Back in 2010, the Washington Wizards won the NBA Draft Lottery, but you might as well have called it the John Wall sweepstakes because he ran roughshod over his competition at Kentucky.
Drafting Wall at No. 1 overall signaled light finally entering into a downtrodden franchise. From there, general manager Ernie Grunfeld decided to pile on the losses for three more seasons. After Wall, Washington selected Jan Vesely (No. 6), Bradley Beal (No. 3), Otto Porter (No. 3). Once Vesely quickly flamed out — Dragan Bender might be heading down the same path — the Wizards flipped the switch to winning once they had their core of Wall, Beal and Porter.