Trae Young offers strong opinion from ‘a lot of’ players about incoming draft class

With a 2023 NBA Draft featuring one of the NBA's most unique unicorns in Victor Wembanyama being selected No. 1 overall, it would be tough to top that in 2024. But while many considered the 2024 NBA Draft to be one of the weakest in recent memory, Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young offered his thoughts along with the apparent opinions of some of his peers.

On the latest episode of Podcast P with Paul George , Young stated that "a lot of us" look at the incoming rookies as simply role players.

“No disrespect to the guys that got drafted, from the out looking in, and some guys might surprise us, but a lot of us look at them as role players coming in anyway,” Young said via Hoops Hype . “You name the last three No.1 picks, you’ve got Victor [Wembanyama], you got Ant Edwards, you’ve got some big-time names.

"None of these guys whether it’s Reed [Sheppard], who is going to be a hell of an NBA player or Alex [Sarr], who didn’t play well in Summer League, but is going to be a hell of an NBA player, a lot of these guys could be just role players, so you’re really just trying to figure out who is going to be the best role player for their team.”

While it's a candid and blunt assessment from Young, it wouldn't be at all shocking to find that this is the general consensus of current NBA players. Arguably the biggest storyline of the draft was the No. 55 overall pick in Bronny James, who'll team up with his father on the Los Angeles Lakers.

Of the names selected in the top 10 of the draft, Sheppard, who Young mentioned, was impressive during NBA summer league play. Beyond that, No. 8 overall pick and Sheppard's collegiate teammate at Kentucky, Rob Dillingham, showed flashes of legitimate upside, while Zach Edey also offered plenty of reason for optimism.

It'll be interesting to see how the 2024 NBA Draft class shakes out, but on the surface, you'd be hard-pressed to pinpoint a "star" of the bunch, at least this early on in the process.