Tag: 2024 NBA Draft

Should the San Antonio Spurs take a chance on taking Bronny James in the 2024 NBA draft?

It could be something of a three-ring circus if not all goes as it ought to — but what if it did?

Should the San Antonio Spurs take a chance on taking USC wing prospect Bronny James in the 2024 NBA draft? On one hand, he is currently not mocked to go in either round of the draft by many top projections currently making the rounds.

But on the other, he is still very young and could continue to develop into a player reminiscent of his father, LeBron James. And did we mention that you might also get his father on a discount deal in free agency as part of a package deal? That in itself could be a double-edged sword. Learning from one of the greatest to ever play the game could be a priceless opportunity for Victor Wembanyama.

Or it could be something of a three-ring circus if not all goes as it ought to.

One can make a strong case either way, and that is what the host of the “Locked On Spurs” podcast, Jeff Garcia, explored on a recent episode. Check it out above!

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2024 NBA mock drafts: March first-round projections for OKC Thunder

2024 NBA mock drafts: March first-round projections for OKC Thunder.

While the Oklahoma City Thunder (41-18) continue to fight for the first seed as they’re set to make their first playoff run since 2020, they’ve been frequently mentioned in 2024 NBA mock drafts.

The Thunder are rich with draft assets throughout the rest of the decade due to several trades they made in their rebuild. OKC owns four 2024 first-round picks, but the two worst of the bunch will be rerouted to the Dallas Mavericks and Indiana Pacers.

The Thunder had 2024 draft picks to shed due to their surplus of young talent already on the roster. In all likelihood, they’ll have a pair of lottery picks from the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz.

The Rockets’ pick is top-four protected and the Jazz’s pick is top-10 protected. Considering where they are in the standings, the Thunder will likely have both picks.

With that said, here’s a look at who draft experts have going to OKC (with the Houston and Utah picks) in the latest wave of mock drafts. The projected pick slot varies based on the date of each mock’s publication.

2024 NBA mock drafts, March update: First-round projections for Rockets

With the calendar turning to March, here’s a look at the latest first-round odds and pick projections for the Rockets (via Brooklyn) in the 2024 NBA draft.

The Brooklyn Nets (23-36) endured another difficult month in February 2024, with eight losses in their final 11 games.

Now, as the 2023-24 season winds down in March and April, the biggest beneficiaries of the Nets’ recent downfall are arguably the Houston Rockets, who own Brooklyn’s 2024 first-round draft pick as part of the blockbuster James Harden trade in January 2021.

Though the Rockets (25-34) are likely to lose their own first-round draft pick to Oklahoma City as part of the 2019 Chris Paul-Russell Westbrook trade, it’s worth noting that unlike the Harden-Brooklyn deal, the conveyance of Houston’s pick is top-four protected.

So, if the Rockets miss the 2023-24 Western Conference playoffs, they will actually have multiple chances — both with their own pick, and the one from Brooklyn, which they will receive no matter what — at securing a top-four pick in the first round 2024 NBA draft.

And if Houston loses its pick to the Thunder due to not winning the lottery, it’s becoming increasingly likely the pick they receive from Brooklyn will be higher in the first-round order, anyway.

With that in mind, here’s a look at who draft experts have going to Houston (with the Brooklyn pick) in the latest wave of mock drafts. Keep in mind that the projected pick slot varies based on the exact date of each mock’s publication, since the standings change daily.

Boston takes two forwards and a big man in new Athletic NBA mock draft

Is it too early for you to be thinking about the 2024 NBA draft with the 2024 NBA Playoffs still nearly two months away?

Is it too early for you to be thinking about the 2024 NBA draft with the 2024 NBA Playoffs still nearly two months away? For the best draft experts in the business, it is never too early to get started, and that is exactly what The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie has done in his most recent 2024 mock draft.

In the coming draft, the Boston Celtics will have a first round pick and two late second round picks to work with, which could net them a useful player or two with some luck for the deep rotation and future development. But they will have to nail the picks given all will be close to the end of their respective rounds, and in the Brad Stevens era, they seem to be doing well in that.

Let’s take a look at who Vecenie thinks the Celtics ought to target in the big event this summer.

Chicago Bulls select 6-foot-5 guard in latest 2024 NBA Mock Draft

A recent 2024 NBA Mock Draft has the Chicago Bulls selecting Baylor guard Ja’Kobe Walter.

This summer will be an important one for the Chicago Bulls as they will have a chance to seriously plan for the future. The 2024 NBA Draft will provide them with an opportunity to add some much-needed young talent to the roster, ideally to complement the likes of Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, and Patrick Williams (if he re-signs).

A recent 2024 NBA Mock Draft from Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has the Bulls selecting Baylor guard Ja’Kobe Walter with the 12th pick. Walter is a 6-foot-5 guard who is in his freshman season with the Bears and could be a solid shot-creator in the NBA.

Wasserman notes this skill as a reason teams may look to select him.

“A falling three-point percentage won’t cause scouts to stop seeing an NBA shotmaker in Ja’Kobe Walter. Dating back to high school, the eye test shows a versatile shooter with impressive positional tools and some extra ability to hit tough runners,” Wasserman wrote. “It’s the lack of creation and playmaking that raise some concern and highlight the importance of Walter being able to consistently knock down jumpers. Over Baylor’s last 13 games, he’s just 19-of-80 from deep with 21 assists”

So far this season at Baylor, Walter is averaging 14.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists while shooting 38.5% from the field and 32.3% from behind the three-point line.

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Bleacher Report’s latest NBA mock draft has three Duke players getting drafted

Three Duke Blue Devils are projected to get drafted in Jonathan Wasserman’s latest 2024 NBA Mock Draft.

Three Duke players were projected to get drafted in Jonathan Wasserman’s latest 2024 NBA Mock Draft for Bleacher Report.

Forward Kyle Filipowski was the sole Blue Devils to be projected to be a lottery selection in the upcoming draft. Wasserman had him going ninth overall to the Atlanta Hawks.

The sophomore forward averages 16.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game so far this season. He’s also improved from long-range, shooting at a 35.6% clip on 3-point attempts.

Freshman phenom Jared McCain, the reigning ACC Rookie of the Week, was just outside the lottery, going to the New York Knicks with the 19th pick. The first-year guard has established himself as one of Duke’s best scorers, averaging 13.5 points per game and exploding for 35 points against Florida State last week.

McCain is shooting 45.8% from the floor and 40.1% from deep in his freshman season to this point. He’s also been one of the Blue Devils’ best rebounders, averaging 4.9 boards per game and finishing with three double-doubles despite his 6-foot-3 frame.

The last Duke player projected to be drafted was sophomore guard Tyrese Proctor, who was slated to go to the Indiana Pacers with the 53rd pick.

Proctor’s numbers are still solid, as he’s averaged 10.1 points and a team-leading 3.6 assists per game so far in 2023-24. The second-year Blue Devil has struggled with consistency at times this season, however, and he missed all five attempts against Wake Forest and went 1/6 against UNC.

The sophomore guard came off the bench in Duke’s last game with Miami after a recent stint in concussion protocol, with freshman guard Caleb Foster splitting his minutes more evenly in recent games.

Recent Spurs NBA Mock Draft selection receives middling grade

In a recent NBA Mock Draft, the San Antonio Spurs’ third-overall selection received a lukewarm grade.

The San Antonio Spurs have a big opportunity ahead of them this summer. Victor Wembanyama has shown the capabilities to be the leader of the franchise moving forward, but he can’t do it all by himself. Nobody can. Not even the best player in the world is capable of winning a title without a great supporting cast, especially with all the talent in the league today.

At the 2024 NBA Draft this summer, the Spurs will have a top pick, and with it, they could select a guy who could turn into one of Wembanyama’s top running mates for the foreseeable future.

Sam Vecenie of The Athletic recently wrote a mock draft where the Spurs snagged Nikola Topic with the third pick. However, Roberto Araiza of Air Alamo was lukewarm on the idea, grading the mock selection a B-.

“In that way, this selection would be a far more massive gamble by the Spurs than many may assume,” Araiza wrote. “While I think that type of upside gamble is warranted at this stage of the team’s rebuild (particularly if the Spurs have two lottery picks in this coming draft), there could be several more intelligent gambles that can be made with such a high pick come draft day. If you’re a believer in Topic’s top-end outcome in the league, this is a solid pick. Otherwise, this has the potential to be a big miss.”

What do you think of Topic as a future Spur?

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Second NBA Mock Draft in a row sees Bulls take elite 3-point shooter

A recent 2024 NBA Mock Draft has the Chicago Bulls selecting Reed Sheppard out of Kentucky.

The Chicago Bulls have some serious changes to make this summer. They’ve been a middle-of-the-pack team for the past few seasons, and for the third year in a row, they stood pat at the trade deadline. But if they want to make any sort of significant improvement, they need to take a long look in the mirror this offseason.

In addition to free agency and the trade market, the Bulls need to nail the NBA Draft. A recent NBA mock draft from Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo and ESPN had the Bulls taking Reed Sheppard out of Kentucky, and Sam Vecenie of The Athletic made the same choice.

Vecenie’s latest mock draft had Sheppard going to the Bulls as well.

“With Sheppard, it’s easy to understand why,” Vecenie wrote. “As a 6-3 player without much length or the kind of athletic traits that raise a guard to this level, Sheppard doesn’t look like the typical lottery pick. But I think he has a real case for being one of the five best players in the country as a freshman, and I’d certainly consider him an All-American in some capacity. He’s averaging 12.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists while shooting 52.6 percent from the field, 51.4 percent from 3 and 80.8 percent from the line. He racks up 2.6 steals per game on top of averaging nearly one block per game. His closeouts on shooters are textbook and disruptive.”

The 6-foot-3 guard has shot 50.9% from three-point range on 4.1 attempts per game this season.

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Spurs select 19-year-old, 6-10 forward in latest 2024 NBA Mock Draft

In a recent NBA Mock Draft, the San Antonio Spurs picked up Matas Buzelis with a top-10 pick.

While this season may not have gone to plan for the San Antonio Spurs, having Victor Wembanyama on the roster should be enough to keep fans excited about the future. And on top of that, they should have a top pick in the upcoming 2024 NBA Draft. And if the Toronto Raptors’ pick falls out of the top six, they’ll get that selection, too.

In a recent NBA Mock Draft compiled by Sam Vecenie of The Athletic, the Raptors’ pick falls to seven, meaning the Spurs get to make two selections in the top 10. That would be a game-changer for the future of the organization and the potential timeline of a Wembanyama-led core.

With the seventh overall selection, Vecenie has the Spurs taking Matas Buzelis of the G League Ignitte – a 19-year-old, 6-10 forward.

“This is earlier than I would personally select Buzelis, but the feedback I get from scouts has been more positive than his overall numbers would indicate, given he’s averaging 13.0 points with a negative assist-to-turnover ratio and a true shooting percentage below the league average,” Vecenie wrote. “Much as they do with Holland, many evaluators are giving Buzelis the benefit of the doubt for the G League’s Ignite’s poorly constructed roster, especially at the guard positions.

“Scouts would love to see Buzelis do more as a shot creator, and they aren’t sure how well his on-ball defense will translate. But many have also appreciated the way Buzelis is settling into a role with the Ignite and playing more intelligently. Buzelis doesn’t try to do too much. He cuts sharply on offense and has impressed scouts with timely off-ball rotations, particularly around the rim, where he’s averaging 1.8 blocks per game. In the open court, he attacks in a way that makes many sense his long-term upside as a ballhandler and scorer. There’s some downside risk in taking Buzelis this high, but it appears unlikely he gets outside of the lottery and is consistently mentioned in the No. 4-12 range.”

Would Buzelis be a good fit next to Wembanyama? Or should the Spurs look elsewhere if they got this Raptors pick?

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Bleacher Report NBA Mock draft has Harrison Ingram trusting the process

Harrison Ingram is the missing piece UNC never knew it needed on the basketball court. Where is he slated to land in the upcoming NBA Draft?

If you’re defending against the UNC men’s basketball team – good luck.

The Tar Heels don’t have just one offensive star, but three – RJ Davis, Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram. Davis and Bacot have been program mainstays who’ll almost certainly have their names in the Dean Dome rafters, while Ingram’s arguably been UNC’s best transfer portal pickup since Brady Manek.

Ingram is so important because not only is he a double-double machine (12 already this year), but he’s also extremely versatile. North Carolina’s mainly utilized him at power forward, but he could also play small forward, either guard position or center in an emergency.

Ingram’s strong play has earned him some NBA Draft consideration, with Bleacher Report projecting the Philadelphia 76ers to take him 37th overall (second round).

“Harrison Ingram may have moved the needle with 21 points, five threes, 13 boards and four steals against Duke,” Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman said. “He’s made real strides with his shooting this year, a key development that can help scouts look past his athletic limitations inside the arc. Impressive shot-making and defensive sequences have helped him change the narrative this season. And there may still be some untapped playmaking/passing ability that we saw more of at Stanford, where he was used frequently as a pick-and-roll ball-handler.”

If taken by Philly, Ingram would be joining a young forward group that includes former Kansas Jayhawk KJ Martin, former Texas Longhorn Mo Bamba and Kenny Lofton Jr.

There’s no given Ingram would even consider leaving UNC, as he has yet to announce his plans for 2024. He’s currently trying to help his new team capture their seventh NCAA Championship, with the Tar Heels’ next game slated for Saturday against UVA.

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