2024 NBA Draft winners and losers: Bronny James lands with Lakers; Knicks continue good work in second round

The 2024 NBA Draft is in the books with the completion of the second round Thursday. The biggest name called was at No. 55 when the Los Angles Lakers selected Bronny James. It was reported on ESPN by Bob Myers that James’ agent, Rich Paul, was telling teams that drafted before the Lakers at 55 that Bronny would go to Australia to play if anyone else took him.

Second-round picks are fliers. The vast majority of them don’t pan out. But there are often a few that pop. Nikola Jokic went in the second round. So did Draymond Green, Marc Gasol and Manu Ginobili. We shall see if anyone from the 2024 class, which is widely considered to be pretty weak, breaks out unexpectedly.

Even with the first-rounders, we won’t be able to fully gauge the success or failure of a particular pick for a while, but we can make some educated guesses as to how this might play out over time. 

And so, with the caveat that this could all look very different with the benefit of hindsight and with the information we have at our disposal, here are some NBA Draft winners and losers. 

Winner: Bronny James

When you get drafted into the NBA as a 6-foot-1 guard who averaged 4.8 points over 25 college games after surviving sudden cardiac arrest, you’ve won. Bronny comes off like a poised and mature young man. He’s handled the spotlight of being LeBron’s son with real class and humility. 

Now, LeBron can say all he wants that he had nothing to do with this and “reports” can come out that Anthony Davis was “really impressed” with Bronny’s workout, but let’s be honest about this: Bronny would not have been taken by the Lakers, or probably any other team, if he wasn’t LeBron’s son. 

So they got their way and I suppose LeBron has earned that level of sway. Now we’ll sit back and watch Bronny try to actually develop into a legit NBA player, which plenty of smart people believe he can be. 

CBS Sports Analysis …

As expected, the Lakers unite LeBron James with his eldest son, Bronny, pairing the two in purple and gold. Bronny struggled last season with USC after…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2024-nba-draft-winners-and-losers-bronny-james-lands-with-lakers-knicks-continue-good-work-in-second-round/

Author : Brad Botkin

Publish date : 2024-06-27 22:48:28

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