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

The Oklahoma City Thunder selected 18-year-old Crvena zvezda guard Nikola Topić with the No. 12 pick.

The Athletic NBA Draft analyst Sam Vecenie on Topić: Topić has a lot of upside, especially if you really believe in the work he did on the ball in his 13 games to start the year for Mega. But using a top-five pick on a 13-game sample, especially when his games with Red Star were much more pedestrian, is a huge bet for any lead decision-maker in a front office. That person would need to trust that what they saw was reality and not the construct of a Mega offense that also allowed Nikola Djurišić to get loose as a scorer following Topić’s transfer back to Red Star. If his ability to separate against NBA-level athletes doesn’t come through and his jumper off the catch doesn’t get there, what is he then? Is he even a starter?

As an enormous ballhandler with serious touch and incredible vision as a passer, Topić is clearly an NBA player, even if it doesn’t all translate. But his floor is lower than all the other top guys in this class because his sample of strong play is so small — even if that resume includes him winning MVP of the Under-18 European championships last summer. In a class with precious little upside to find, I would understand having Topic in the top five, even. But between the small sample of great play and the knee injury he suffered late in the year, I ended up with a late-lottery grade.

A Western Conference scout sizes up Matas Buzelis, the Bulls' No. 11 selection:

He's got a ways to go. 'Cause physically, he's so weak. He does flash athleticism, that’s really, really eye-catching, like he'll do some eye-popping stuff — cutting to the baseline, or driving a closeout and getting to the rim and dunking. But then, if he has the ball and if a defender is set up in front of him and gets into him, there's a good chance he'll turn over the ball. And shooting it, he's so inconsistent. I see the excitement with the talent, but I just think it’s so far away because of his (current) physical limitations. He's just so weak, and has such poor core balance and strength. It's going to take a couple of years for this guy before you can really figure out if he really can be a consistent performer in the NBA. He doesn't shoot it well and turns it over too much, and for flash you see in terms of the athleticism and eye-popping plays, there's just as many plays leaving you thinking, 'Is this guy good enough?'

I don’t know if (his defense is) a product of him just being so weak physically, or that he's not trying. … But he's long, he's athletic. In terms of if he can do it without getting touched. But he’s just weak. He turns the ball over when people get physical. It’s a two-year project, I think, for him to get his body right. If he goes to a bad team and he gets to play minutes while he grows physically, that could be a really good setup for him. Because it'll give him the reps. I watched him in AAU and thought this guy was pretty good. But when he got out there with adults and more physically gifted players, the weaknesses started to show.

The Grizzlies engaged Detroit about trading up to No. 5, but the Pistons elected to stay put and take a high-upside swing on the 18-year-old Ron Holland.

Chicago's Lithuanian GM selects a Chicago-born and bred player of Lithuanian heritage. Matas Buzelis was slated by most to go higher than this, and his game should fit what the Bulls need in terms of versatile, floor-spacing wings quite nicely.

Don’t worry about those 3-point percentages last year – his shot is much better than that, trust me. The next question in Chicago might be how high they’re now willing to go to keep restricted free agent Patrick Williams, a previous Bulls’ first-rounder who offers a similar theoretical skill set.

We’re getting very much into the speculative part of the board in a weak draft class.

Cody Williams has the length and athleticism to play the wing in the NBA and showed flashes of skill in his one season at Colorado, but realistically he’s a developmental player who needs to fill out his body, work on his pull-up game and hone the rest of his craft to make an NBA-level impact.

To learn more about Zach Edey's remarkable story to the No. 9 pick in the draft, read my feature from March.

TORONTO – Head north out of downtown on Bayview Avenue and past the shops and bars in Leaside, plus four Tim Hortons. Cross a bridge and climb a hill and there’s Crescent School, a private all-boys institution opened in 1913. It’s closed for winter break, but a courtyard plaque points to reception. A groundskeeping vehicle is parked in front and a delivery guy walks out. Somewhere inside lies another story about how the impossibility of Zach Edey came to be. Another tall tale.

So it’s worth a knock on the door.

After an introduction to Sal the maintenance guy and an explanation for the visit, it’s a stroll down some stairs and into the Lower School. Pencil sketches and old team pictures hang in the hallway. Straight ahead? A basketball gym. Where an anomaly came into view.

Edey is, of course, currently the 7-foot-4, 300-pound All-American anchor for second-ranked Purdue. But he’s also the kid who dreamed of being a hockey defenseman. The preteen who stumbled into a stellar youth baseball career. The high school sophomore who learned basketball shooting form by balancing a water bottle on a clipboard. The quiet Toronto boy who left home for an academy in Florida, who ranked 436th in his recruiting class and who now likely will repeat as national player of the year. The star who should not be.

Here, in a space with green bleachers and the words RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY and HONESTY ringing the floor, is where the last part started.

Edey’s local club team was practicing at Crescent School, right before a tryout for the high-profile Northern Kings AAU program. Vidal Massiah, the Kings’ director, had been tipped off by his sister about a giant roaming area courts, and Massiah came to see for himself. After Edey’s two ensuing workouts with the Kings, his mother asked for a verdict. Massiah was blunt.

He’s an NBA player. Get ready for this movie.

“His story is a Canadian story,” Massiah says, driving away from the school on a sunny but wind-whipped winter morning. “It only happens here.”

I'm sure the team that drafted Hasheem Thabeet second in a draft once will do just find with Zach Edey going in the top 10 of even a bad draft class.

Yes, they're different players from a skill set standpoint, but this is asking a lot of a giant in an era of spacing carving up immobile big men. You can't tell me the NCAA Tournament doesn't drastically improve draft positions.

It would have been very interesting if Zach Edey had been on the board at No. 19 for the Toronto Raptors.

Edey is such a notable player, because of his track record and size, that he would have been under a microscope in his hometown. At the same time, given where the Raptors are in their rebuild, picking Edey would have been some easy PR points.

Instead, he's heading to Vancouver Memphis. He joins fellow Canadian Brandon Clarke in the frontcourt rotation. Edey could start, but he will probably have to improve his touch a little bit to allow for Ja Morant to have enough room to roam with the ball.

One of the throughlines for Memphis drafts over the years has been to draft good basketball players. Guys who were productive in college.

The year they deviated from that, with Zaire Williams, they got burned. Well Zach Edey was a great basketball at Purdue but how will he do in the NBA. He's huge but not the best athlete. He's obviously got length. There are clear ways he can help but there are big issues too.

He's another big man who promises he can shoot. We'll see. Memphis wants to find out. The pick, however, was met with shock and groans here in Brooklyn.

The Utah Jazz selected 19-year-old Colorado wing Cody Williams with the No. 10 pick.

The Athletic NBA Draft analyst Sam Vecenie on Williams: It's disappointing that Williams picked up his ankle injury right as he started to come into his own during a 10-game stretch in January and February. Typically, freshmen improve over the course of the season, but NBA teams never got the chance to see that with Williams, even after he returned to the court for the stretch run. It’s easy to buy into his upside as a developmental wing with length, functional athleticism and foundational stretch that should continue to improve as he ages. He’s an excellent driver with potential to be the type of dangerous dribble/pass/shoot wing teams desperately want to acquire.

However, it’s also easy to view him as a significant project if his jumper isn’t as far along as his college percentages indicate. It’s going to take time for him to grow into his frame and add more strength. How long will that take? Can he continue to develop as a shooter to the point he becomes a genuine pull-up threat? If those two questions end with positive answers, he will be one of the best players in this class. If not, he becomes a riskier pick.

The Wolves traded a 2031 first-round pick (top-1 protected) and a 2030 pick swap, per our Shams Charania.

This is a super-aggressive move for a team that believes its window for a championship is open right now. They have little in the way of flexibility to add through free agency, so trades had to be the way.

Rob Dillingham fit too many of their needs for them not to do it.

The lingering question for the Wolves: How on earth did a team with no draft picks move up from No. 27 to No. 8?

An Eastern Conference executive compares Robert Dillingham, who just went No. 8 to Minnesota, to another Kentucky guard.

He’s kind of like the Tyrese Maxey of this draft. ‘Cause if you look at his Kentucky numbers, his stats are way better than Maxey’s were coming out of Kentucky. Guys like that, in that combo box, that can score, they stay around. And that’s what they do — they score. Dillingham is 6-1, 6-2. When everybody kept saying he’s little, I was saying ‘he ain’t Isiah Thomas little, or Nate Robinson little.’ They’re like, ‘I worry about his size.’ I’m like, he’s probably bigger than f—— Maxey. When he came out, everybody was talking about size, and what position can he play. When a guy can hoop, let him hoop and put him out there and leave him alone. That’s Dillingham. Let’s not overthink it too much. He’s got short arms, so he doesn’t look tall.

The Memphis Grizzlies selected 22-year-old Purdue center Zach Edey with the No. 9 pick.

The Athletic NBA Draft analyst Sam Vecenie on Edey: Edey has continually proved everyone wrong at every level. He was stuck behind everyone at IMG. He was outside of the top-300 as a recruit. His ability to transition to the NBA has been doubted. Yet here we are, two National Player of the Year seasons later, and Edey keeps getting better. He’s in unbelievable shape for a player his size in a way that allows him to take full advantage of his gifts. He has skills that will work in the NBA. He’s going to be a killer rebounder, monster screener and will consistently establish his position even against some of the stronger NBA players. I’m not saying he’ll seal off Joel Embiid every time down the court, but most big 7-foot or shorter will have issues dealing with his length and strength. His pro success comes down to continuing to improve his movement ability and continuing to maximize his ability to get up and down the court on defense. He needs to not let ball handlers turn the corner on him in drop coverage and maintain extremely tight angles.

I’m done doubting Edey, even as an NBA player. He’s exceptionally tough, and intel suggest his worth ethic is excellent. He’s an unbelievable competitor who desperately wants to win. He plays with an edge that allows him to overcome a lot of the perceived deficiencies of his game. I can’t quite shake the questions I have on his ability to significantly impact the playoffs, so I couldn’t quite get him into the lottery. But I think he carves out an NBA role and sticks around for a while.