This game was pretty fun last year, so I'm doing it again!

For those that didn't see last year's game...go check it out and see how things work HERE.

Here we are. Draft night is done and the Magic have selected Paolo Banchero, Caleb Houstan, and [cash considerations]. There's going to be tons of discussion, debate, and general chatter about the calls the Magic FO made tonight. There's likely a front page post for that, or two, maybe even three.

So what I wanted to do here, is give the OPP fans a chance to put their scouting reps on the line, and declare with finality: "This is who I would have drafted."

I'd like to list the draft order as it happened. If you're willing, if you're brave enough, feel free to post in the comments who you would have taken at the spots the Magic chose, knowing now who was off the draft board by the time you picked. We can revisit this Post after the rookie season and take a look at the players that everyone would have selected & really see how much better/worse the youtube-scouting contingent was.

Once you take your player, assume that the rest of the teams kept picking as they did. If you take someone that another team took, go ahead and assume they took who the Magic took tonight instead. It's not perfect, but it should do the job.

Without further ado, here's the order of players taken:

1. [your selection here] - Magic took Paolo Banchero

2. Chet Holgrem

3. Jabari Smith Jr.

4. Keegan Murray

5. Jaden Ivey

6. Bennedict Mathurin

7. Shaedon Sharpe

8. Dyson Daniels

9. Jeremy Sochan

10. Johnny Davis

11. Ousmane Dieng

12. Jalen Williams

13. Jalen Duran

14. Ochai Agbaji

15. Mark Williams

16. AJ Griffin

17. Tari Eason

18. Dalen Terry

19. Jake LaRavia

20. Maliki Branham

21. Christian Braun

22. Walker Kessler

23. David Roddy

24. MarJon Beauchamp

25. Blake Wesley

26. Wendell Moore Jr.

27. Nikola Jovic

28. Patrick Baldwin Jr.

29. TyTy Washington

30. Peyton Watson

31. Andrew Nemhard

32. [your selection here] - Magic selected Caleb Houstan

33. Christian Koloko

34. Jaylin Williams

35. [your selection here] - Magic traded for Future 2nd & Cash (Lakers selected Max Christie)

36. Gabriele Procida

37. Jaden Hardy

38. Kennedy Chandler

39. Khalifa DIop

40. Bryce McGowens

41. EJ Lidell

42. Trevor Keels

43. Moussa Diabate

44. Ryan Rollins

45. Josh Minott

46. Ismael Kamagate

47. Vince Williams

48. Kendell Brown

49. Isaiah Mobley

50. Matteo Spagnolo

51. Tyrese Martin

52. Karlo Matkovic

53. JD Davison

54. Yannick Nzosa

55. Gui Santos

56. Luke Travers

57. Jabari Walker

58. Hugo Basson

This year I'm listing the entire draft, because sometimes it's tough to remember who else might have been on the board by the time we get all the way down into the 2nd round. This way, we can see some of the other prospects that were available when the Magic were on the clock and/or traded away.

This isn't a "maybe this player or this player" or a debate...all things being equal, if you were on the clock at those picks...who do you take?

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UPDATE!

I closed the voting before the Magic's first summer league game, to avoid any contamination of seeing these guys playing against other NBA athletes & fellow draft picks. I know Summer League doesn't really matter, but I think it's a fair cutoff, nonetheless.

We only had a handful of repeat players, and yet the total participants worked out to the exact same number of players as last year. Weird!

So, without further ado, here's the rundown of everyone's choices:

[Edit: Late Entry] -- Crambo211; Smith Jr., EJ Liddell, Gabriele Procida

Needless to say, but obviously Jabari Smith had his share of fans rooting for him to sport Pinstripes this season. A handful of Paolo picks, from a couple Paolo homers and myself, leaning on the Magic FO's access to better info than I had. I'm surprised only 1 person took Chet, who I think most people across the board feel has the most pure talent of the 3 top guys -- I guess that frame, probably with some injury shell-shock for Magic fans -- really drove down the interest in him.

The 2nd round wasn't nearly as varied as I thought it would be going into the draft...but when I was making my own picks, I realized a whole bunch of guys that were mocked in the early 2nd Round that I liked ended up climbing just high enough for the Magic to miss out on. That left a handful of known guys for us to pick from. Houstan isn't a surprise, both in what he could provide the Magic (spacing!) and because the Magic FO took him. A fair amount of Jaden Hardy, banking on that talent finally coming together. Kennedy Chandler, Kendell Brown, Jaylin Williams, Ismael Kamagate, EJ Liddell, Christian Koloko, and Grabriele Procida all got multiple votes as well.

A couple of us went out on a limb, taking a lower-mocked guy -- myself with Nzosa, TheMoreYouKnow with Keels, and Mattlock with Luke Travers. I guess we'll see if those unorthodox picks pan out (Nzosa being the one guy who might not come over...so that's a long-term question for me).

Aaaaaaaaaaanyways. I want to thank everyone for playing! I got a real kick out of doing this last year and I'm exciting that people were jazzed about doing it again.

I intend to check back on this post at the end of the seaosn, and we'll see how everyone's potential selections look in hindsight. Bragging rights will be on the line!

Thanks again, all!