The 2024 NBA Draft is starting to have a solid consensus on the top nine prospects in the draft, in which all are shuffled in a different order. Could things change, as we saw three different top prospects, Alexandre Sarr, Nikola Topic and Isaiah Collier, get injured and miss a good chunk of time.
Let’s look at each prospect’s situation.
Alexandre Sarr | Perth Wildcats
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Sarr suffered a minor hip strain in early January and is not expected to return until early February. Is there a chance Sarr will call it quits for the season? This could be an idea that has been floated. That probably would be the case if his team was bad, but at the moment the Perth Wildcats are second in the NBL with 13 wins and seven losses.
A big downside to Sarr’s hip injury is that it limits his ability to move his hip, so when defending in space or defending in general, it could affect him a bit until he is 100% healthy.
Nikola Subject | KK Red Star
FIBA.com
Topic suffered a knee injury in just his second game with Red Star and is expected to return in mid-February. His case is a bit interesting because Topic has been climbing the draft rankings as he starts to be one of the consensus top three prospects in this year’s draft, but with him making a team change midway through the season and now suffering from a knee injury, are you considering shutting him down for the year?
Currently, his team is 13th in EuroLeague out of 18 teams with a losing record, but in ABA, they are first as they have 14 wins and two losses in this league. It might be a little risky to try, especially if his burst isn’t the same right away upon his return, but Topic is known for taking big risks with his basketball career, which is a good thing.
Isaiah Necklace | U.S.C.
© Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Collier injured his right hand in a game against Washington State about a week ago. The 6-foot-5 point guard is expected to return in mid-to-late February. This is a brutal injury not only to Collier but to USC as they had a very disappointing and mediocre year. With them having a rough year and Collier hurting his shooting hand, does the projected top ten want to give it another shot to try and salvage the season?
Collier isn’t really known for his shooting, but he has decent shot distributions across the board, but if his right hand isn’t 100% when he returns, we could see his percentages take a hit as well than its stock. This could be a case where the senior guard chooses to shut it down because there’s too much on the line, but Collier is known to be a tough fighter and competitor.
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