What happened in the 2024 NBA Draft: Full recap and analysis of every pick

ALBANY, N.Y. — Bill Clingan did not want to go to the bar. At 29 years old, he was pretty much done with the whole scene and, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the last thing he wanted to do was hit some local watering hole sure to be crushed with people. Worse, his friends chose probably his least favorite spot in town, the kind of joint where bar fights are common. But Bill had nothing else to do, so he went as the crew’s designated driver. Upon arrival, he promptly plopped himself on a barstool to watch whatever game was on the TV and sip at his soda. There, if not entirely present.

Later in the evening a distant relative of one of his buds, a guy from Georgia with a deep Southern drawl that amused the hell out of Bill, came up and insisted he come meet someone. He brought Bill over to a woman, and told the two of them, “You two need to talk,” his Southern twang dragging out the introduction, and then walked away. The woman was every bit as confused as Bill. Stacey Porrini hadn’t asked to meet him, and had no idea why the man insisted on the connection.

Bill and Stacey wound up chatting the whole night, and before he left, Bill got her number. Since it was Thanksgiving, he didn’t want to intrude on family time and planned on calling after the weekend. Instead, she found him, using whatever resources she had in the pre-social media days of 1999 to suss out his number. “The rest,’’ Bill says now, “is history.’’ They married in 2001, had two kids and remained devoted entirely and singularly to one another from the night of that bar meeting until 2018, when Stacey died of breast cancer.

Bill “talks” to Stacey an awful lot, and often seeks her advice. Like, for example, when their daughter, Olivia, started to date and Bill’s first instinct was to go full Rambo upon meeting the poor boy, he thought instead of how Stacey would have handled it and adjusted accordingly.

And more recently, when Bill stood nervously in the stands, near to shaking as he always is before a UConn game, he looked up, well beyond the rafters of the MVP Arena in Albany. “Anytime you see me looking up, I’m talking to her,’’ he says, chuckling. “Just asking for a little help down here.’’

It may or may not be divine intervention that has steered the Huskies out of their first-round morass and into a Sweet 16 date with Arkansas. But there’s no denying that Stacey’s fingerprints are all over UConn’s success this season.

Donovan Clingan, the Huskies’ 7-foot-2 emerging star, might look like his father. but otherwise, the freshman big man is all Stacey.

Read the rest of my March 2023 feature on Clingan and his mother, who died of breast cancer in 2018.

Of the first seven picks, I'm not sure how many of them are starters on even an average NBA team. But as long as you get rotation guys who can stick around for 7-10 years, I guess that's a win in a draft like this.

Before the draft, a Western Conference scout had this to say about Donovan Clingan, who just went No. 7 to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Brook Lopez never left the paint for the first eight, nine years of his career. This guy will do it sooner. His shooting stroke’s pretty good. when you went to practice at UConn and he was f—ing around, you were like, 'Oh, his stroke looks OK.' I was always miffed that he didn’t shoot free throws better, because his stroke is pretty good. A lot of that is mental. I think he’s ahead of the curve when it comes to shooting, as opposed to those other guys. I don't know until he does it. I like his mechanics. I think he’s rending in the right direction. But until you do it … and you have to have a coach that allows that. So he has to prove it to him. I remember watching Al Horford. After every practice, he shot 3s. Every day, that’s what he did. Eventually, and certainly now, he’s pretty f—ing confident shooting that ball. Clingan's a little ahead of those guys. He's not vertical, but he's pretty good laterally.

Alex Sarr is only a few minutes into his NBA career but he already has to deal with the hard questions.

A media member just asked him to recommend an affordable red wine. He had no suggestions. The Wizards have to hope he can be more useful next season.

They have a lot of holes and Sarr is going onto a barren roster. Washington is thinking long-term and Sarr is going to be a part of that plan.

The Portland Trail Blazers selected 20-year-old Connecticut center Donovan Clingan with the No. 7 pick.

The Athletic NBA Draft analyst Sam Vecenie on Clingan: It’s hard not to see Clingan turning into at least an average starting center in the NBA when he’s on the court. He has All-Defense-caliber upside. He’s utterly enormous and is elite at executing drop pick-and-roll coverage. He takes up an immense amount of space in the lane and his sheer presence should give his team strong defensive minutes around the rim.

I also think there’s more to Clingan offensively than meets the eye. He’s a sharp passer and playmaker away from the rim, sees the court well and is a strong screener. His presence on the court will help everyone else on the team in subtle ways.

I don’t expect him to display the scoring or playmaking upside of someone like Domantas Sabonis, so it’s hard to project All-Star outcomes for Clingan. Even Gobert is a stretch, as he’s more mobile than Clingan ever will be on defense. But I think Clingan can settle in just below that tier and maybe sniff an All-Star Game if things break right, like Jarrett Allen did back in 2022. The keys for Clingan are staying healthy and maintaining his conditioning — two things that have gone together for him over the last two years. If he’s able to stay on the court, he’ll have a valuable NBA career that has a good chance to return top-five value in this class.

Before the draft, an Eastern Conference executive compared Tidjane Salaun, who went No. 6 to Charlotte, with top overall pick and fellow Frenchman Zaccharie Risacher.

(Salaun's) a little bit of a late bloomer. He's switching from being a post player into a wing. He's really progressed at a very, very fast rate. He was very interesting in European competition as kind of a tweener four/five. Now he's playing more like a four/three. He shoots this 3 and it's like a moon ball. It looks like it’s going to come together, because he’s shooting a decent percentage. But when he shoots it, you’re like, damn. He gets a lot of air under it. But it looks good. He holds his followthrough. You can tell he reps it out. It’s not like it’s some broken shot. He guards. He has a motor. He wants to sort of dominate his competition. When he hits shots, he has a little more emotion.

Risacher is more flat-line, no real emotion, just does his job. This kid wants to dunk on you, scream at you. He wants to block your shot; he wants to talk s—. He’s got a little juice. For him, it’s developing consistency as a full-time wing player. But he’s grown, too. This dude is 6-10, a legit 6-10 wing. When you see it, these aren’t highlights. This is who he is. He comes in transition, he’s trying to dunk it. You throw a lob to him, he’s trying to do a chin-up. And he wants to play NBA basketball. Risacher, he’s going to be a European-style player playing in the NBA. Tidjane, he’s going to be like an NBA player playing in the NBA.

This has been rumored in the days leading up to the draft. I like Tidjane Salaun’s upside but see it as more speculative – I had him 16th on my board, so taking him at No. 6 without trading down feels like a reach.

Meanwhile, I get Donovan Clingan would have overlapped with incumbent Mark Williams, but man, that’s a pretty bold move to pass up Clingan here.

The other question his pick brings up – is this a sign that the Hornets don’t think they’ll keep Miles Bridges in free agency?

Ron Holland's high school resume:

• 123-8 overall record
• 26-0 in UIL state playoffs
• 1500-plus total points
• 900-plus total rebounds
• Two-time USA gold medalist (13-0)
• McDonalds All-American
• Nike Hoop Summit
• G-League Ignite
• NBA first-round pick

Before the draft, an Eastern Conference executive had this to say about Ron Holland, the surprise No. 5 pick by the Detroit Pistons.

I’m a Ron Holland fan. I don’t like his shot, and it’s going to take some time to fix it. But he does everything else pretty well. He gets downhill hard. He’s not afraid. He gets to the basket and gets fouled. Good athlete, long. He’s got alpha mentality. I’m a fan of Ron’s. Shooting always gets better, and hopefully the team will have a shooting coach that can help him. I think it’s form right now, because he brings it to the left side of his body and shoots it on the wrong side of his head. And it has to be a more consistent release point. He’s just got to rep it out and get confidence knocking down shots.

There are several front office executives from various teams that I talked to today who would've taken Reed Sheppard as the first overall pick.

He has so many indications, both from his on-court game and from the underlying numbers, that he's a player who has both a high floor and possibly even star potential.

While it's no surprise Houston ended up selecting Sheppard, the franchise has to be satisfied getting someone who fits so seamlessly no matter what the team does with its roster construct going forward.

I would've liked Cody Williams or Devin Carter more for the Pistons because I believe they're more definite impact players.

And the Pistons need to find some positive impact on the court. This is still a good "risk" for them because Ron Holland can really play and he has a lot of potential. Donovan Clingan falling past the top five is a surprise here, but it has to be enticing some trade calls to Charlotte and Portland right.

Yes! I love it! Ron Holland was the number 1 guy on my board, and I was absolutely perplexed that he was falling so far in mock draft world when his output at G League Ignite was superior to that of several other recent lottery picks.

Holland may struggle out of the gate as he works on his shooting and halfcourt reads, but the Pistons shouldn’t be in win-now mode and badly need a second wing creator to help Cade Cunningham. This is a great pick to start off the Trajan Langdon era in Detroit.

While I would've risked the top pick on Alex Sarr because of his size and potential, I believe Stephon Castle is the best player in this draft.

I'm a little concerned with his insistence that he's a lead guard at the NBA level. He's not. And the jump shot needs to improve dramatically in order to be a true threat on offense.

However, he can score in a lot of different ways. And you've got a defensive combination of Castle and Wemby moving forward. The Spurs could shut down a lot of offense with just those two out there.

Before the draft, an Eastern Conference executive had this to say about Stephon Castle, who was just selected No. 4 overall by the San Antonio Spurs.

They knock his shooting, and it needs to get better. But it's not bad, and it’s gotten better. To me, he’s the best chance of any of them to be an All-Star. He can play the one. He's got a great feel. Can handle it. He's a really good passer.

Is he a true one right now? Probably not. But he's still better than most of the ones in the league right now. The (shooting) mechanics are good. This year at UConn he was much improved. … He's got a great feel, great floor game. If he drops to San Antonio (at four), oh, my God. They’re going to be a b---h.