2024 NBA Draft Winners and Losers

The 2024 NBA Draft concluded their two day draft yesterday and for not a “strong” draft class, I think there were a lot of teams that got better. I also have some opinions on the teams that made some more questionable picks. I was going to break down each team and pick but decided to do winners and losers instead.

Winner: Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz had my favorite draft of the entire night (easier to refer to the two days as one night) by drafting Cody Williams at #10, Isaiah Collier at #29 and Kyle Filipowski at #32. These are three of the most talented players in the draft. Since taking over the Jazz operations in 2021, Danny Ainge got a spoil of draft picks and have capitalized by taking the most talented players with the draft picks they have complied. (No we are not going to bring up the Flip scandal) With Keynote George making an all-rookie team last year, the Jazz are going to have plenty of young talent again this year with these three draft picks and Brice Sensabaugh and Taylor Hendricks. Danny Ainge is building something special in Utah again and I am trusting his process to build a OKC Thunder type team within the next few years.

Loser: Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks had the number one overall pick in this years draft and got bullied out of not taking the number one prospect of this draft in Alex Sarr. Sarr’s agent did not want Alex in Atlanta even though he lives in ATL and has played in OTE in Atlanta. Zaccharie Risacher is the worst number one overall pick since Anthony Bennett. I don’t even think he is going to be NBA ready on day one and I wonder how high his ceiling is. Landry Fields seems to be stuck in purgatory with this roster and unsure what the future is going to look like. Fields needs to make a decision on who is the franchise leader (Trae or Dejounte) and build around them. They took another foreign player in the second round, Nikola Djurisic, who seems like he has solid upside. Unfortunately, it may be too late for the Hawks and they be stuck in the play-in purgatory for the time being.

Winner: Wizards

The Wizards had a great draft and got my best player in the draft as previously mentioned in Alex Sarr #2 overall. They also made moves in the draft to select Bub Carrington at #14 and Kyshawn George #24. I really did not understand the Deni trade but we are talking strictly the draft right now. The Wizards got three young guys that can turn into really good NBA players. Bub flashed crazy potential at Pitt last year and rose up the draft charts to be a lottery pick. His game is super clean and can be the Wizards franchise point guard. Kyshawn George was knockdown at Miami last season and has the size and shot to be a great role player in this league for a long time. It also gives the Wizards more flexibility to trade some of the guys they have and still develop a young, scrappy team. With Bilal Coulibally last year, the Wizards have impressed me in the draft.

Loser: Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks made a huge splash before last season trading Jrue Holiday in a package for Damian Lillard. Of course Giannis was hurt in the playoffs this year but it was tough to see Dame have a down year while Jrue was making big plays in the NBA Finals for the Boston Celtics. The Bucks didn’t seem like they had enough last year even with a healthy Giannis and Dame. With the 23rd pick in the NBA Draft the Bucks selected AJ Johnson from the NBL. Although he is young, he barley played in the NBL last year. AJ seems like he is too far behind to contribute within the next two years for the Bucks title contentions. In the second round, they drafted Tyler Smith from the G-League Ignite team who is a big shooter but slipped to the second round for a various of reasons. If you look at the Bucks draft from the past 5 years, it is a very underwhelming list of non-rotational bench pieces. The rest of the East seems to be getting better while the Bucks seem to be on the decline.

Winners: Heat, Lakers, Celtics

The Heat, Lakers, and Celtics were not flashy in this years draft and didn’t make any moves in the first round and all got home run picks at their respected draft spot. Out of Indiana, Ke’el Ware was one of my favorite prospects in this years draft class and what better place to go than Miami. Ware has all the talent in the world and I can envision a lineup where Ware and Bam can play side-by-side. The biggest questions about Ware were his motor and attitude and once he gets a little bit of Heat Culture he is going to be a monster in this league.

The Lakers picked up the most dynamic NCAA scorer last year at the 17th pick with Dalton Knecht from Tennessee. Knecht was a projected lottery pick and was an odds on favorite to go in the top 7 this year. Presumably because he is 23 years old is the reason he fell, the Lakers picked up a hyper athletic shooter that can contribute right away. Knecht playing with Lebron is going to be a shameless fit for the Lake show. Not to mention the Lakers shockingly drafted Bronny in the second round. You can hate on Bronny all you want but I think it’s pretty sick to be able to witness Lebron and his son play together in the league.

Baylor Scheierman was another one of my guys in this draft process and was one of the few picks I correctly mocked in the first round. Scheierman out of Creighton is a big lefty point-forward who is a knockdown shooter and was one of the toughest players in college basketball last year. A dream prospect for a team like the Celtics who just won an NBA Championship.

Loser: ESPN and the Two-Day Draft Process

I understand why there was a two-day draft process this year with Bronny being the most covered second round pick of all time but the broadcast of the second round, which started at 4PM Eastern, was an embarrassment. The NBA Invited 24 guys to the draft room for a 30 person first round. There were bound to be players that are not drafted that were invited to the green room. Usually, these players will still get to hear their name called and go on stage but they just had to go home that night and watch Mark Tatum announce picks in the ESPN studio. Once these players were picked, the crew on ESPN that included Stephen A. Smith did not offer any insights into these players. The difference between the NFL draft which is 7 round and the NBA draft is embarrassing. I hope that the NBA will hear the noise and go back to the draft being one night next year.

Others:

To close it out, I think other teams had really strong drafts like the New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves. Watching Leon Rose cook over the past three days was truly a thing of beauty and the Knicks walked away with two of my favorite second round picks of the entire draft. The Timberwolves had by far the coolest draft by trading for Rob Dillingham and drafting Terrence Shannon Jr to make them even more exciting. I really think the Suns should’ve drafted some guys that can put the ball in the basket if needed and same with the Pistons. I am also super happy for Zach Edey getting respect in the draft. Him and Ja could be a lot of fun together. Overall, I think this draft will be better than it is being made out to be even if there is no true number one.