Tyrese Haliburton once again hit a clutch shot to help lead his team to victory in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Pascal Siakam was the leading scorer (19 points) for that Indiana Pacers team that won Game 1.
On the other side, recently crowned NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored an incredibly efficient 38 points as his Oklahoma City Thunder tried to fend off the late-game surge from the Pacers.
What do all these players, and all of the players on both of these Finals teams have in common? There isn’t a single No. 1 draft pick among them.
In fact, the only No. 1 pick in the conference finals was the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards, who was selected No. 1 in 2020.
Coincidentally, the 2020 NBA draft also saw Obi Toppin taken with the eighth pick, Haliburton with the 12th pick and Aaron Nesmith with the 14th pick, and all three of them are a part of this Pacers team that is in the NBA Finals.
If you look at the No. 1 overall picks taken across the last 22 years, only five of them have won an NBA title. There’s Andrew Wiggins and Andrew Bogut, who both were No. 1 picks but were clearly not No. 1 on their Stephen Curry-led teams that won championships.
There’s Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving, who both won titles while they were on LeBron James teams, and then there’s LeBron James.
This isn’t to say that having the No. 1 overall draft pick is a bad thing. I’m a firm believer that having the No. 1 pick is a really good thing. But, [as Austin Ainge said in his introductory press conference with the Utah Jazz](https://www.deseret.com/sports/2025/06/02/austin-ainge-to-have-final-say-utah-jazz-justin-zanik-danny-ainge/) last week, there are plenty of great players to be had from across the draft board.
“If you look at the playoffs and look at all the best players in the NBA, how many of them went No. 1?” Ainge said. “It’s better to have No. 1, but there’s a lot of other stars that came from all over the draft.”
That’s not hyperbole and it’s not something said just to placate the Jazz fans who have been wondering when the team will finally have players that are ready to compete and worth truly cheering for.
Teams are not made up of all No. 1 picks and most teams are not led by a No. 1 pick. Players who are chosen later will become stars. They always do.
On these Finals teams alone, the highest draft pick is OKC’s Chet Holmgren, who was taken No. 2 overall in 2022. Conventional wisdom might make you think that Holmgren would be one of the top performers, but in Game 1 of the Finals he scored just six points. Meanwhile, Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t even a top 10 pick — he was taken 11th in 2018.
Four of the five highest scorers from the first game of the Finals were taken outside the top 10, with Toppin being the exception. OKC’s Jalen Williams was the 12th pick in 2022, Lu Dort was undrafted in 2019, Alex Caruso went undrafted in 2016 and the Pacers’ Siakam was the 27th pick in 2016.
The highest pick on the Pacers’ roster is Bennedict Mathurin, who was selected No. 6 overall in 2022.
There’s almost no denying that this year’s presumptive No. 1 overall pick, Cooper Flagg, is going to be incredible and have a very long NBA career, but there’s no guarantee he will win a title and there will certainly be players who are picked after Flagg who will become All-Stars and win titles.