It seems like just yesterday the Boston Celtics took care of the Dallas Mavericks in game five to win the organization’s eighteenth NBA championship. But there’s no rest for the wicked in the ever evolving world of the NBA.
The 2024 NBA draft is set to begin a revamped two-day affair on Wednesday evening. And while this year’s draft class has been touted as one of the weakest in recent memory, there are still plenty of intriguing storylines that will be sure to keep even casual fans glued to the social media accounts of their favourite team.
If the draft snuck up on you, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered with everything that you need to know before the show kicks off.
Details
The NBA opted to expand the draft to a two night format, which will take place June 26th-27th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, home of the Brooklyn Nets. Round one will kick off on Wednesday, June 26th at 8pm ET, while the second round kicks off on Thursday, June 27th at 4pm ET.
The NBA previously held the draft lottery for the fourteen teams that missed this past season’s playoffs. There were plenty of surprises in the lottery, headlined by the Atlanta Hawks jumping up to the number one selection despite only having the tenth worst record in the NBA and just a 3% chance to win the right to pick first overall.
Stories To Watch
Who will go number one?
This year’s draft has plenty of intriguing names and players who will carve out productive NBA careers. But unlike last year when the Spurs were able to draft Victor Wembanyama, there’s no clear cut star in this class. In fact, the best way to look at this year’s draft is to think that the top five to seven players from any normal draft class are already off the board, and work from there.
None of these rookies are going to join a team and make an immediate major impact according to most scouting services. Nor will they be the key piece for a franchise to build upon going forward. But there are plenty of guys who will be essential role players in the future.
That makes the race to be the first overall pick extremely difficult to guess. The Atlanta Hawks haven’t tipped their hand as to who they’re favouring, leading to speculation that they’re more than willing to trade out of the top spot.
The Hawks have some serious roster construction issues already as the Dejounte Murray/Trae Young experiment seems to be nearing its end. They’ll likely be moving on from one of their star guards and will be looking to retool their roster. But winning the lottery in a weaker draft class won’t be the magic bullet to get it done overnight. They also don’t own their own first round pick in 2025, which is already touted as a much deeper class, meaning they have to get serious about improving this coming season.
If Atlanta isn’t able to find a trade that improves their team in the short term, French wing Zaccharie Risacher is the clubhouse leader to be their selection. Risacher is one of the youngest players in the draft, having just turned 19 in April, and brings size and defensive versatility that will get him on the floor early in his career.
He’s shown some ability as a playmaker, but is definitely still raw. Teams are also worried about his level of competition, as, while he was playing pro as an 18 year old, the competition wasn’t extremely high this past season. If the Hawks aren’t enamored with Risacher, they could go for a big center with UConn’s Donovan Clingan. Clingan has long term potential as a starting NBA center who can protect the rim and become a real threat in the pick and roll game with Young, if the Hawks elect to keep him. Their pick, if they do opt to use it, will depend on which one of their stars they decide to build around going forwards.
There do seem to be some serious suitors for the number one pick if the Hawks are in fact willing to entertain offers. The Detroit Pistons, who are in the midst of yet another organizational change after hiring Trajan Langdon as their new President of Basketball Operations and are still looking for their next head coach after parting ways with Monty Williams, own the fifth pick in the draft.
Detroit’s scouting staff is extremely interested in Alex Sarr, and would be willing to move up in the draft to select the 7’1” forward. Interestingly Sarr has only worked out for the Washington Wizards, who own the second overall pick, so the assumption is that Sarr’s agents are angling for him to be drafted there, but that has yet to scare off the Pistons front office. Detroit has reportedly had talks with Atlanta to move up to the top selection to select Sarr before the Wizards are on the clock.
The San Antonio Spurs are another team to watch heading into the draft – as they currently hold the fourth and eighth pick this year. Their roster still has plenty of holes and taking two shots in the draft would likely be the most prudent move, but there’s a very real possibility that they have one guy they want to put next to Wenbamyama, and are willing to sacrifice a top ten pick in a weak draft to get their man.
While there doesn’t seem to be a surefire prospect at number one overall, that doesn’t take away from the intrigue at the top on draft night.
What will the trade scene look like?
While I personally think stretching the NBA draft over two days is absolutely insane, I do think it will give the GMs of the teams some extra time to talk themselves in and out of trades. The first round of the draft is usually fairly chaotic. But when the second round kicks off, teams have less time between picks and less time to figure out their next deals.
With a whole night between the first and second rounds, teams will be able to take a breath, re-evaluate their rosters and see who they want to prioritize on day two. While the draft is lacking top end talent, it’s actually surprisingly deep with role players and depth pieces.
The NBA trade rumour mill never stops. And considering how limited this year’s free agency class is, there are plenty of contenders that will be looking to make major moves.
The Philadelphia 76ers will be big offseason players. Their major moves might not come over the next couple of days, but, as of this writing, they currently have four players under contract with two restricted free agents to sign (including Tyrese Maxey). They have an absurd amount of cap space to bring in another star. And with Joel Embiid entering his thirties, they have to make a push now to make a serious run at a championship before Embiid’s injuries force them to rebuild.
The 76ers were heavily linked to Paul George, although those rumors have lost some steam as it appears that George may in fact re-sign in LA. The Chicago Bulls already moved Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey, but would love to find someone to take on the Zach Lavine contract while they decide what to do with Demar DeRozan.
They’re also apparently looking to move up in the draft from the eleventh overall pick, so they’ll at least try to be players over the next few days. Doc Rivers was recently quoted saying that he’s looking to make major roster changes to surround Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damien Lillard, and they have multiple expiring contracts that they could get out of this offseason.
Moving thirty six year old Brook Lopez, who has a $23 million expiring contract, or thirty two year old Khris Middleton and his $31.7 million (with a 2025 option) could give the Bucks plenty of leverage to bring in some new talent to support Antetokounmpo for another run at the title.
It’s also impossible to count out either New York team to try and make a splashy move. While the Knicks had a fantastic playoff performance led by Jalen Brunson, they could use an influx of talent to support him and insulate the amount of injury prone players they have on the roster. Adding Mikal Bridges to the mix is solid first step. But if they lose OG Anunoby in the process, then it’s hard to say they’re significantly better than they were last year.
The draft is when the leaders of these franchises get together and talk shop face to face, and there’s no shortage of deals that could take place over the next 48 hours.
Where will Zach Edey land?
The 7’4” Canadian center dominated college basketball for the past two seasons at Purdue, but there are legitimate questions as to how well his old school post up play can translate to today’s NBA.
Edey brings relentless effort, an excellent post up game and is one of the best rebounders in the draft. Unfortunately, that skillset has been largely pushed out of today’s 3-pointer happy NBA. In a world where the strategy is to switch on every screen, Edey’s lack of foot speed could be exposed immediately. He also doesn’t have the defensive versatility to defend on the perimeter, so teams can easily play five-out and take advantage of his inability to recover back into the key.
He’s currently being mocked to go anywhere between picks 14 (to Portland) to 20 (to Cleveland), so it would be surprising to see him fall outside of the first round. He’ll have a tough time adjusting to the NBA, so his landing spot will be crucial to the length and success of his NBA career.
Will LeBron Follow Bronny?
If you haven’t already listened to the 1867 Sports Show podcast regarding Bronny James and his potential draft fit, go check it out.
Bronny is as big of a headline as the NBA draft has had in years. He is, unequivocally, a second round pick at best. However, the name, and what it might mean for a team to draft him, carries a lot of weight.
LeBron has said that he would love to play with his son in his final season. It doesn’t seem like LeBron is ready to give up his LA lifestyle to join his son quite yet, but that will be a factor in two to three years from now. James is definitely on the tail end of his illustrious career, but his name carries so much value that it might just be worth a smaller market team taking a flier on Bronny earlier than expected, even if it is to only get a one year financial gain from having LeBron on their team.
-Devon Gallant
Twitter: @DevGallant
Photo: Ajay Suresh. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.