A way-too-early look at the 2024 NBA Draft class

It’s the holiday season, which can mean only one thing: the gift of Prez introducing the latest, greatest NBA draft prospects.

Hello friends and enemies! It’s the most wonderful time of year. That’s right, the beginning of The Strickland’s 2024 draft coverage. I have my nicest three-piece suit on and my head fully immersed in the sand, ignoring the fact that the Knicks have drafted nobody over the last 700 days and their roster is currently filled to the brim with players deserving minutes. The Knicks have their own first round pick, the Mavericks’ first round pick and two other picks which will likely be between 30 and 40. So I am, perhaps to my own detriment, putting my head down and plowing ahead with dreams of at least one and maybe even two rookies donning the orange and blue next year.

So, the 2024 class: utterly fascinating. I mean, they all are, so I am biased, but what I mean is it is significantly different from the past few classes. 

Let’s rip the band-aid off to start: the top-end talent from the last class – 2023 – was historically incredible, and the top of the 2024 class couldn’t be more polar opposite. By my back-of-napkin math, there are at least six and maybe 10 players from last year who would probably be in the lead for first pick this year. Forget Wemby and Scoot — I mean even after them. I don’t like saying one class is worse than another class, but I do think it is fair to say the obvious high-end talent gap is real in this case. 

The second notable – and exciting – element of this class, which is related to the weaker top-end talent: this class has a very, very strong group of prospects plying their trades outside the NCAA. 

The G League Ignite likely feature at least three first-round prospects. The Australian National Basketball League (NBL), which has produced a bevy of top-end talent in recent years, has a few potential first-rounders, including a contender for No. 1. Talented players from the Adriatic league, France, and Spain also feature heavily this year, with multiple lottery-bound talents. This is all a little ironic to me, as the new NIL rules for the NCAA mean more foreign-born players are actually flocking to NCAA teams this year than ever before – and some of those young hoopers are also in the mix for first-round slots.  

The other consequence of last year’s wildly talented draft, increased NIL revenue for college athletes and looser transfer rules is that there were many incentives for talented players who couldn’t lock up a guaranteed lottery slot to return to the NCAA, and in some cases to switch schools. So many of us draftniks are watching returning sophomores and upperclassmen closely to see not whether they dominate, but how much they dominate. There’s an unusual number of prospects who might be first rounders and are 22 or 23, who should dominate 18- and 19-year-olds. As for our Knicks, they are no strangers to seasoned collegians, having picked Obi Toppin, Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes and Deuce McBride – four standout prospects who were not freshmen. 

The last observation I’ll make is that this year’s class continues the trend of taller players getting the buzz. This seems like an obvious thing – taller players tend to have more avenues to being good in the modern, switch-heavy NBA – but it warrants calling out. There are many prospects who, if this were 2013, would have been eye-popping lead guard prospects but are now viewed with skepticism, due to being below 6-foot-5. While the Knicks seem to have cornered a market on short kings who are plus defenders, thanks to Deuce, Grimes and IQ, those players are rare. The flipside is there are a wealth of taller and wing-sized prospects this year, many of whom are very young. 

The tricky part for the Knicks is figuring out which of these wing size prospects have real skills, and are not merely theoretical. Believe me, like many of you, I want the Knicks to fill that wing-prospect-sized hole in my heart. I love Josh Hart and RJ at the 4 as much as the next fan, but the dream is a giant, switchy, two-way jack-knife of a prospect. However, those guys tend to go top five, so the question for the Knicks regarding taller players this year will be, how many question marks is too many?

OK. Now you have an idea of the shape of this class, so I want to give a quick sentence each on some of the fun early standouts. Please do not think of this as a ranking or big board or anything – there is absolutely no consensus right now on rankings, nor will there be for months with this volatile and varied class.

Alex Sarr, C, Perth (NBL): Lightfooted, switchable, long armed 7-foot-1 French big with exceptional ground coverage, elite defensive potential, hops and a promising jump shot playing in the NBL.

Isaiah Collier, G, USC: Uber-creative 6-foot-4 freshmen floor general who looks like a fullback and is always the fastest player on the court, resulting in fouls drawn, buckets for himself, and buckets for his teammates like Bronny James.

Donovan Clingan, C, UConn: Man in the middle for last year’s championship Huskies, the elite defending Clingan stands 7-foot-3 and has no business moving with the swiftness and agility he does.

JaKobe Walter, G, Baylor: The latest sweet-shooting Baylor bucket getter, Walter is a prototype shooting guard who is 6-foot-5 and already an expert shooting off the bounce, the catch, movement, from here, there, and everywhere.

Nikola Topic, G, KK MegaBasket: A wildly talented 6-foot-6 point guard from Serbia, the youngest player in the draft has no business putting up the numbers he is putting up and straight up dominating grown-ass adults in the competitive Adriatic League.

Ron Holland, F, Ignite: Prototypical long-armed 6-foot-7 wing build, high motor, athletic, two-way force with burgeoning scoring skills and the centerpiece of this year’s G-League Ignite Team. 

Matas Buzelis, F, Ignite: 6-foot-10 shooting wing with touch and a incredibly splashy jumper who moves like a guard and is finally getting some muscle on his bones. 

Tyler Smith, F, Ignite: Taking the path less traveled, joined the Ignite after a year with Overtime Elite, surprising fans by being the most consistent scorer and best shooter on the Ignite despite being a well-built giant forward.

Ryan Dunn, F, Virginia: Sophomore wing, and one of the best defenders the NCAA has ever seen, with a fierce combo of elite athleticism and instincts – and from Long Island!

Stephon Castle, G, UConn: 6-foot-6 monster athlete/power combo guard, ready to work with Clingan for a Husky championship repeat.

Zaccarie Risacher, F, JL Bourg: Gigantic 6-foot-10 French wing who is absolutely flaming players in Europe, sniping from distance, locking up, and dunking on adults.

Kyle Filipowski, F, Duke: Skilled 7-footer, the best player on Duke returns to lay waste to the NCAA with a mix of power moves, crafty footwork, soft touch and jump shots.

Rob Dillingham, Reed Sheppard, and DJ Wagner, Gs, Kentucky: MSG Southeast features three guard prospects of different flavors: Dillingham as the undersized super saucy speeding shooter, power guard rim missile (and Leon Rose’s godson and future third generation NBA player) Wagner and breakout genius hooper/sniper Sheppard.

Kelel Ware, C, Indiana: Uber-talented sophomore transfer who joined Coach Woodson’s Hoosiers, Ware is putting a disappointing freshman season in the rearview mirror by dominating inside and out and living up to his lofty 5-star high school reputation. 

These are some of the players who have grabbed headlines early on. However, while some may stay in the top half of the first, others may drop out of the first entirely. Expect lots of movement and chaos. Scouts, both professional and amateur (**raises hand**), will be put to the test this year. Hopefully Knicks lead scout and assistant GM Walt Perrin is up to the task!