Then, Tuesday night, he was the good-luck charm for his old franchise, the Detroit Pistons, in the NBA’s annual draft lottery.
Charlotte, San Antonio, Indiana, and Golden State, with its own selection, round out the lottery picks.
Detroit, after taking three players in the first round of last year’s draft — Killian Hayes — will now get a chance to add a high-end talent to its mix.
“Obviously we get to add another wing player to the restoration process,” said Pistons general manager Troy Weaver, who was hired to run Detroit’s basketball operations last year.
The Rockets, after making the playoffs the past eight seasons, saw things go in an entirely different direction this season after trading James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets for a bevy of draft picks back in January.
Cleveland, after picking fifth the past two seasons, got a dose of lottery luck this time around.
It was a miserable season for the Raptors, who saw what easily was the most successful stretch in franchise history — seven straight playoff appearances, including the 2019 NBA title — come to a screeching halt this season.
The Magic shifted into a rebuilding mode this year, trading Nikola Vucevic to Chicago, Evan Fournier to Boston and Aaron Gordon to Denver.
No team had more to gain in this draft than Oklahoma City.
They wound up paying that debt this season, meaning Golden State will have two lottery picks this year — the seventh overall selection from Minnesota, plus its own pick at 14th overall.
With a month before the draft, the consensus top four players available, in some order, are Cunningham, Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs, USC big man Evan Mobley and guard Jalen Green, who was an inaugural member of the NBA’s G-League Ignite program.
The Rockets, due to the Russell Westbrook trade with Oklahoma City two years ago, would either keep their pick if it fell within the top four or send the fifth pick in the draft to the Thunder after finishing with the worst record in the NBA.
Ultimately, it was Houston, Orlando and Golden State that managed to have things break their way Tuesday night.