Will a Frenchman succeed Victor Wembanyama in first place in the NBA draft? According to the genre reference, ESPN, this is an increasingly likely scenario. In the latest edition of his 2024 mock draft, published this Monday March 25, the Burgian Zaccharie Risacher still appears as the favorite, ahead of Alexandre Sarr.
It has now been almost two months since specialist Jonathan Givony placed the two Frenchmen ahead of Rob Dillingham (Kentucky), the Serbian Nikola Topic (Red Star), Donovan Clingan (UConn) and the Lithuanian Matas Buzelis (G-League Ignite) in the hierarchy.
However, the JL Bourg winger had a rather complicated month of March, like his -6 rating in the Eurocup quarter-finals against Prometey, but specialists believe that it is ‘an accident. He will have the opportunity to do better in the half against Besiktas (match 1 this Tuesday at 7 p.m.). As for the Toulouse pivot, his season is over since Perth was eliminated in the semi-final of the NBL 12 days ago.
Further on in this same ESPN projection, we find three other French people: Tidjane Salaün (13th position, -3), Melvin Ajinça (37th, =) and Pacôme Dadiet (43rd, +3). Zaccharie Perrin (78th, -5), Armel Traoré (83rd, +2), Maxime Raynaud (95th) and Ilias Kamardine (98th, -2) are still part of the draft discussions.