The Memphis Grizzlies traded Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic on June 15, 2025, in exchange for four unprotected first-round picks in 2025 (Yang Hansen), 2026, 2028, and 2030, a first-round pick swap in 2027, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Cole Anthony. With Orlando ahead 3-2 over the Detroit Pistons in its first-round series, the 2026 pick projects to land in the late teens or early twenties.
To put it simply, drafting a player better than Bane with this pick will be very difficult.
Outside of his injury-riddled 2023-24 season and his rookie year, Bane has averaged a 41st-place finish in the NBA in Basketball Reference win shares. He posted a career-high 7.4 win shares in 2025-26, good for 27th in the league, putting him firmly in the top 10 percent of players in the league.
On average, NBA draft classes produce approximately three to five All-Stars. Historic classes like 1984, 1996, and 2003 produced nine or 10.
Bane is not quite at the All-Star level, but his top-10-percent standing suggests there are roughly six to eight top-50-caliber players in a typical draft class relative to the 3-5 All-Star mark. There are 60 players drafted each year, and six out of 60 fit the 10...
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