NBA Exec Defends 2024 Draft Class: 'None of These Guys Are Afraid of NBA Players'

NBA executives are already pushing back on the notion that the 2024 draft class is "historically bad."

"I was never in the group of people that thought this was a historically bad class," one NBA executive told ESPN's Jonathan Givony and Ohm Youngmisuk. "Young players nowadays are so specialized from an early age and so exposed to high-level training and competition against their peers and college and NBA players. ... None of these guys are afraid of NBA players anymore because they've matched up against them in open gyms for years. The level of competition in college basketball and internationally is higher than it's ever been."

Several first-round picks have had stellar starts to their Summer League careers, with Reed Sheppard, Dalton Knecht and Matas Buzelis all averaging more than 20 points per game.

Ron Holland II, who has struggled through his first two games in Las Vegas, said he's been motivated by the negative buzz.

"It definitely makes me mad that people would say that," the Detroit Pistons guard said. "But we go out here and play the game of basketball and just show everybody, show the whole world why we really want [to be] the best competitive class."

Perception is in the eye of the beholder, but the reality is that both draft evaluators and league executives as a whole saw this as an underwhelming class. There was no Victor Wembanyama at the top of the draft. In the days leading up to the draft, few outside of Atlanta knew the Hawks were taking Zaccharie Risacher—a rarity in the modern draft era, which usually has the first two or three picks locked in place for months.

The 2024 draft best resembled the 2013 draft, which had a shocker at the top of the class in Anthony Bennett. The lottery of the 2013 class produced only one All-Star, Victor Oladipo, but future Hall of Famers Giannis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Gobert were taken later in Round 1.

The overwhelming likelihood is we'll see a few stars come out of this class. They're just harder to identify than in previous years.