The NBA’s midsummer party was full of intrigue despite a draft class underwhelming as far as superstar talent. Our correspondent in the desert empties her notebook
By the time draft night arrived, it was pretty widely understood that the Atlanta Hawks, in possession of the No 1 pick for the first time since 1975, were going to select Zaccharie Risacher, anointing him as the secondnd annual French Beanpole King of the Draft. Risacher, though, is no Victor Wembanyama. And just because the pick was widely predicted doesn’t mean that it was widely agreed upon. Several draft boards (including that of Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer) had Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard, a guard who ended up in Houston with the third overall pick, as their choice for best prospect, and his time in Vegas showcased why they appear to have been correct. Sheppard, while slightly undersized at 6ft 3in, was damned impressive in his minutes in Sin City: a sharpshooter with an extremely high basketball IQ for his age, he looked positively comfy in his first NBA minutes. By the end of the week, execs from the Wizards (who selected Alex Sarr at No 2) and Hawks were quietly doing some damage-control-explaining behind the scenes for passing him over.