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Draft Notes: Bronny, Hawks, Sheppard, Thomas, Felton

May 24th, 2024 at 6:16pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns will hold a workout with Bronny James at some point before next month’s draft, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Charania, James has received workout invitations from over 10 teams but is expected to visit only a handful of clubs, including Phoenix and the Lakers.

The Suns hold just one pick in the 2024 draft and it’s a first-rounder, at No. 22. Charania suggests that James is among the players in consideration with that pick, but Doug Haller of The Athletic is skeptical that Phoenix will use its first-rounder on Bronny, given that the team probably needs to turn that pick into a player who has a better chance of contributing immediately, whether that’s in the draft or on the trade market. The former USC guard is ranked 54th on ESPN’s big board of 2024 prospects.

Speaking to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report, James’ agent Rich Paul stressed that his client won’t sign a two-way contract and expressed a belief that Bronny going as high as No. 22 isn’t out of the question.

“Bronny’s range has been all over. Some teams think he goes 20 to 40, some say 30-50, and some teams think he’ll go undrafted,” Paul said. “It just takes one team. This is something I do every year during the draft process. This is not Bronny-centric. He’s a part of our draft class. I have to try to help find the right fit for all my guys as well as the right deal. So that’s how I’m looking at it.”

Here are a few more draft-related notes:

  • ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo have updated their list of the top 100 prospects for the 2024 draft and shared new intel (Insider link) on their top 25 players. Among the notable tidbits from their latest update: Givony and Woo say that Zaccharie Risacher, Alexandre Sarr, and Donovan Clingan are among the players on the Hawks‘ short list at the top of the draft, with Clingan believed to have some fans within Atlanta’s front office. Givony adds that it’s hard to see Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard falling further than No. 5 in the draft.
  • After testing the draft waters this spring, former Northern Colorado forward Saint Thomas will transfer to USC and continue playing college ball, a source tells Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link). Thomas had a breakout junior year that saw him average 19.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game for the Bears across 32 starts.
  • East Carolina guard RJ Felton has withdrawn from the NBA draft pool as well, tweets Rothstein. Felton, who has spent the last three seasons with the Pirates, will remain at East Carolina for his senior year.
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Draft Notes: Two-Day Format, Sandfort, Penda, Early Entrants

April 2nd, 2024 at 4:15pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA will hold a two-day draft for the first time this year, but the concept has been batted around for over a decade, according to Jeremy Woo of ESPN, who hears from a team source that a group executives first presented the idea to the league in 2011. Extending the second round to give teams more than two minutes per pick was one important reason for the change, as Woo details.

“Way more second-round picks would be traded every year, except (due to the lack of time between picks) no one knows who has them,” one Eastern Conference executive told Woo. “A team makes a trade, then another trade. I’m spending 10 minutes hunting down picks, and by the time you find out where it is, it’s too late to make a deal.”

“… The second round is not fun. Chaos. Insanity. Not how we should be running our business. This will solve that. We didn’t need a second day, we just needed a longer second round — but I understand we can’t start at 3 p.m. or finish at 3 a.m., so this is a good solution.”

The second round of the draft will get its own day this June and there will be four minutes per pick instead of two. The hope is that, in addition to giving front offices more time to consider their options – including potential deals – the second night of the draft will allow the league’s broadcast partners to better spotlight the 28 players being selected in round two.

“The second round has become more and more important,” NBA head of basketball operations Joe Dumars told ESPN. “Rosters have expanded, and you’re seeing a larger influx of talent into the league, a lot of times from the second round. (The one-day format) was not doing justice for the second-round picks and the teams.”

While it remains to be seen exactly how adding an extra day to the draft may change teams’ strategies, sources who spoke to Woo suggested they wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more action than usual during the final few picks of the first round – as teams look to land players before rivals get a chance to reset their boards – and the first few picks of the second round, after clubs have had 24 hours to consider their options.

Here’s more on the NBA draft:

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