If you were looking for surprises in Thursday night’s 2023 NBA draft, then you must have been living under a rock for the past few months. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the great French man of the generation Victor Wembanyama went to the San Antonio Spurs as #1 overall Brandon Miller And Scott Henderson Charlotte and Portland soon followed in second and third place overall.
After compiling Thursday night’s results, let’s take a look at who had big nights and who had rough nights.
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It was certainly a big night for the Lone Star State.
Anthony Black (Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty, Getty)
What a night for the city of Dallas. The big D saw six players selected from the region, but that’s exactly what happened with the overpowered Class of 2022.
In one of the best years for talent in city history, the class of 2022 ended with five players ranked as five-star contenders, ranked in the top 20 in their class, and selected as McDonald’s All-Americans. As of Thursday night, four of those five heard their names, three of whom were drafted in the first round.
The late bloomer of the group, all-rounder Anthony Blacklanded highest and was selected by Orlando at number 6.
Shortly after Black’s acquisition, the highest-ranked talented high school graduate was ranked 5th overall in the Kentucky Guard Cason Wallace was taken No. 10 and then dealt to Oklahoma City. The city’s top player is rounded off by a goalkeeper Keyonte George went to Utah for 16th overall after winning the Big 12 Freshman of the Year award in his only season at Baylor.
Despite being eliminated in the first round, he was the second Arkansas freshman drafted, a long and athletic winger Jordan Walshfinished in a great spot and was taken at number 38 by the Kings before being sent to Boston where he will immediately join a team fighting for the title.
Dallas prides itself on its status as one of the premier hotbeds of talent in the United States, and the city had plenty to offer on Thursday night.
Jarace Walker (Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty, Getty)
As Houston prepares to make the Big 12, the Cougars have it all ahead of them.
Kelvin Samson has made Houston a legitimate top 10 program in the country. The Cougars compete with the best, they have facilities, they have support and the city of Houston is always full of talent.
Locals have always been and will continue to be an important part of the program – check out what Quentin Grimes made it there — but it was their most acclaimed recruit in a while and a Dallas native who gave the Cougars a big boost on draft night.
Formerly a five-star restaurant, McDonald’s wasn’t just all-American Jarace Walker Houston’s highest ranked recruit in the age of internet rankings – he had a great college year. He went on to become the program’s highest draft pick since Hakeem Olajuwon, when he was ranked eighth overall and sent to the Indiana Pacers. You don’t have to be a recruiting expert to understand how Sampson and his staff plan to factor this into their recruiting pitch.
Speaking of recruiting suggestions, the “join us as a three-star contender, become an All-American, and get into the first round” suggestion has to be good. Some programs preach player development, Houston can show that the Cougars practice it (and to be honest, that wasn’t necessarily an issue). Marcus Sasser was taken over by Memphis as No. 25 before being traded to Detroit.
If you’re about to compete with Baylor, Kansas, Texas and the other Big 12 programs that pumped out draft picks, Thursday night was huge.
Amen Thompson (Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty, Getty)
A cynic would say that one of Houston’s two first-round picks was pretty obvious, while the other involved some luck. Regardless of how you judge the Rockets ending Amen Thompson And Cam Whitmorethey seem to have scored a big goal on draft night and added two more exciting young athletes to a team already full of high caliber athletes.
Make no mistake – the Rockets need maturity, and it’s hard to believe they get that in a rookie. But you’ll be hard pressed to find a more mature, thoughtful, and intelligent drafted player than Thompson. A huge playmaker with extreme athleticism, Thompson is also one of the best defenders signed Thursday night and could be that rare newcomer willing to step in and lead by example.
As for Whitmore, he certainly suffered a major slip on draft night. Whether it was due to medical red flags or concerns about the way he was interviewed during the draft process, we’re talking about a man who, after his year-long stint at Villanova, was considered at least a top 10 candidate – by some even as a top 5 candidate. Whitmore is another top athlete, has the strength of an NFL tight end and perhaps the slip will work in his favor.
We’re not necessarily convinced that players carry a chip on their shoulders, but we’ve seen the impact humility can have on a player’s motivation. Whitmore certainly felt humiliated, and if he uses that experience to prove those who betrayed him wrong, he could be of tremendous value at No. 20.
There will certainly be growth issues, but when you add these guys to a team that already has Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr, Tari Eason and others make them one of the most exciting transition teams in the NBA.
Keyontae Johnson (Photo: Scott Sewell, USA TODAY Sports)
How could anyone not be happy for Kansas State? Keyontae Johnson? Johnson, a former four-star contender who appeared to be blossoming into a true NBA contender after making the First Team All-SEC in Florida during the 2019-20 season, collapsed during a December 2020 game together and his basketball future was in jeopardy.
After being sidelined for the rest of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, Johnson made his way to Kansas State, where he was part of a big turnaround last year Jerome Tang That ended with the Wildcats making it into the Elite Eight and Johnson earning first-team All-Big 12 honors.
Watching him be ousted by Oklahoma City for 50th overall was certainly the highlight of the evening. Now a bit of a tweener, Johnson still has a lot of work to do. But given what he’s already overcome, who’s going to bet against him?
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Photo: Arturo Holmes/Getty, Getty)
There will be some exceptions to this rule – guys like Oscar Tshiebwe And Drew Timme Not getting drafted is noticeable—but when we got out of the early stages of the draft, the NBA actually validated what front-office guys and scouts had been preaching to 247Sports and other scouting outlets; Experience and character will be more important than ever.
It lasted until the UCLA All-American Jaime Jaquez Jr. was selected by the Miami Heat – by the way, what a perfect marriage of player and culture – for a player who had spent more than two years in college to be selected. The floodgates opened after Jaquez, because 19 of the last 40 picks were players who had spent at least three years in college. Excluding the overseas and G-League players selected in the last 40 picks, 19 of the last 33 picks were college seniors.
We can argue all day that some of these players could have gone higher, that some might have been reaches, or that there were some other pretty surprising undrafted players. That’s fine. The point here, though, is that the NBA is showing more and more that when it comes to later draft picks, it doesn’t strive to babysit formerly higher-rated players, and that experience and production are starting to outweigh the benefits once the draft occurs outside of the lottery phase.
Nick Smith Jr (Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty, 247Sports)
When it comes to players who have not lived up to expectations, it can be a touchy subject. After all, they didn’t rate themselves in high school, and in some cases their draft slides have as much to do with being overrated by high school raters as it does with being broke or underachievers.
So that has to be considered. But we also have to keep in mind that it wasn’t the best night for players who were previously ranked No. 1 overall in the 247Sports leaderboard. If it hadn’t been Nick Smith Jr Being taken over by Charlotte at No. 27 – which was a really nice evening, by the way – would have seen a trio of former No. 1 players eliminated from the first round GG Jackson And Emoni Bates Everyone was eliminated from the second round.
As for Smith, we continue to strongly believe that if he could have played healthy in Arkansas, he would have been drafted much further up. Once he’s back to himself and has a few minutes under his belt, we’re confident he’ll show why he’s been touted and prove a bargain late in the first round.
In Bates’ case, that wasn’t exactly a surprise. Since a tough freshman year at Memphis and a rollercoaster ride of the season in Eastern Michigan, he’s been a polarizing candidate. The highs have been high, the lows have been low and we’re still waiting to see who the real Bates is. Ranked 49th overall, Cleveland concluded that the potential benefits far outweigh the risks associated with its intake. At the end of the day, he’s showcased real NBA talent, and maybe the drafting process is just what he needs to ignite an inner fire and prove to people all that early praise wasn’t hollow.
As for Jackson, who ranked No. 45 with the Grizzlies until about halfway through his freshman season in South Carolina, he still seemed like a first-round pick. Then his shot selection went wild, his body language put teams off, and some poor social media decisions caused teams to dig deeper. Remember, we’re talking about a guy who should have just graduated from high school, so there will be some maturity concerns. He has the size, athleticism, and ability to make it in the NBA, but he’s also an example of how hard it is to skip a year of development and not experience at least some ill effects.