NBA Draft rumors: Livingston gets a promise, Pistons focus on 2 options, Jazz like Coulibaly
We are officially less than two weeks away from the 2023 NBA Draft. Here is the latest slate of rumors.
With the 2023 NBA Draft almost upon us, the rumor mill is heating up. Individual workouts are giving us a better sense of who teams might value, and the player/agent/front office intel machine is working overtime to drop hints about which prospects are gaining steam and which prospects might already have their new home lined up.
The first trade of draft season was completed earlier today, which sets the stage for what could be the busiest draft night trade barrage in years due to the precarious position of so many aspirant contenders near the top of the board.
Let’s see what smoke is billowing from the rumor mill today.
NBA Draft rumors: Kentucky’s Chris Livingston gets promise
Chris Livingston struggled mightily in his freshman season at Kentucky. He averaged 22.4 minutes per game and scored 6.3 points on 51.3 percent true shooting. His jumper needs considerable work and he doesn’t provide consistent resistance on the defensive end.
That said, Livingston arrived in Lexington as a five-star recruit and the No. 16 prospect in his high school class. There could be a team willing to bet on his impressive athletic profile (6-foot-6, 220 pounds, 7-foot wingspan) and high school résumé while overlooking his middling production for a deep Kentucky team fraught with roster imbalance.
If we’re reading the lea leaves, that appears to be the case.
Sources: Kentucky’s Chris Livingston has cancelled all seven of his remaining workouts for the 2023 NBA Draft, fueling belief that he’s received a draft promise from a team.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 9, 2023
Livingston is a long-shot for the first round but it’s not hard to imagine him getting a favorable promise in the second round — perhaps from a team with multiple picks and the luxury to swing for upside.