2024 NBA Draft recap: Seven picks who were taken too late and will outperform their draft slot

Who can be the Jalen Brunson of the 2024 Draft? That is to say: A guy taken in the second round who had no business waiting that long to be picked

By Matt Norlander Jun 28, 2024 at 10:52 am ET• 6 min read

Even in a down draft there are bound to be really good players who blossom years down the road. And no matter what draft you're looking at, it is 100% guaranteed to have a handful of players (at minimum) taken far later than they should have been. With that in mind, and with the 2024 NBA Draft now over and the basketball offseason officially here, I wanted to share a postmortem on which players waited too long to be picked. 

As a rule, I am not considering anyone taken in the top 10. But everyone else between Nos. 11 and 58 was up for consideration. These are the best value picks of the draft, and I've got seven to share. In the spirit of Jalen Brunson's All-NBA push, I made sure to include four players who went in Thursday's second round — guys I believe will wind up having good careers and all making it to a second contract. 

This wasn't by design, but every player detailed below spent at least three years in college. Let the payback begin.

Devin Carter (13th to Sacramento)

A year ago, the Miami Heat drafted UCLA's Jaime Jaquez Jr. with the 18th pick. It was near-universally regarded as one of the best picks outside of the top 10. I get the same vibes off Carter going 13th to the Kings. Carter is two things at once: a proven high-level athlete capable of playing on Day 1 in the NBA ... and also quite a few stages from his ceiling. The fact he'll likely be able to be a lead guard, defend almost any 1 or 2 by the end of his rookie season and has the rebounding instinct to play all over the floor has me firmly believing Carter will easily wind up being one of the 10 best players from this draft — and maybe in the top five. The Kings make it back to the playoffs in 2025 thanks to decisions like this. He will not fail.