The exercise of running a re-draft of the 2024 NBA Draft piqued my curiosity: where would Bilal Coulibaly land in a re-draft of 2023? And, just scanning down the list of drafted players…it won’t be 7th.
This is not a big an indictment of Coulibaly as it might seem. He still has lots of potential, he’s far from a finished player, and 2023 is a strong draft class. Like most drafts, the “re-draft” list will likely bear little resemblance to the actual draft order.
In 2023, the Wizards entered draft night with the eighth pick and several second rounders. They traded a couple seconds and that eighth selection to move up one spot and pick Coulibaly. They made several other trades that netted them Tristan Vukcevic.
One of the picks they dealt was number 57, which the Golden State Warriors used to select Trayce Jackson-Davis, who had a solid first round grade in YODA and will likely go fairly near the top in this re-draft.
A few others I considered adding to the Honorable Mentions list, but don’t quite make it: Marcus Sasser, Mouhamed Gueye, Tristan Vukcevich (probably goes in the first round in a full re-draft), Ben Sheppard, Julian Strawther.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.