By the time the NBA draft rolled around on Thursday, consensus generally has the top-20 or so guys tiered out pretty well. The backend of the 1^st round is where complete surprises start. The second round can turn into a dart throw. Most picks get traded around as some squads without picks decide they want in on the actions and others don’t mind parting with picks because they don’t have the roster space.

No surprises with the #1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft as 7’3+ French super prospect Victor Wembanyama was selected by the San Antonia Spurs. He shared teams with his family before making the interview rounds. Throughout the week leading up to the draft he’d be making tourism and interview rounds around New York. A photo also Wemby also posted a group photo of himself, 1989 Spurs pick Sean Elliot, Manu Ginobili, David Robinson, and Tim Duncan after a celebration dinner. Showing that he is already getting advised from former Spurs greats.

Arguably the second best prospect in the draft, Scoot Henderson, was a toss-up with the Hornets and 2 and Blazer at 3 already fielding point guards in Lamelo Ball and Damien Lillard. The Hornets grabbed Brandon Miller out of Alabama at 2 leaving the Blazers to grab Scoot and seemingly escalating the Lillard situation. Damien expressed in previous seasons that he wanted to stay a Trailblazer for life and signed a massive supermax contract that eats a massive chunk of the cap and limits what can be offered to free agents. The Blazers have been struggling and missed the play-offs/play-ins again this past season. The most success they’ve had is a Western Conference appearance in 2019 where they were embarrassed and swept by the Warriors who played without an injured Kevin Durant. Lillard has recently stated that he would like to join the Miami Heat If he left Portland and that he didn’t want to be on a rebuilding team. Comments on other destinations and disliking a rebuild when they’re obviously in some phase of rebuilding as a bottom-10 team, screams “I’m open to leaving but I’m not going to be the bad guy that asks to leave”. Lillard and Scoot probably don’t fit together despite conversations that they’ll “figure it out”.

Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson went 4/5 to the Rockets and Pistons. With Amen the better offensive player right now and Ausar the better defender, it actually seems like it would have been better short team for the twins to flip-flop squads. Detroit continues to build a team of core players that are below average shooters and Houston needs more defense. Bilal Coulbaly was the first shocker at #7 to the Pacers. The French teammate of Wembanyama looks like an offensive weapon but wasn’t project to go this high by anyone I could find.

The top-9 picks show where the mix of talent is currently flowing from into the NBA, but also how difficult it can be to watch these players. Let’s break it down.
Pick 1 & 9-Victor Wembanyama & Bilal Coulibaly-played for Metropolitans 92 in France. NBA League Pass actually added games to the $200 subscription service (smart move) so that some of the NBA fans that paid for the premium service could catch Wemby games that often aired in the middle of the afternoon in the US.
Pick 2 & 6-Brandon Miller (Alabama) & Anthony Black (Arkansas) – Both colleges were regularly on TV. Yipee
Pick 3-Scoot Henderson (G League Ignite) – The (now 30 team) G-league is always shifting but the Ignite team was added as a “one year developmental program (team) for elite National Basketball Association Prospects” in 2020. The team plays within the G-league structure but an augmented g-league schedule with player development in mind. They roster is filled out with vets, pays better than Overtime Elite, and offers additional programs. G-league games have been more accessible this season and stream across a spattering of ESPN stations but mostly on NBAGLeauge.com as advertised….absolutely nowhere. The competition should be better than in college? Maybe? The Ignite team was bad this season.
Pick 4 & 5-Thompson Twins (Overtime Elite) – Overtime Elite is the weird 6-time offshoot of the NBA that just wrapped its 2^nd season. Players are 16-20 years old and all nationalities. They’re payed, so it’s a semi-pro league. The league does offer an own education program that has high school equivalent courses and allow athletes to keep college eligibility, so a player could go from OTE to Ohio State for example but it hasn’t happened in its two season infancy. The league only plays 15 games, so each team plays each other three times. Apparently the games streamed on Prime Video and OTE’s Youtube channel starting this season but it wasn’t advertised anywhere. I don’t know why the NBA can’t fold the G-League and Overtime Elite together. A 16 year-old prospect on the come up playing a 30 year-old G-leaguer trying to make it into the league sounds like an imbalance but both leagues are already suffering from those issues. The competition level is not good right now.
Pick 8-Jarace Walker-played for non-power 5 Houston. The Cougars were on television certainly
Pick 9-Taylor Hendricks-played for non-power 5 UCF who didn’t get a prime TV spot and didn’t make the NCAA tournament.
 
Cam Whitemore out of Villanova dropped out of the top 10 down to the 20 spot into the hands of the Houston Rockets due to a medical issue. Speculation is that he’ll be just fine and is a steal for the Rockets. The Pistons moved up to grab Marcus Sasser out of Houston at 25 via Memphis. Nothing else was too wild in the first round.

The second was a free-for-all again and the NBA needs clean up the broadcast. Picks are made and immediately traded so guys are wearing the wrong hats and asking interview questions about teams they will never join. It’s an embarrassing mess, even if the trades haven’t “officially” gone through and need to be finalized. The moves are completed 99% of the time. With over half of the second round picks traded on average (only 12 of 30 this year!) it impossible for the viewer to get correct info on the NBA while WATCHING THE NBA DRAFT.

In the second round four foreign prospects were drafted and three G League players representing Canada, France, and New Zealand. It’s actually a decrease in foreign players drafted from last season.

Pepperdine had a miserable season, but sophomore guard Maxwell Lewis went to the Lakers with pick 40. Gregory Jackson II aka GG Jackson out of South Carolina who had seemed to have a real clash with the coach staff at school, hit the bench, complained on Instagram, and flited with transferring among other noisy headlines and finally dropped out of the spotlight and was drafted by……get this…..the Grizzlies at 45. Another former top prospect, perhaps THE top prospect Emoni Bates went 49 to the Cavs. Bates made the cover of Sports Illustrated at 16 but he’s acquired red flags, some deserved some not, following him from every category you can choose from injuries to conflicts with coaching to questions about development. One thing he can do is shoot. Better than most in this draft class.

It seems like a large number of very good college contributors went undrafted this season. Partially because of all depth that’s starting to appear in the NBA drafts and because of glaring weaknesses (small, poor outside shooting, slow, inconsistent defense) that can be exploited in the league. Some of the standouts and the teams that signed them to two-way or exhibition contracts.

Oscar Tshiebew – Kentucky, 2022 Unanimous College Player of the Year – signed by Pacers
Drew Timmie – Gonzaga, All-American 1^st teamer – Milwaukee Bucks
Adam Sanogo – Uconn, Final Four POTY – Chicago Bulls
Ricky Council IV – Arkansas – 76ers
Adam Flagler – Baylor – Oklahoma City
Terquavion Smith – NC State – 76er
Antonie Davis – Detroit Mercy, 2^nd All-Time College Scorer – Trailblazers
Markqis Nowell – Kansas State – Toronto Raptors
Jacob Toppin – Kentucky – New York Knicks
Mike Miles Jr – TCU – Dallas Mavs
Azuolas Tubelis – Arizona – 76ers
Charles Bediako – Alabama – San Antonio Spurs
Leaky Black – North Carolina – Charlotte Hornets
Tyger Campbell – UCLA – NA

I’m still piecing together my thoughts on the draft and excited to see what roster moves are yet to come this offseason. Several teams could have more moves: Warriors, LA Clippers, Miami Heat, Knicks
More need to fill in the roster: Nuggets, Rockets, Bucks, Suns, Spurs
Major players could be on the move: Damien Lillard, Zion Williamston, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Lenard, Paul George
It’s never a better time to be an NBA fan.