Why International Players Should Test The Draft Waters This Year
Forgive my bluntness about the 2024 draft, which seems to be one of the weaker classes in recent years.
But now is the time to strike, if you're a young international player hoping to get some attention. Every single year, multiple players from around the world enter the draft, hoping to attend the NBA Combine, and get invaluable feedback from teams as to how they should improve for the following season.
The goal is to make oneself as attractive as humanly possible to NBA teams down the road, as that means a crack at getting selected in the draft, or perhaps get picked up later on in life, as an undrafted free agent who put themselves on the radar.
With the 2024 class as questionable as it is, now is the time for players (who are either over 19 years of age, or who will turn 19 this calendar year) to throw their name into the hat, hope to get a combine invitation and from there get an opportunity they in normal years wouldn't necessarily have.
This isn't to say these players should keep their names in the draft — at least not unless they get surprisingly good intel on their draft stock — but instead plan to opt out before the deadline to retain their draft eligibility.
Let's take my native country of Denmark. There are certainly a few players who should attempt to benefit from the weaker draft class, and put their names in, just to test the waters.
Why? Because there's literally no downside.
If a player isn't invited to the combine, he can just remove his name as easily as he put it in, with no harm done. Teams will register his name, undoubtedly watch some video of him, and thus he gains a least some extra exposure to NBA decision-makers.
If a player is invited to the combine, and gets told he isn't ready for the NBA, he'll be told why, and what he needs to work on to eventually get there. He can withdraw his name, return home with that information and get to work.
And yes, you're probably wondering about those names.
Tobias Jensen from Ratiopharm Ulm in the German BBL. 6-foot-6 guard/wing who can initiate the offense, has a scoring knack and offers quality size for his position.
Gustav Knudsen and Andreas Holst from Bakken Bears in the Danish Basketligaen.
Holst is a 6-foot-10 stretch-big, who is surprisingly fluid on the floor despite his height. Knudsen is a highly productive 6-foot-8 wing with strong defensive capabilities, who can also hit from range, suggesting a future 3&D role.
(Danish Marqus Marion is already being scouted by the fact that he's playing at Wake Forest, and thus is already heavily exposed to NBA teams.)
This isn't to say these guys are NBA caliber this year, but perhaps a few years from now. But getting on the radar of more teams - and not just from the NBA - would be a tremendous asset for their continued careers, as would any communication and advice from general managers.
In most years, especially of late, the draft has been a loaded affair, where quality has been discovered in the late stages of the second round. The 2024 version is projected to be one where there's place to get creative, particularly on Day 2.
(Yeah, we'll have to get used to say that, don't we?)
So why not roll the dice and check things out in a year where teams might be extra open-minded to seeing new names from places around the world not usually associated with basketball?
At the very least, it's worth a shot.
Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.
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