The Highly-Anticipated 2021 NBA Draft Class

By Daniel Schiffman ‘23

    After a disappointing, top-heavy 2020 NBA draft class, basketball fans are starving for a new and possibly more exciting set of young athletes to make their mark in the professional basketball world. 
    This year’s incoming class features many versatile, athletic and entertaining players from top college basketball programs. These players include Gonzaga’s shifty, high flying guard Jalen Suggs and Oklahoma State’s lengthy floor general Cade Cunningham. Suggs drained one of the most memorable game-winning buzzer-beaters in March Madness history in the Final Four against UCLA.

“Suggs’ historic March Madness run propelled him to the top of draft boards,” junior Ilan Feldman said.
Suggs averaged a solid 14.4 points and around five assists and five rebounds in his 2020-21 season. Cunningham is thought to be the consensus number one pick in the upcoming draft and has very rare size for a point guard at 6 foot 8 inches. He averaged an impressive 20.1 points per game and around six rebounds, astounding for a college-level point guard.
    Other potential lottery picks in the draft coming out of college include Evan Mobley out of USC, Corey Kispert from Gonzaga and Davion Mitchell from Baylor. Mobley is an elite defensive player, as evidenced by his around 9 rebounds and 3 blocks per game averages, with high quickness for a center.
Junior Eli Berman said, “Mobley was the number one recruit in the country coming out of high school, was dominant at USC, and was an All-American in both high school and college. He has the star power and a proven track record.”
Kispert is a lights-out shooter and efficient scorer. He was highly efficient in his senior season, shooting roughly 53 percent from the field, 44 percent from three-point range, and 88 percent from the free-throw line. His sweet shooting stroke is a highly coveted skill in the modern NBA, and is the main reason he is a projected lottery pick. Mitchell is a shifty guard who scores and shoots reliably. He averaged 14 points and around six assists per game in his junior season while leading the Baylor Bears to the National Championship game, where they beat the Gonzaga team led by Suggs and Kispert to win the National Championship.
    The prospects coming out of college basketball are not the only notable players in this year’s draft. Last year, some star high school basketball players, including projected top five picks Jonathan Kuminga and Jalen Green, decided to sign with the NBA G League, the NBA’s minor league system, over going to college.
“By opting out of the NCAA, these players got new experience that they would not have gotten in college, and were able to make money,” Feldman said.
In their play, both Kuminga and Green showed that they are flashy dunkers, good ball handlers and even better finishers. Kuminga is a 6’8 forward who averaged about 16 points per game in the G-League, and Green is a 6’6 shooting guard who averaged about 18 points per game in the G-League. Regardless of how good they turn out to be in the NBA, the selection of these two players will be historic as they will be the first to enter the draft coming from the G-League.
    Basketball fans are very excited about the 2021 NBA draft class, and for a good reason. The electrifying recruits, some trailblazing, but all uber-talented, will surely provide a breath of fresh air and rejuvenate fans from last year’s letdown.