NBA Draft Results 2016: Easy-to-Read Grades, Picks for All 30 NBA Teams

The 2016 NBA draft turned out to be memorable in many ways, especially with how it unfolded after Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram came off the board with the first two picks.

This year's class was viewed with a lot of uncertainty. Simmons and Ingram are the safest bets to at least become quality starters for the next decade. Other players such as Kris Dunn and Buddy Hield have tremendous potential, but at least one major flaw in their game lowers their ceiling. 

Every team believes it took the necessary steps toward winning a championship on Thursday, though some fared better than others. 

Here are the full results, grades and biggest takeaways from the 2016 draft.

2016 NBA Draft Grades

Team	Grade
Atlanta Hawks	B+
Boston Celtics	C-
Brooklyn Nets	B-
Charlotte Hornets	C
Chicago Bulls	B-
Cleveland Cavaliers	C
Dallas Mavericks	B
Denver Nuggets	A-
Detroit Pistons	B+
Golden State Warriors	B
Houston Rockets	C+
Indiana Pacers	B
Los Angeles Clippers	B+
Los Angeles Lakers	A-
Memphis Grizzlies	C+
Miami Heat	C
Milwaukee Bucks	D
Minnesota Timberwolves	A-
New Orleans Pelicans	B+
New York Knicks	C-
Oklahoma City Thunder	A
Orlando Magic	C+
Philadelphia 76ers	B+
Phoenix Suns	B
Portland Trail Blazers	C+
Sacramento Kings	D+
San Antonio Spurs	A-
Toronto Raptors	B-
Utah Jazz	C
Washington Wizards	C

Best Pick: Dejounte Murray to San Antonio

Since not enough good things have happened to the San Antonio Spurs over the last two decades, they played the board perfectly by falling to Dejounte Murray with the 29th pick. 

Murray will have the luxury of learning behind Tony Parker and/or Manu Ginobili for at least one year while he gets acclimated to the NBA before taking on an expanded role for the 2017-18 season. 

That's perfect for Murray, who Bleacher Report's C.J. Moore noted is going to need his share of development before being a significant contributor in the NBA:

"

The Washington freshman combo guard is an upside pick who will require patience and the right mix of skill development and coaching to turn him into a quality player at the professional level. He has measurables (6'4 ½" with a 6'9 ½" wingspan) and skills that make him intriguing, but he lacks a proven jumper and plays like a college freshman who needs to clean up a lot of things with his game. 

"

Jeremy Woo of Sports Illustrated was much more positive about Murray, thanks in large part to the value he had as the 29th selection:

"

The Spurs had reportedly tried to move up in the draft. They didn’t, and still landed a late lottery-caliber talent. Murray’s a gifted ball handler with great size and scoring instincts, with the only question being his jump shot. San Antonio has a strong history of fixing that. His potential is through the roof for where he was drafted, and this might be the perfect fit. As the Spurs start looking toward the future, this is a player that can totally be a piece. He might be the successor in (Ginobili’s) role down the line.

"

Murray typifies everything that was both good and bad with the 2016 class. He's an athletic freak with a great ceiling, but he did not dominate at the collegiate level the way a player with his upside should.

The former Washington star shot a pedestrian 41.6 percent overall, including 28.8 percent from three-point range. That's unacceptable even on a bad team. But he's going to the Spurs, where excellence is seemingly a given because of how they have fared since 1999. 

Yet with those red flags, Murray still represents a huge steal for the Spurs because he's a freak athlete with a massive wingspan. There's a tendency to diminish freshmen coming out of college for struggling, but it's easy to forget that these are 18- and 19-year-old kids who are still honing their craft. 

The Spurs understand player development better than any organization in the NBA. They got one of the best talents in this class without having to give up anything to make it happen. No wonder they challenge for titles every year. 

Worst Draft: Boston Celtics

Allow me to provide a caveat before explaining why the Celtics had the worst draft. On a pick-for-pick basis, I have no problem saying the Sacramento Kings and Milwaukee Bucks were substantially worse. 

However, let's look at how Boston came into this draft and its expectations. General manager Danny Ainge was all over trade rumors on Thursday, with ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne reporting the Celtics made a strong push for Jimmy Butler before the Chicago Bulls decide to hang onto him. 

Since Ainge was unable to find the deal he wanted for the No. 3 overall pick, the Celtics wound up taking Jaylen Brown. He's an athletic forward, but like Murray, he struggled to show any kind of shooting touch at Cal last year. 

The difference between the two selections is value. The Celtics probably really do like Brown, but his value at No. 3 is not high. 

Things didn't get better for Boston with its next pick at No. 16, as noted homer Bill Simmons attested to on Twitter:

ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman noted that Ainge is going to have a hard time walking around Boston after Thursday night:

This was a bad year to have three first-round picks—things will be much better next year when the Celtics have Brooklyn's first-round pick in a loaded class—but they came out of it virtually no better than when they went in. 

The Celtics are a quality team with a great coach. They needed to have one of the first two picks this year to get a potential superstar in order to join the Eastern Conference elite. It didn't work out for them; they tried to make a splash through a trade and had to settle for a lackluster draft after having high hopes for something major. 

Best Trade: Oklahoma City Thunder

There were rumblings the Thunder were shopping around Serge Ibaka before the draft, which culminated in this trade with the Orlando Magic, via Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical:

The Orlando Magic need a physical interior presence, which would make this trade good for them if Ibaka were still a player who liked to play inside.

Ibaka has turned into more of a jump shooter the last two years and has gone from a player worth more than nine win shares each in 2012-13 and 2013-14 to being worth a total of 11.1 win shares over the last two seasons, per Basketball-Reference.com.

The Thunder didn't need Ibaka anymore with Steven Adams growing into a more prominent role, so they flipped him for an outstanding defender in Victor Oladipo (who can lock down on Stephen Curry) and the draft rights to Domantas Sabonis (who can take over Ibaka's role at power forward). 

This trade still looks excellent for the Thunder if they happen to lose Kevin Durant in free agency. They won't be title contenders if their best player goes somewhere else, but they have enough depth to remain in the playoff mix. 

Andrew Sharp of Sports Illustrated did present a couple of scenarios that may have been running through Oklahoma City's front office when it dealt Ibaka:

"

Durant could leave, and that might be part of the calculus here. Maybe Sam Presti and the management have resigned themselves to Durant's departure and are now looking to build for the future. If they think they're keeping KD, then keeping Ibaka—who struggled against the Spurs but was generally great against the Warriors—and contending for a title would seem like the priority, right? Of course, the other explanation is that Durant signed off on the deal himself before OKC did any of this, and OKC already knows they're keeping him. 

"

No one will know Durant's official decision until free-agency negotiations begin on July 1, but the Thunder's roster after this trade looks capable of getting over that Golden State-sized hump the team is hoping to climb. It will be hard for the former NBA MVP to walk away from OKC as a result.