Thirty teams spent the past year scouring the globe to make sense of the 2024 NBA draft class, identifying the top prospects and what makes them intriguing.
Scouting reports are filled with details and descriptors to better distinguish one player from another. The evaluation encompasses countless factors, of course, but which perspectives have earned superlatives? What players come to mind as the best playmakers, shooters and defenders?
As draft night approaches in less than three weeks (June 26-27 in Brooklyn, New York, on ABC/ESPN/ESPN+), who is really the best in the class at each individual skill?
ESPN draft analysts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo put together their list of top prospects, evaluating traits in 20 categories.
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Best pick-and-roll finisher: Zach Edey, C, Purdue
Edey, ranked No. 16 in ESPN's Top 100, is a dream target for playmaking guards to combine in pick-and-roll actions. He sets wide, hard-hitting screens at 7-foot-5, 298 pounds and is a standout rolling into the paint and catching everything thrown at him with his huge, magnetic hands and 7-foot-11 wingspan. Purdue's small guards often They threw the ball near the rim under pressure and let Edey catch it.
He understands the art of re-evaluating if his initial pick doesn't achieve the desired result and has improved his ability to operate without zoom actions/dribble handoffs, catch and make decisions with short throws or combination slides. to keep defenses unbalanced. Even if he doesn't catch the ball rolling toward the basket (where he's absolutely devastating), the amount of gravity he draws, absorbing off-ball defenders guarding shooters, often creates open corner threes for his teammates, a great reason. The Boilermakers shot 40% from 3-point range this season, the second-best rate in college basketball. –Givony
