thelesterlee
The 2024 NBA Draft first round didn’t have the blockbuster trades we expected or a ton of surprises. But I can say with complete confidence there were winners and there were most certainly losers.
Let’s start with the biggest winners of the 2024 NBA Draft First Round:
1. Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers haven’t made a great decision in a long time.
GM Rob Pelinka is at a crossroads. This is the summer that determines a legacy.
Pelinka could’ve made the safe decision of drafting Bronny James with the no. 17 pick—maintaining a healthy, happy relationship with LeBron while lighting a draft pick on fire for a kid with a broken jumper and broken cardiovascular system.
Instead, they draft SEC Player of the Year, Dalton Knecht, adding much-needed reliable shooting.
Knecht averaged 21. 3 points and shot 39% from 3 at Tennessee last season. My guy scored 37 points in Tennesee’s Elite 8 loss to Purdue.
The Lakers need a guy who recognizes the stakes and instead of cowering like D’Angelo Russell and bricking every single 3, they go out swinging.
Dalton Knecht hit 40% from three and named best SF in the nation 🎯
Lakers got one 🔥 pic.twitter.com/LVtNf9ywHe
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 27, 2024
Lakers just drafted a killer.
Plus, Dalton is the q-white literally the perfect player for new Lakers coach, JJ Redick.
2. Houston Rockets
I love every single player on this roster.
It’s crazy how Houston and Detroit have both been in hell for about the same length of time. Houston has a roster full of guys I’d start a franchise with and every player on the Pistons will and has gotten a ton of dudes fired.
BOTH TEAMS HAVE A TWIN AND I LIKE THE ROCKETS TWIN EXPONENTIALLY MORE.
And now they have Reed Shepard.
We don’t need to ‘re-draft’ in 5 years. We can say it right now: Reed Sheppard should’ve gone no. 1 over the two future Draymond Green victims ahead of him.
Reed Sheppard shot 53% from the field and 52% from 3 at Kentucky last season.
Aleperen Sengun. Jabari Smith. Jalen Green. Cam Whitmore. Amen Thompson. Tari Eason. And now Reed Sheppard. Damn.
I don’t know what the Sacramento Kings or New Orleans Pelicans have planned this summer but, uh, Houston is coming. Time to do some shit.
3. (Maybe) Phoenix Suns
So remember that list of prospects in Houston?
Yea, half of those guys may end up living in Phoenix this year—including Reed Sheppard.
The Rockets are rumored to be all in on a Kevin Durant trade.
I get it.
When they gave Fred VanVleet the bag and hired Ime Udoka to coach, the Rockets were letting us know they were done rebuilding. They’ve accumulated the assets and now it’s time to trade in those Dave and Busters credits for a PlayStation.
Congrats to Devin Booker and Reed Sheppard. Kentucky’s finest. (Maybe.)
4. New York Knicks
After acquiring Mikal Bridges and re-signing OG Anunoby, the Knicks did not need 2 first-round picks, so they flipped one of those picks for 5 second-rounders and selected Pacome Dadiet with the no. 25 pick.
The Knicks need to be conscious of every dollar they spend now so flipping a guaranteed first-round salary into 5 second-round, non-guaranteed contracts will save New York the pennies they’ll need to re-sign Isaiah Hartenstein or pay some big extensions like the one Mikal Bridges is eligible for soon.
OH, and Pacome Dadiet can ball.
Pacome Dadiet has a BAG 😳 pic.twitter.com/8bL6Z9DTwY
— KnicksMuse (@KnicksMuse) June 27, 2024
The Knicks have a ton of defensive dogs on the team.
They need a Michael Beasley-esque weirdo who only cares about getting buckets and can come off the bench looking to score. How often have we seen Josh Hart wide open, looking around frantically to pass?
Nah, Dadiet is going to chuck that bitch.
5. Memphis Grizzlies
The best version of the Grizzlies—the team we saw win 56 games in the 2021-22 season and then lost in the second round to the eventual champions in Golden State—had Jaren Jackson at the 4 and Steven Adams as their center.
So it makes all the sense in the world to replace Steven Adams with a cheaper, healthier and astronomically more skilled version of him with Zach Edey.
I feel like a lot of analysts, and I reckon I’m probably guilty of it too, get hyperfocused on what’s required to win a playoff series without realizing you have to play a whole ass 82-game season first.
Like, sure, Edey would have trouble staying on the floor against the Celtics.
Ok.
He could also DOMINATE a random Tuesday night game in the middle of November against the Pacers and that random win in November could be the difference between Memphis getting a home series in the first round or trying to claw their way through the play-in.
6. San Antonio Spurs
With the no. 4 pick of the 2024 NBA Draft, the San Antonio Spurs selected 6-foot-6 guard, Stephon Castle—who is coming off a championship at UConn and may not know how to shoot at all but he could evolve into a dangerous dynamic perimeter defender to pair with Wemby.
Every Tim Duncan needs a Bruce Bowen.
But I mostly want to talk about the Spurs trading their No. 8 pick, Rob Dillingham, to Minnesota for their unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a protected 2030 first-round swap.
If you want a better idea of why those T-Wolves picks are so valuable just look at the Denver Nuggets right now.
Here’s their GM Calvin Booth candidly describing how hard it is to maintain a championship-level roster.
I asked Calvin Booth about retaining Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
“When you look at good teams in the past, they had to find a way to replace fourth, fifth starters.”
You’re gonna wanna listen in. pic.twitter.com/w42AcvCtqw
— Ryan Blackburn (@NBABlackburn) June 27, 2024
The pain in that man’s eyes.
In 6 years, Victor Wembenyama will be at the height of his powers and Minnesota will be a rebuilding team after Anthony Edwards demands a trade to a city where restaurants are open past 10pm.
Those first-round picks will be CRUCIAL in the Spurs team building and will most likely help them land an All-Star to their starting five.
7. Jared McCain
Uh, somehow Jared McCain is a superstar already.
For the last 12 hours, anytime I open up any social media app I see this man shimmying in his bedroom or showing off his nail polish like, I imagine he’s not the only rookie in this class with an active TikTok account but for whatever reason, McCain is popping and locking all over my phone.
Cant wait to hit the dance floor at Frankie Bradley’s with Jared McCains mom in the Rodman shorts (need those) pic.twitter.com/0sQNLxHAQx
— Jeff McDevitt (@JeffMcDev) June 27, 2024
The sexiest quality a man can have in 2024 is being kind of..*limps wrists*.
If the Sixers can re-sign Kelly Oubre, we’ll see some of the cringiest homoerotic fan fiction ever written.
8. Guys Being Dudes
Both times the Atlanta Hawks fan drank a bud light. pic.twitter.com/msu3OknR0y
— ✶ Ⓜ️𝕒𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕤 ▶️ ✶ (@_MarcusD3_) June 27, 2024
And now, onto the Losers…
1. France
It’s easy to see the first two picks of the 2024 NBA Draft being French and believe France is a big winner of the night.
Unfortunately, I think both Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr suck.
Maybe that’s harsh but I don’t think either player will have much of an impact in the NBA and their careers will be silent. They’re going to be perfect Immaculate Grid names.
This feels like a massive pendulum swinging in a stupid direction.
Victor Wembenyama is really good at basketball.
That doesn’t mean scouts should trick themselves into believing France is some hotbed of secret NBA talent when in the past, Risacher and Sarr are, at best, late lottery picks and at worst, second-round picks that maybe if everything goes correctly, they have Boris Diaw-level careers.
Former Kansas guard Frank Mason III on #1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher:
“Played this young guy in France this past season; no way he’s the number one pick in the NBA draft lol, but I guess!” pic.twitter.com/SxqCHK0Bqg
— CBB Content (@CBBcontent) June 27, 2024
Risacher’s own peers don’t even understand how he went no. 1.
You’d expect your no. 1 pick to have an instant impact on the team and I have no idea what value this player provides standing in the corner while Trae Young attacks the pick and roll. Risacher is starting his NBA career as a zero-time All-Star and will be ending his career as such.
As far as Alex Sarr goes, I actually like his skillset paired with his size.
However, the Washington Wizards are not the incubator you’d want Sarr to grow in.
If Sarr is the first piece of a larger project in Washington where like, 3 years down the road, Sarr turns into a role player to help the young stars they draft after him then I guess this was a success.
I don’t trust the Wizards to draft that well though. I mean, they just drafted Alex Sarr no. 2.
2. Gilbert Arenas
Gilbert Arenas has a podcast I used to like but as of late, the show seems dedicated to fellating Kobe Bryant and expressing strange xenophobia against any and all foreign players.
At one point, I believed he was being an asshole for attention but it seems he’s genuinely a “they’re taking our jobs” type loser.
And now the first two picks are French. Gilbert may start a GoFundMe to build a wall around the East Coast.
3. Portland Trailblazers
I wanted to write about the Blazers but couldn’t confidently say they were winners.
Donovan Clingan could’ve gone no. 1 so hats off to Portland for snatching him at no. 7.
Not sure how adding a center makes sense with Deandre Ayton and Robert Williams already on the roster but when you’re a terrible team, you shouldn’t be drafting based on positions, or else you end up missing out on Luka Doncic and take, well, Deandre Ayton, like Phoenix did in 2018.
Portland also sent Malcolm Brogdon and the no. 14 pick, Bub Carrington, to Washington for Deni Avdija.
#FreePalenstine
This is a weird ass team, man. And it doesn’t help that Portland’s first-round pick last summer, Scoot Henderson, looked like he was playing with a soccer ball.
At a certain point, it feels like they’re just making moves to seem busy like when I was a cashier and I always kept a broom nearby so I could quickly grab it and pretend to sweep whenever the manager walked by.
What’s the plan here?
4. Bronny James
If I’m Bronny James, I’m never speaking to my dad again. LeBron has enough power in this league to get his son drafted yet as I write this, both myself and Bronny remain undrafted.
5. Milwaukee Bucks
The Boston Celtics just won the NBA Championship. The Knicks got Mikal Bridges. The Sixers have infinite spending money this offseason.
Anddd the Bucks drafted 19-year old, AJ Johnson, who averaged 2.9 points on 37% shooting in the Australian league. The fuck?
The Bucks are old and lack depth. They need an immediate infusion of scoring and playmaking and they elected to draft a kid who may become a good NBA shooter in 5-6 years—when most of Milwaukee’s current starting five will be retired.
They couldn’t package that first with like, Khris Middleton to get a couple valuable rotation guys? Like, maybe Kyle Kuzma and someone else from Washington? AJ Johnson’s 2.9 points were just soooo attractive?
Yea, it’s over for the Bucks.
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Who won the 2024 NBA Draft? Leave a comment below. Respond on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Or shoot me an email at Deadseriousmailbag@gmail.com. Let’s chat, bay-beeeee. Let me know if you understand what the Bucks plan is.
