What if the 2022 NBA Draft happened again? Redraft the class four seasons in, and watch Jalen Williams climb from twelfth to second — past the man Oklahoma City took at two, and won a championship beside.
How the 2022 draft really went, pick by pick through the first round.
The first round of the actual 2022 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 2022 NBA redraft: pick number, player, the team holding that pick, and where he actually went.
No changeUp 10 placesDown 1 placeNo changeUp 3 placesNo changeUp 6 placesUp 13 placesDown 6 places
Up 21 placesDown 6 placesUp 10 placesDown 6 placesUp 1 placeUp 2 placesDown 7 places
UndraftedUp 9 placesDown 5 places
Undrafted
Up 14 places
UndraftedUp 7 places
Up 10 places
Up 32 placesDown 7 places
Up 20 places
Up 9 places
Up 14 places
Up 2 places
Orlando took him first and got Rookie of the Year. Four seasons in he has averaged better than 22 a game and the redraft leaves him exactly where he was — the only top pick on this site that a redraft doesn't move.
Eleven teams passed and Oklahoma City took him at twelve, ten picks after taking Chet Holmgren. In 2025 he was an All-Star, All-NBA, All-Defensive and a champion in the same season. Ten places is the biggest rise here.
A Lisfranc fracture in a summer pro-am cost him the whole of his first season before he had played a minute. He has three seasons rather than four, a championship, and in 2026 an All-Star selection, All-NBA and an All-Defensive First Team — while blocking 2.1 a game for his career.
Sacramento took him fourth and the redraft holds him there. All-Rookie First Team is still the only honour, and injuries cut his 2025-26 to 23 games — a sound pick that has not yet had the season to prove it was more.
He scored 3.8 a game as a rookie and was traded to Atlanta. There he led the NBA in steals, won Most Improved Player and made an All-Defensive First Team — all in 2025. He still averages under ten points and is fifth in this redraft anyway.
The Thunder took Chet Holmgren second and Jalen Williams twelfth. Both are in this top three, and in 2025 both won a championship in the same uniform. No other team in this draft got two of the best five players in the class, and they did it ten picks apart.
He averaged 3.8 points as a rookie and 5.8 in his second season, and the Pelicans moved him to Atlanta. In his first year there he led the league in steals and won Most Improved Player. He is fifth in this redraft while still scoring under ten a game.
A Lisfranc fracture in a pro-am game cost him the whole of 2022-23 before he had taken an NBA possession. He has one fewer season than everyone else in this top five and is third anyway. The redraft is judging him on three years of work, not four.
The Kings took Keegan Murray, who has been steady and has one All-Rookie team to show for it. Williams was still on the board and went eight picks later. It is the sort of miss that only looks obvious once someone else's pick has a ring on it.
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.
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.
