Without an elite prospect like 2023 rookie Victor Wembanyama at the top, some fans and analysts are down on the NBA’s 2024 draft class. But ESPN’s Jonathan Givony isn’t among them.
Givony, a staple of NBA draft coverage for years, just wrapped up his coverage of the league’s draft combine in Chicago.
In the latest episode of the The Woj Pod, which was hosted by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski from the combine, Givony said:
I like this draft a lot more than 2013. I think a lot of these players are going to be good. Are any going to be superstars? Probably not. But there are going to be several All-Stars in this group, and there are going to be a lot of high-quality NBA players.
When you’re drafting [top three], you want to get a franchise guy. Are any of these guys franchise players? Probably not, and that’s where people are a little bit down on this draft. Because you’re lacking that star power at the top that we typically expect. There’s not that one guy that we can latch onto, and center all of the attention on. But that’s what makes it interesting, to me. That’s what makes this draft fascinating.
The 2013 draft, which some have compared the 2024 class to, featured players such as Anthony Bennett at No. 1 overall; Otto Porter Jr. at No. 3; Cody Zeller at No. 4; and Alex Len at No. 5 in the first-round order. All were relative busts for their draft slot.
Ultimately, the best selections in 2013 proved to be Giannis Antetokounmpo at No. 15 and Rudy Gobert at No. 27.
But as Givony sees it, that doesn’t mean that a team picking No. 3 in the 2024 class — at the moment, it’s the Houston Rockets — won’t find significant value there. Givony has French forwards Alex Sarr and Zaccharie Risacher, as well as Connecticut big man Donovan Clingan, as the current top three on his draft big board.
The complete Wojnarowski-Givony podcast can be heard below.
