to cash in, and all he got was more future assets - something the Celtics have way too much of.

Winners: International prospects

Basketball has truly become a global game, as evidenced by the record number of international players selected in the first round.

Of the 30 first-round selections, 14 were born outside of the United States. The first overall pick was Australian Ben Simmons, the fourth pick was used on Croatian center Dragan Bender, and the sixth pick on Bahamas-born Buddy Hield. Canadian guard Jamal Murray was drafted seventh, Austrian center Jakob Poeltl went ninth, and surprise Greek selection Georgios Papagiannis shot up to 13th (more on that below).

France led the way with five internationals.

Player Pick Nationality
Ben Simmons 1 Australia
Dragan Bender 4 Croatia
Buddy Hield 6 Bahamas
Jamal Murray 7 Canada
Jakob Poeltl 9 Austria
Thon Maker 10 South Sudan
Domantas Sabonis 11 Lithuania
Georgios Papagiannis 13 Greece
Juan Hernangomez 15 Spain
Guerschon Yabusele 16 France
Ante Zizic 23 Croatia
Timothe Luwawu 24 France
Furkan Korkmaz 26 Turkey
Pascal Siakam 27 Cameroon
Skal Labissiere 28 Haiti
Ivica Zubac 32 Croatia
Cheick Diallo 33 Mali
Rade Zagorac 35 Serbia
David Michineau 39 France
Zhou Qi 43 China
Isaia Cordinier 44 France
Paul Zipser 48 Germany
Michael Gbinije 49 Nigeria
Ben Bentil 51 Ghana
Joel Bolomboy 52 Ukraine
Petr Cornelie 53 France
Wang Zhelin 57 China
Abdel Nader 58 Egypt

Losers: Kings (More Boogie discord)

As mentioned, the Kings used the 13th pick on Papagiannis, an unknown 280-pound center from Greece. That wasn't to DeMarcus Cousins' liking:

The Kings had the eighth pick, which they could have used to land Marquese Chriss. Instead they parlayed the pick for the No. 13 and No. 28 selections and used them on two raw talents - Papagiannis and Skal Labissiere.

How would you feel as the franchise center if the last two lottery picks made by your team were also used on centers?

Winners: Sixers sweep

Devoted Sixers fans will remember the 2016 draft for former general manager Sam Hinkie's martyrdom. After all, it was his infamous "Process" that landed them with so many selections.

But credit his successor Bryan Colangelo for turning the picks into exciting young talents for the up-and-coming Philly squad.

Ben Simmons going first overall was a no-brainer. He's got the size and athleticism of Blake Griffin with the quickness of a guard. Colangelo went on to secure good value in Frenchman Timothe Luwawu at No. 24, then picked up a promising stash candidate in Furkan Korkmaz at No. 26.

Granted, the Sixers still don't have their point guard of the future. But it's evident that Colangelo is trying to shape Hinkie's asset-hoarding into a functional team structure. Colangelo reportedly made numerous runs at yet another high lottery pick to add Kris Dunn, and while he came up short, he has the assets to eventually get a deal completed.

Simmons alone would have been enough. Instead of courting yet another injured center, Colangelo is finally molding something out of the confusing jumble left behind by his predecessor.

Losers: Davis and Skal slide

At least Skal Labissiere stayed in the first round. He was projected to be taken in the teens, but his uncomfortable wait came to an end when the Kentucky-obsessed Kings took the Haitian prospect 28th.

Michigan State product Deyonta Davis wasn't so lucky. He, too, was expected to land in the lottery, but he slid all the way to the second round at No. 31. A dejected Davis sat in the green room and watched helplessly as others walked across the stage. He eventually had to be ushered back into the general area before he was finally put out of his misery by the Memphis Grizzlies.

"This is a cautionary tale for a lot of these freshmen that are leaving early," Davis' head coach Tom Izzo warned after seeing his prospect plummet.

Lesson here: One and done isn't without its risks.

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