What if the 2018 NBA Draft happened again? Redraft the class that sent Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Brunson off the board third, eleventh and thirty-third — and see where Trae Young, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Deandre Ayton land eight seasons on.
How the 2018 draft really went, pick by pick through the first round.
The first round of the actual 2018 NBA draft: pick number, player and the team that drafted him.
The same picks, re-made with hindsight — and how far each player moves from where he actually went.
The first round of a 2018 NBA redraft: pick number, player, the team holding that pick, and where he actually went.
Up 10 placesUp 1 place
Up 30 placesNo changeNo changeUp 4 placesDown 6 placesUp 6 places
Up 27 placesUp 7 placesUp 1 placeDown 5 placesUp 11 placesUp 13 placesDown 7 placesUp 5 placesUp 2 places
Up 24 places
Up 27 places
Undrafted
Up 16 places
Up 19 placesDown 21 places
Undrafted
UndraftedDown 6 placesDown 2 placesDown 2 places
Up 3 placesDown 7 places
Charlotte took him eleventh and traded him to the Clippers that night; a year later the Clippers sent him to Oklahoma City for Paul George. He has since won two MVPs, a scoring title, and the 2025 championship with the Finals MVP beside it. Ten places up, and the Thunder built a title team on the trade.
Atlanta took him third and traded him to Dallas that night for the fifth pick. Rookie of the Year, six All-NBA First Teams, two scoring titles and a Finals run in 2024 followed — and then Dallas traded him to the Lakers in the middle of 2024-25. A championship is the one thing he lacks, and it is the only reason he is second.
Luka Doncic's career & draft history →
The national player of the year, with two NCAA titles, and thirty-two picks went by before Dallas took him early in the second round. He left for New York as a free agent in 2022, and in 2026 won the Knicks their first championship since 1973 — with 45 points in the clinching game and every Finals MVP vote. Thirty places is the biggest rise here.
Memphis took him fourth and the redraft leaves him there. He led the league in blocks in 2021-22 and was Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, then made his second All-Star team in 2025. The Grizzlies traded him to Utah during 2025-26, eight seasons after picking him.
The pick Atlanta took in exchange for Luka Doncic, and for a while it looked close: four All-Star teams, All-NBA in 2022, a conference finals in 2021 and the assists title in 2024-25. The Hawks traded him to Washington during 2025-26, a season a quad injury held to fifteen games.
| Pick | Most popular | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander52.3% | Luka Doncic42.2% | Deandre Ayton1.8% |
| 2 | Luka Doncic50.5% | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander34.9% | Jaren Jackson Jr.4.6% |
| 3 | Jalen Brunson71.6% | Trae Young16.5% | Luka Doncic4.6% |
| 4 | Trae Young45.9% | Jaren Jackson Jr.37.6% | Jalen Brunson8.3% |
| 5 | Jaren Jackson Jr.45.9% | Trae Young32.1% | Jalen Brunson9.2% |
| 6 | Michael Porter Jr.32.1% | Mikal Bridges27.5% | Deandre Ayton11.9% |
| 7 | Michael Porter Jr.32.1% | Mikal Bridges25.7% | Deandre Ayton15.6% |
| 8 | Miles Bridges18.3% | Deandre Ayton13.8% | Mikal Bridges11% |
| 9 | Miles Bridges20.2% | Wendell Carter Jr.17.4% | Deandre Ayton9.2% |
| 10 | Deandre Ayton11.9% | Miles Bridges11.9% | Kevin Knox II9.2% |
| 11 | Mohamed Bamba11% | Wendell Carter Jr.11% | Donte DiVincenzo10.1% |
| 12 | Anfernee Simons11% | Troy Brown Jr.11% | Wendell Carter Jr.9.2% |
| 13 | Zhaire Smith11.9% | Collin Sexton10.1% | Anfernee Simons8.3% |
| 14 | Lonnie Walker IV11.9% | Donte DiVincenzo8.3% | Troy Brown Jr.8.3% |
| 15 | Josh Okogie12.8% | Grayson Allen10.1% | Zhaire Smith9.2% |
| 16 | Mikal Bridges12.8% | Lonnie Walker IV9.2% | Josh Okogie5.5% |
| 17 | Miles Bridges16.5% | Josh Okogie8.3% | Kevin Huerter6.4% |
| 18 | Grayson Allen22% | Kevin Huerter10.1% | Bruce Brown6.4% |
| 19 | Chandler Hutchison23.9% | Grayson Allen7.3% | Josh Okogie6.4% |
| 20 | Aaron Holiday23.9% | Moritz Wagner8.3% | Chandler Hutchison7.3% |
| 21 | Anfernee Simons22.9% | Aaron Holiday11% | Josh Okogie10.1% |
| 22 | Moritz Wagner27.5% | Aaron Holiday9.2% | Josh Okogie8.3% |
| 23 | Donte DiVincenzo18.3% | Moritz Wagner11.9% | Josh Okogie6.4% |
| 24 | Kevin Huerter22.9% | Donte DiVincenzo11% | Moritz Wagner8.3% |
| 25 | Landry Shamet22.9% | Kevin Huerter13.8% | Jarred Vanderbilt5.5% |
| 26 | Robert Williams III22% | Landry Shamet16.5% | Aaron Holiday7.3% |
| 27 | Jacob Evans21.1% | Robert Williams III12.8% | Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk7.3% |
| 28 | Bruce Brown22% | Jacob Evans12.8% | Mohamed Bamba6.4% |
| 29 | Dzanan Musa21.1% | Bruce Brown15.6% | Jacob Evans7.3% |
| 30 | Omari Spellman22.9% | Dzanan Musa14.7% | Bruce Brown7.3% |
| Player | Really went | Community | Move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gabe Vincent | Undrafted | #21.4 | ▲ 44.6 |
| Duncan Robinson | Undrafted | #18.4 | ▲ 42.6 |
| Kostas Antetokounmpo | #60 | #23.6 | ▲ 36.4 |
| Jalen Brunson | #33 | #3.7 | ▲ 29.3 |
| Shake Milton | #54 | #26.6 | ▲ 27.4 |
| Player | Really went | Community | Move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marvin Bagley | #2 | #17.7 | ▼ 15.7 |
| Marvin Bagley III | #2 | #14.1 | ▼ 12.1 |
| Kevin Knox | #9 | #20.2 | ▼ 11.2 |
| Mohamed Bamba | #6 | #16.9 | ▼ 10.9 |
| Deandre Ayton | #1 | #9.5 | ▼ 8.5 |
The Hawks took him third and swapped him for Trae Young at five and a future first-round pick. Young has had a fine career and is fifth in this redraft. Doncic is second, and the two of them stayed tied together in every argument about the class for seven years.
The Suns took Deandre Ayton, who started at centre in the 2021 Finals and has averaged a double-double for his career. He is seventh in this redraft. Three of the six players above him went in the top five; the other three went tenth, eleventh and thirty-third.
The Hornets took him eleventh and sent him to the Clippers for Miles Bridges, the twelfth pick, and two second-rounders. Bridges is eleventh in this redraft. Gilgeous-Alexander is first, with two MVPs and a championship — won for the third team to hold his rights.
The Mavericks came out of this draft with Doncic and Brunson, the second and third players on this board. Brunson left as a free agent in 2022 and Doncic was traded to the Lakers in 2025. Four years after leaving, Brunson won a championship in New York; Dallas has not been back to the Finals since Doncic took it there in 2024.
Hit start and run the first round your way.
Redraft arguments are a staple of NBA Reddit and basketball “pods”, but our NBA redraft tool really tests whether you know “ball”. You have to fill all 30 slots, which means dealing with the awkward middle-of-the-round calls, not just the obvious stars at the top. It’s the difference between saying “they should’ve taken him third” and actually redrafting the entire first round yourself.
An NBA redraft is a tool that lets you redo a past NBA draft class using hindsight instead of pre-draft scouting reports. Instead of guessing who might be good, you're picking based on who actually was good, letting you rebuild the entire first round the way it "should have" gone.
Pick any available draft year, then go through all 30 first-round picks yourself. The redraft tool lets you select any player from that class at each slot, then compares your finished redraft board to the real draft results.
Draft Time Machine's redraft tool covers a wide range of draft years from 1996 to present day. You can jump into recent classes or dig into some of the most talked-about redrafts in NBA history. Check the year selector on the tool for the full list currently available.
The most popular redraft years on Draft Time Machine are the classes with their own redraft pages: 1996 NBA Redraft, 2003 NBA Redraft, 2014 NBA Redraft, 2017 NBA Redraft, 2018 NBA Redraft, 2020 NBA Redraft, 2021 NBA Redraft, 2022 NBA Redraft, 2023 NBA Redraft, 2024 NBA Redraft. Each one has the real draft, our hindsight redraft, the top five and the biggest what-ifs, with the redraft tool ready for that year below.
Yes and no. The NBA redraft tool is yours to control. Do what you want, build it based on position of need and fit or how a players' careers actually played out rather than how they were originally ranked on draft night.
NBA redraft tools are popular because they turn "hindsight is 20/20" draft debates into something interactive. Instead of just arguing who a team should have picked, you can actually build out the full redraft board yourself and compare it to how others would redraft the same class. You can also test your knowledge of basketball, are you a stats head? Prove it!
Yes, the redraft tool on Draft Time Machine is free to use, pick a year and start redrafting.
Once you've completed a redraft, you can share your board to compare your picks against the actual draft results and see how your redraft stacks up.
