During most of the NBA’s 2024 pre-draft process, mock drafts have placed French forwards Alex Sarr and Zaccharie Risacher in the top-two slots. That would leave the remainder of the class available to the Houston Rockets, who are up next at No. 3 in the first round.
But, are Risacher and Sarr (in some order) truly a lock to go to Atlanta and Washington, and thus be off the board for Houston?
With the June 26 first round approximately two weeks away, there appears to be considerable uncertainty. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reported last week that Connecticut center Donovan Clingan could be in top-two consideration by the Hawks and Wizards, and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo said in a newly released podcast that they wouldn’t be shocked if Clingan goes No. 1 overall.
Regarding consensus media draft boards, Russillo said:
There’s this growing momentum of a lot of teams being like, “Man, the buzz is that the mocks are assuming Sarr-Risacher… in this way that’s not even close to the [draft] boards. … You guys are assuming way too much in the media.”
Should Clingan go in the top-two picks, that would leave at least one of Sarr and Risacher available to the Rockets at No. 3 overall.
The complete Simmons-Russillo segment can be viewed below.
