Is the 2024 NBA Draft class weaker than most? | On The Clock
Yahoo Sports NBA draft analyst Krysten Peek and Rivals national basketball analyst Rob Cassidy discuss whether there's star power in the 2024 NBA Draft class and why it's considered a weak class by some. Hear the full conversation on “On The Clock” - part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
The general consensus is this is a weaker draft class.
I don't like to call it weak.
Uh It's just gonna be unpredictable.
There are gonna be some guys, we just don't know who they are.
But when I looked back at this high school class, this one and done class, Rob, I was shocked to see the top 10 in terms of who was top 10 in high school and where they're at projected in this draft or not even in this draft, they're going back to school.
But how hard is it to project high school talent in the NBA?
It, it differs from year to year and player to player position to position and you know, I know you don't want to say it's a weak class, but I will at least it was a weak high school class.
I mean, I think that's why when you look at it and you see the Europeans at the top.
Uh obviously, you know, they're all very deserving.
I'm not as plugged into the European scene as you are, but at least from a high school stand, it's been the consensus in our industry that it was a weak class since they were juniors in high school.
Uh, and I haven't seen anything that's really changed my mind there.
Um This class was particularly difficult to project because of there was no clear number one, you know, we didn't have a Cooper flag or, uh AJ Danza, we had, you know, kind of debates on who would be there.
And we went with Isaiah Collier, uh because he was safe, you know, we used to call him the Volvo because like, you know, he's safe pick, you know, he's not gonna wow anybody but he's, he's not gonna make you look stupid either.
And I'm in the business of not looking extremely stupid and I feel like he just done that at least.
Um So it's, it's pretty interesting to watch his ride.
Let's run through the top five, Rob of the high school class, like you said, Isaiah Collier was number one when everything was said and done.
And by the way, he was awesome at mcdonald's and Hoop Summit.
Like he, he looked like a number one caliber player.
So he was number one, Aaron Bradshaw, the Kentucky Center who kind of disappeared.
Number two, Justin Edwards, another Kentucky player.
He's like, I'm calling him the comeback kid of the predraft process because he did so well at the combine, he could sneak into the late first round modest bais number four, lottery pick, Ron Holland, lottery pick, both played for G League ignite.
Were you surprised at all at the output of this class as freshmen or in the India G League.
You know, I, I don't know, I always thought it was gonna be pretty dicey uh from top to bottom.
I didn't think Re Shepard obviously was going to, we did have him rank higher than everybody else, but I didn't think he was going to be one of the top players in this draft.
And there were guys that surprised me obviously, but I was worried about it from the beginning.
You know, even when you talk about guys like Holland who are gonna go high, I still have a ton of concerns about him and they're the same ones that I had in high school kid.
He scored in the half court.
He's not a great shooter like he looks the part and there's a lot of potential there, but I have not seen him put together anything that screams top five pick to me and he's, you know, considered one of the top American prospects in this draft.
So, you know, I think the conversations and events were always kind of like, oh, this is kind of a scary class and, you know, some of that came to fruition because, you know, some of the top guys just didn't pan out as quickly as we'd hoped.
Um And then anybody hoped, but I, I wouldn't say that I'm stunned by it.