Draft Notes: Green Room, Mock Drafts, Samuel

Four more players have received green room invites for the 2024 NBA draft. Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II, Indiana’s Kel’el Ware, Colorado’s Tristan Da Silva and Pittsburgh’s Carlton Carrington have all accepted invitations to attend the draft in person, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (all Twitter links here).

Holmes, the A-10 Player of the Year, averaged 20.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.1 blocks per game last season while shooting 54.4% from the field and 38.6% from three. He’s listed at No. 39 on ESPN’s big board and is the lowest-ranked prospect on that list to be invited.

Ware (No. 24 on ESPN’s list) averaged 15.9 points and 9.9 rebounds this season in 30 games with Indiana after transferring from Oregon. Da Silva (No. 17 on ESPN) is a toolsy forward who spent all four seasons of his college career at Colorado. He averaged 16.0 PPG this season while making 39.5% of his 4.8 three-point attempts per game. Carrington (No. 19) made the ACC’s All-Freshman Team this season after averaging 13.8 PPG and 4.1 APG, establishing himself as a premier pull-up mid-range shooter.

Holmes, Ware, Da Silva and Carrington join France’s Zaccharie Risacher, Alex Sarr and Tidjane Salaun, Serbia’s Nikola Topic, UConn’s Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle, Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham, Duke’s Jared McCain and Kyle Filipowski, Colorado’s Cody Williams, Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, Providence’s Devin Carter, Baylor’s Yves Missi and Ja’Kobe Walter, Kansas’s Johnny Furphy, Miami’s Kyshawn George, USC’s Isaiah Collier and the G League Ignite’s Matas Buzelis and Ron Holland as the 24 players who accepted invitations to the green room. Purdue’s Zach Edey also received an invite, which he declined.

We have more draft-related notes:

• There’s plenty of room for change in the next week leading up to the draft, but for now James L. Edwards of The Athletic sees Sarr as the best prospect in this class and believes he’s the player the Hawks should take at No. 1 if they don’t trade down. In a new mock draft that also involves Kelly Iko and Josh Robbins, The Athletic has Risacher going second to the Wizards and Castle going third to the Rockets. Carter going No. 8 to the Spurs and Holland falling to No. 11 to Chicago are among some of the more intriguing picks in the mock.
• The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor doesn’t view Sarr or Risacher as the best players in this class, according to his latest big board, but still has Atlanta selecting Risacher in his latest mock. O’Connor lists Castle, Clingan and Buzelis as the best three players in the class, in that order. He has Holland as the 13th-best player and Bobi Klintman as the No. 18 prospect in the class. Terrence Shannon Jr., Nikola Djurisic and Trentyn Flowers are other prospects O’Connor has first-round grades on, deviating from the consensus. As for his mock, O’Connor has Sarr going second to Washington, Sheppard going third to Houston and Buzelis going fourth to San Antonio.
• Former Florida and Seton Hall forward Tyrese Samuel has worked out for the Knicks, Spurs, Nets, Heat, Jazz, Bulls, Pelicans, Cavaliers, Raptors, Suns, Lakers and Pistons, NJ.com’s Adam Zagoria tweets. The 6-10 Samuel averaged 13.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks last season for Florida.