Sports Illustrated

It’s that time again: with college basketball getting underway and this season’s NBA hierarchy starting to sort itself out, it’s slightly more responsible to start mocking out what the 2023 draft may look like. We’ve had more than usual to chew on regarding the draft at this early stage of the cycle, with Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson and others having begun their seasons more than a month ago. NBA executives seem pretty optimistic about the depth of the lottery right now—there are a lot of intriguing young guys and college freshmen, which would seem to cover for the fact that the college returning group doesn’t seem all that impressive at the moment. I’ve been on the road over the past couple months, stopping at the Champions Classic on Tuesday, and I’ll hit the college circuit hard next week, with plenty of high-profile games scheduled, culminating in the PK85 tournament in Portland. That event, which features 16 teams across two separate brackets, should be attended by most of the NBA’s top decision-makers, as a veritable one-stop shop for a good chunk of this year’s college talent. As usual, we should know a lot more about what’s coming in a month or so, once more games are played and there’s more to see on film. Having said all that, I’ll reiterate that there’s currently cautious optimism that this might be one of the better lottery classes in a while, starting with a generational talent in Wembanyama. We’ll see whether the perception of depth holds true by spring, but it’s a nice place to start.