NBA Draft 2023: Second-Round Rookies to Watch Early

It's funny that every year at the NBA Draft, once the end of the guaranteed money and live appearances arrives at the end of the first round, everybody tunes out and refers to the 60th pick as "Mr. Irrelevant." That's not very accurate though, is it?

Speaking historically, the title of "Mr. Irrelevant" could just as easily be applied to each pick in the draft, as organizations differ greatly in their evaluation of talent and their own needs, particularly in a year without the NCAA tournament. The nickname just doesn't reflect how basketball works anymore. Executives strategically stockpile second-round draft picks for the less burdensome financial obligations, and organizations in rebuilding mode get super creative to field a respectable team on a budget.

Particularly in the NBA where worldwide talent is plentiful and positional lines continue to fade, the opportunity is everything: in the right situation, the right under-the-radar player can make an immediate, poignant statement. With professional development leagues for 16-18-year-olds, an ever-expanding set of domestic/international opportunities due to the sheer growth of basketball, and widespread NIL rights for college athletes, players of all levels and localities are starting to get their due exposure and now have enough freedom to hone their skills in a place, and at a pace, that fits best with their path to the NBA.

Introduction

I am inherently skeptical and distrusting of scouting from the high school level to pre-Draft. That's why in this annual article, I tend to favor overlooked college players (love the mid-majors/non-power conferences) with either well-rounded, polished games or specific statistical specialties.

We are going to discuss a handful of 2023 second-round picks and undrafted free agent signees who, given their individual skillsets and circumstances, warrant the attention of Fantasy Basketball Managers as potential high-impact rookies for the 2023-24 campaign who can quietly be acquired on clearance once they start showing signs of emergence.

As I will frequently emphasize and reiterate: in 2023, there is very little difference between the vast majority of second-round draft picks and undrafted free agents--it always all comes down to the skillsets they possess, their capacity for growth, and the situations they've landed in.

Seasons will be made and broken with early identification of the diamond-in-the-rough rookies. I used to list out the many examples from the past season in this introduction portion, but we are now in a beautiful era where there are just too many to count. There is also very little separating the featured players below and those dubbed "Honorable Mentions"--so put in the work and keep an eye out throughout the regular season for who is receiving and seizing their opportunities.

Isaiah Wong (PG, IND, 55th Overall)

March Madness is ruled by savvy, gutsy guard play, and Isaiah Wong was a prime example of this concept over his final two years with the Miami Hurricanes, leading the way to Elite Eight and Final Four appearances from 2022 to 2023 and earning the 2023 ACC Player of the Year honor to cap off his collegiate career. Signing a two-way deal with the Pacers, he still manages to fly under the radar, but even with all of the guards in Indy's backcourt, history tells us that the Pacers organization is a fantastic location for a player like Wong to get his chance.

The questions for roles and playing time are mostly with the Indiana frontcourt, but there are so many combinations from PG to SF that Rick Carlisle utilizes. Wong is a bit undersized, but he is also one of the few Pacers guards who won't transition seamlessly between positions, slotting in squarely at the point.

He will be competing with the likes of T.J. McConnell and Andrew Nembhard for PT backing up Tyrese Haliburton, and while he is absolutely starting off well behind those two, those minutes are shareable on a Carlisle team, and Wong's skillset both matches with the Indy identity and sets him apart in very practical ways from McConnell and Nembhard. The scorer of 1,866 total points in four college seasons, Wong averaged 16.2 points, 4.3 boards, 3.2 assists, and 1.4 steals in 37 games (33.4 MP) for his senior year, shooting career-highs from three (38.4% on 4.3 attempts per game) and on free throws (84.5%).

In terms of more advanced metrics, Wong also finished 2023 with career-high marks for assist rate (17.1%), steal rate (2.4%), true shooting percentage (57.8%), and effective field goal percentage (51.6%), remaining super consistent in his rebounding and totaling 5.1 win shares. Wong is a winning PG, and being coached by Jim Larrañaga has a lasting positive effect. His mixture of scoring/evolving shooting touch and solid equilibrium between ball-handling, perimeter defense, and effort on the glass offers what the games of McConnell and Nembhard do not in some key areas while still fitting into the grander Indiana scheme.

Maybe I am influenced by my identification of Pacers gems in past years, but until I see otherwise, I remain confident that a player of Wong's proven caliber will get his opportunities to contribute for Indy at different times through the regular season. If that happens and he manages to stick for a period of time, his contributions for Fantasy Basketball could be solid in all but one or two statistical categories.

Keyontae Johnson (SG/SF, OKC, 50th Overall)

Most probably remember Keyontae Johnson for his scary medical incident on the court for the Florida Gators back in December 2020, which greatly stunted his burgeoning college career (he only played in five games from 2020 to the end of the 2021-22 season) before he decided to get a fresh start for his final season with the Kansas State Wildcats.

The 6'5, 238-lb. wing had already been named First-Team All-SEC the year before collapsing mid-game against Florida State, but under the coaching guise of Jerome Tang and alongside Markquis Nowell in the K-State backcourt, Johnson once again exploded for a phenomenal final college season.

In 29.0 average minutes over 108 college games, Johnson at least averaged 6.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals, but I concede that he is not a do-it-all kind of combo player. The real key is in the 17.4 points per game on 47-116 three-point shooting (40.5%) after making 33 of his final 86 deep balls for the Gators (38.4%).

His year-by-year sample sizes make it hard to get a read on his overall body of work and at what level he is entering the NBA ranks, but his year in Manhattan, Kansas lined up very consistently with his best days in Gainesville, finishing up with true shooting and effective field goal rates of 59.3% and 56.8%.

His two best offensive win-share campaigns add up to 5.7, and though he never stole or blocked many balls, his 2022-23 defensive win-share and defensive box plus/minus measures of 2.1 and 1.9 indicate that he is a better defender than his stat line suggests. The 2023 AP/NABC Third-Team All-American (plus, Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and First-Team All-Big 12) is now on a two-way deal and will be splitting his time between the Oklahoma City Thunder and G League Blue.

Like the Indiana Pacers, OKC has a lot of players on the depth chart that fit the definition of combo guards and G/F wings, but like Indy, the Thunder have proven to be an organization over the past few seasons where you have a great chance at a floor-time opportunity in the case of injury or plain old lineup variation (16 players saw at least 13.0 MP for OKC last year). Behind the starting five, Keyontae will be competing for PT with the likes of Isaiah Joe, Kenrich Williams, Aaron Wiggins, and 29-year-old rookie and former Euro Ball star Vasilije Micić.

While his shooting was off and his statistical contributions weren't super well-rounded in the Summer League and in limited Preseason time, Johnson still scored consistently well for the Thunder and rebounded at a solid clip, and so once he gets some burn for the Blue in G League action to evolve his defense to professional play and get in rhythm with his three-point shooting, this is a guy who could very easily make his case for PT alongside the other Thunder reserves.

He came to the NBA as a rather polished player with size in excess of Joe and Wiggins, equal potential as a scoring/shooting threat with the rebounding and defensive potential to match Kenrich, and as fun as Micić's Euro stat line is, the 29-year-old is a giant question mark in his transition to the NBA almost ten years after he was taken in the NBA Draft by the Sixers. Keyontae Johnson is exactly the kind of player that we could see suited up for Oklahoma City sooner rather than later, especially if any of his teammates listed above are moved elsewhere or have injuries to deal with.

Jalen Slawson (SF, SAC, 54th Overall)

In 2022-23, the Sacramento Kings ranked 21st in the NBA in team steals (7.0) and second-worst in team blocks (3.4) per game with middle-of-the-pack rebounding in route to tying with Atlanta for a bottom-five season in average points allowed to their opponents (118.1).

On the other hand, their 120.7 points per game was tops in the league, and they ended the campaign in the top ten for 3PT% (36.9%) and the top five in average 3PM and assists. After a 2023 NBA Draft that saw Sacramento take and ultimately trade Olivier-Maxence Prosper and Jordan Walsh, the Kings are left with four rookies on the roster--only two of which were 2023 draftees. One is 34th overall pick Colby Jones of Xavier, who also fits the criteria for early success and is listed as an Honorable Mention below. The other is Jalen Slawson.

A 6'7, 215-lb. late-second-round forward, Slawson spent all five seasons of his college career with Furman University in the SoCon where he was a two-time First-Team All-SoCon selection, the 2022 SoCon Defensive Player of the Year, and the 2023 SoCon Player of the Year. He also led Furman to the 2023 NCAA Tournament where they scored a First Round upset over #4 seed Virginia and lost in the Round of 32 to eventual NCAA Runner-Up San Diego State.

Slawson's game feeds in nicely to the good things that Sacramento already has going and fills in the gaps even better in their lacking departments. With a roster with plenty of SG options and some less-than-certain frontcourt vibes beyond their starters, it is more likely that Slawson could find time as a combo forward as opposed to a G/F role, as he is a bit undersized for PF, though not by much (especially in a small lineup). He will be trying for his share of minutes with Kings reserves Chris Duarte, Sasha Vezenkov (another older rookie at 28 with a fantastic Euro résumé, drafted in 2017), Kessler Edwards, and anyone from Keon Ellis to Trey Lyles.

Slawson had to develop his incredibly well-rounded, defensive-minded game over a full small-school career. Over his final two years, he was playing 30+ minutes per contest, and in those final 70 games from 2021-2023, he averaged 15.1 points, 7.2 boards, 3.4 assists, 1.6 blocks, and 1.6 steals with a vastly improved FT stroke at 78.3%. Most importantly: after shooting 70 for 233 on threes through his first four college seasons, he made tremendous strides in 2022-23, hitting 41 of 104 (39.4%) with true shooting & eFG rates of 65.4% and 61.5% to further evidence his progress in offensive efficiency.

Throw in the work he did to limit his turnover rate and the OWS/DWS numbers that demonstrate why he accumulated so many SoCon accolades, and this is the type of player that I love to keep both eyes on as the season progresses.

The two-way player will have to cut his teeth with the Stockton Kings, but if he continues to improve on his shooting and remains a playmaker on defense, I can definitely see a path to NBA playing time past the rather humdrum slew of Sacramento reserves, as this team is trying to make back-to-back playoff appearances after breaking their NBA-record 16-season playoff drought in 2023. Simply put, Jalen Slawson can do it all, and he's steadily doing it all better.

A guy who needed to work all five years at Furman to get to where he is--he knows how to get himself to the next level starting off in Stockton, and if he finds an opening to consistent minutes for a period of time, he can contribute in every statistical category with a true niche in steals/blocks. Think of a slightly smaller, better-shooting Paul Reed, if Reed was ever given a real shot.

Maxwell Lewis (SG/SF, LAL, 40th Overall)

Maxwell Lewis is not even on a two-way deal--he is currently on the Los Angeles Lakers roster, and if you have paid any attention to the Lakers over the past few years, they love to make good use of whatever second-rounders and UDFAs they need to in order to properly budget for big-ticket acquisitions and bid for the postseason while injury-riddled stars recover.

There are so many examples of LAL rookies and unknown players alike seizing those opportunities and evolving on the job, and Maxwell Lewis is a guy with the game to hang around at the NBA level with plenty of potential for upward development. Lewis was named WCC All-Freshman in 2022 and showed tons of improvement in his second and final season of college basketball with the Pepperdine Waves, averaging 17.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 31.4 minutes per game (up 12 minutes from 2021-22) on his way to garnering Second-Team All-WCC distinction.

Even with the uptick in PT, Pepperdine got better last season, and so Lewis was sharing the floor with a much more talented cast. This resulted in Lewis not having to resign himself to as many threes in relation to his time on the floor, and so he actually ended up taking as many threes on average in 31 sophomore games as he did through 21 freshman games, and converted 1.5 makes per game last season as opposed to his figure of 1.6 from 2021-22.

This also resulted in the 6'7, 195-lb. wing being able to create a more versatile array of shots in two-point territory, which is where he really took his scoring to new heights. He doubled his amount of two-pointers made per game from his freshman campaign to 4.6 and improved his 2PT% from 47.5% to 52.6%. While his three-point and free throw efficiency took a very minute step back as he was on the floor for 30+ minutes a contest, he still ended up with very respectable marks of 35.4% and 79.1% for his full time at Pepperdine, respectively, and the two-point field goals made the real difference in reaching career-best measures in TS% (0.567) & eFG% (0.525).

He also saw improvements in his rebounding and assist rates, and finished with 1.7 OWS and 1.8 OBPM--the only area where his efficiency went down is on defense, where he dipped in steal and block percentage after at least grabbing a steal per game as a freshman in less than twenty average minutes, and the defensive metrics are just as critical of Lewis as the offensive metrics are flattering.

Look, it can be hard to play your best defense when your team goes 16-47 over two years and the rest of the WCC got much better and closed some of the gap between the pack and Gonzaga. Taking that into consideration along with Lewis's 6'7 height, 7'0 wingspan, and other impressive physical tangibles, I trust his ability to at least develop into an alright to good NBA defender, able to disrupt shots and interfere with passing lanes. You might like to see him get stronger to handle the other 6'7 players the professional ranks have to offer him, but that can come along with him still being 21 (if only he hadn't wasted his time with Chameleon BX and lost out on all of his major scholarship offers--do some research on that story if you have the time).

Past the Lakers starting five (when they are healthy and active), the Las Vegas native will have to contend for playing time with Taurean Prince, Cam Reddish, Gabe Vincent, Jalen Hood-Schifino, and Max Christie on the active roster, while rookies Alex Fudge & D'Moi Hodge are on two-way deals. Every one of those names offers something very different to the Lakers in terms of their size, athleticism, skillset, level of polish, and points in their career. However, there is one thing that almost this entire Lakers starting five and a good chunk of their reserves do offer in common: histories of missing a lot of games.

LeBron and AD alone will be absent enough to require Darvin Ham to get consistently creative with this rotation, and while it might not be something that manifests immediately, Maxwell Lewis offers just the right combination of physical gifts, room for growth, and most importantly--microwave scoring to fit just what will be missing under those circumstances. I am quite confident that Maxwell Lewis will get plenty of opportunities throughout the 2023-24 campaign to contribute to a team that will need him to perform. So when the time comes, you can get a real bargain if you are looking for offensive potency.

Trayce Jackson-Davis (PF, GSW, 57th Overall)

The narrative has been the same on Trayce Jackson-Davis throughout his entire career starring for the Indiana Hoosiers: "if only this guy could develop his three-pointer," or, "he'll need to be able to shoot threes if he wants to be appealing to NBA teams."

Well, four years and 126 collegiate games went by, and that never happened--in fact, TJD attempted only three shots from deep for his career (all in 2021-22) and missed all three. I mean, at PF, he is 6'9, 245-lb....there is no conceivable reason that he should be so incapable of adding that very modern skill to his repertoire. And yet, here he is.

He was selected by the Washington Wizards at the end of the 2023 NBA Draft and then acquired via trade (for cash) by Golden State. The courtship didn't stop with a quick look and a two-way bid: Jackson-Davis inked a four-year deal, the first two years guaranteed, with a million-dollar rookie salary and an overall potential contract value of $7.6MM (per Tom Brew of Fastbreak on FanNation).

History tells us that the Warriors have had great success with guys like TJD who fill other niche roles outside of the long-tenured offensive staples, especially when they have the chance to develop that talent from within, and youth like Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody have served as increasingly strong evidence that Golden State keeps an eye on their future.

This team plays quintessential small ball when it comes to rotation composition, and seriously, Trayce Jackson-Davis doesn't have super stiff competition for minutes at either PF or C: there is Draymond Green, Kevin Looney, Dario Saric, and Usman Garuba, with Kuminga and Andrew Wiggins penciled in at PF on the depth chart.

If Steve Kerr opts for the highest volume of scoring possible, he has two small forwards playing power forward and TJD can still get his PT in relief at center--and if he needs any two true frontcourt bodies on the court for any number of reasons, then all the more opportunity for Jackson-Davis to have his number called early, especially with the time that Draymond had to miss in prior seasons.

This guy has been Indiana's "Mr. Basketball", a McDonald's All-American, an All-Big Ten selection many times over, 2x Big Ten All-Defensive Team, a 2021 Third-Team All-American, and a consensus 2023 First-Team All-American and winner of the Karl Malone Award for college basketball's best PF.

From 2019-2023 in Bloomington, he produced 17.9 points and 9.1 rebounds per game--but in his senior season, he launched well past that; totaling 20.9 points, 10.8 boards, 4.0 assists (up from 1.9 the previous year), and 2.9 blocks in 34.5 MP, shooting 58.1% from the field and a career-best 69.5% from the free throw line. From his junior season onward, he converted 508 of 866 two-point tries (58.7%), and he kept very consistent TS% and eFG% figures in the neighborhood of .600 all four years.

Most important for his professional prospects: his defensive metrics (DWS, DBPM, Block Rate) all steadily improved to fantastic levels from 2019 to 2023, his rebounding efficiency grew even more potent over time (culminating in an 18% total rebounding rate last season), and amazingly, his assist rate went up 2.7% each year following his freshman campaign until 2023 when he nearly doubled-up to 24.8% while his turnover rate only increased by 2.6% to a manageable 12.8% considering the large proportion of Indiana's game that went through him (29.5% usage rate) alongside 2023 first-rounder and current LA Laker Jalen Hood-Schifino.

We've known for a while that TJD is a defensively astute, double-double machine with no business shooting from outside mid-range. But now you are telling me that he landed in a system that is perfectly alright with his shortcomings now that he has evolved to send your shot back the other direction and smartly handle and distribute the ball? Leave the scoring to everyone else--and if he is ever going to get himself to the point of being able to stretch the floor even a little bit more, this is the place to learn to do that.

The comparison might be too obvious, but a Big Ten power forward with offensive limitations but skill/talent/drive for every other statistical category of basketball, drafted in the second round, ending up with the Golden State Warriors? The tutelage of Draymond Green could transform Trayce Jackson-Davis into something else entirely.

He has already performed well in his Summer League and Preseason minutes, and the Warriors seem to have plans for him. When he catches on at the NBA level of play, this former All-American Hoosier could turn into the gem of all gems.

Honorable Mentions

• Jalen Pickett (F, DEN)
• Leonard Miller (F, MIN)
• Colby Jones (G, SAC)
• Hunter Tyson (F, DEN)
• Jordan Walsh (G/F, SAC)
• Amari Bailey (G, OKC)
• Tristan Vukcevic (F/C, WAS)
• Sidy Cissoko (F, SA)
• GG Jackson (F, MEM)
• Mojave King (G, IND)
• Jordan Miller (G/F, LAC)
• Emoni Bates (F, CLE)
• Jalen Wilson (F, BKN)
• Toumani Camara (F, PHO)
• Jaylen Clark (G, MIN)
• Seth Lundy (G, ATL)
• Mouhamed Gueye (F/C, ATL).

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