Two-day NBA Draft starts on Wednesday night

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Two-day NBA Draft starts on Wednesday night

Updated: Jun. 26, 2024, 8:30 a.m.|Published: Jun. 26, 2024, 8:30 a.m.

5–6 minutes

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Alex Sarr (left) and Zaccharie Risacher visit the Empire State Building on Monday, June 24, 2024, in New York City. The international prospects are in New York for Wednesday night’s NBA Draft.(Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust)

By

• Mark Inabinett | minabinett@al.com

The 78th NBA Draft will be a two-day event, with the first round on Wednesday night and the second round on Thursday. For the first time since the NBA Draft downsized to two rounds in 1989, it will be spread over two days.

From an Alabama perspective, that won’t be the only thing different about this year’s draft. The past six NBA drafts have included at least one prospect who played for an Alabama high school or college – with a total of 11 picked – in the first round, and that streak appears almost certain to end on Wednesday night.

It also seems likely the second round on Thursday could pass without a prospect who played at an Alabama high school or college being selected.

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The only player with Alabama basketball roots invited to the NBA Draft Combine, held May 12-19 in Chicago, was Crimson Tide guard Mark Sears, and he withdrew his name from consideration for this year’s selections.

That leaves Auburn forward Jaylin Williams as perhaps the most likely player from an Alabama high school or college to get picked in 2024, with Alabama guard Aaron Estrada, Ole Miss guard Allen Flanigan (who played four seasons at Auburn) and UAB center Eric Gaines also among the long-shot candidates.

Estrada and Flanigan participated in the NBA G League Elite Camp last month in Chicago.

The draft begins at 7 p.m. CDT Wednesday with the Atlanta Hawks holding the first of the 30 first-round picks that will be made at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Zaccharie Risacher, a 6-foot-8 19-year-old from France, has emerged as the projected target of the Hawks, with Alex Sarr, a 7-foot 19-year-old from the Perth Wildcats of Australia’s pro league, also considered a possibility.

Business has opened at the draft already, although only future drafts have been affected so far.

On Wednesday morning, NBA.com reported the Brooklyn Nets had traded swingman Mikal Bridges and a second-round draft choice to the New York Knicks for five first-round picks, a second-round selection and forward Bojan Bogdanovic. None of the picks are from this year’s draft. Bridges led the Nets in points and assists during the 2023-24 season.

That came after Brooklyn announced on Tuesday night an exchange of draft picks with the Houston Rockets. The Nets said via a press release they had “acquired their 2025 first-round draft pick, negating a previously-agreed-to swap, and their first-round pick in 2026, from the Houston Rockets in exchange for a 2025 first-round pick swap (Houston/Oklahoma City for Phoenix), the Phoenix Suns’ 2027 first-round pick and the rights to the two most favorable of the Dallas, Phoenix and Houston first-round picks in 2029. Brooklyn retains the least favorable of Dallas, Houston and Phoenix’s first-round draft picks in 2029.”

The Nets do not have a selection in the 2024 draft. The Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Clippers also do not have a choice in the first round on Wednesday night.

The Knicks at No. 24 and No. 25, Portland Trail Blazers at No. 7 and No. 14, San Antonio Spurs at No. 4 and No. 8, Utah Jazz at No. 10 and No. 29 and Washington Wizards at No. 2 and No. 26 have two first-round picks apiece.

The second round will start at 3 p.m. Thursday after the draft moves across town to ESPN’s Seaport District Studios in Manhattan.

The second round will have 28 selections. The Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns lost a second-round pick apiece for violating the NBA’s tampering rules.

ABC and ESPN will televise the first round, with ESPN showing the second round.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.