The NBA draft is near. Where will Reed Sheppard and other UK basketball players be going?

Two weeks out from the 2024 NBA draft, it’s shaping up as another eventful day for Kentucky basketball.

Well, two days, actually.

League officials decided to expand the annual draft by an additional day this year — so no more waiting into the wee hours for the final selections, hopefully — with the first round set for June 26 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the second round on July 27 from ESPN Studios in New York, where the names of former UK players Reed Sheppard, Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards and Antonio Reeves are all expected to be called over the course of the event.

Coverage of the first round will start at 8 p.m. on ABC and ESPN, with the second round beginning at 4 p.m. the following day on ESPN. There will be a total of 58 picks in this year’s draft.

Here’s the latest on where the major projections have Sheppard, Dillingham, Edwards and Reeves ending up.

Reed Sheppard

The unexpected star turn from Kentucky native Reed Sheppard over the course of the 2023-24 season has positioned him to be, perhaps, the first college basketball player off the board in this year’s draft. Wherever he ends up, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that he will fall further than No. 6 overall.

Sheppard is not expected to be the No. 1 overall pick — held by the Atlanta Hawks, the team his father, Jeff Sheppard, played for during his brief NBA career — but it wouldn’t be a stretch to see him selected with any of the next five picks, currently held by the Washington Wizards (No. 2), Houston Rockets (No. 3), San Antonio Spurs (No. 4), Detroit Pistons (No. 5) and Charlotte Hornets (No. 6).

The latest mock drafts from ESPN and The Athletic both have Sheppard going to the Rockets at No. 3 overall, but there’s a catch. Houston’s roster is already stacked with young talent, including recent top-five picks Jalen Green, Jabari Smith and Amen Thompson plus top-20 picks Alperen Sengun, Tari Eason and Cam Whitmore — all of them 23 or younger.

That could make the Rockets likely to move their No. 3 pick to another team, shaking up the top of the draft. Both ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Sam Vecenie of The Athletic noted in their mock drafts that other teams around the NBA expect Houston to explore trade opportunities with this pick.

If the Rockets keep it, however, both longtime draft analysts have Sheppard as the selection to give Houston more outside shooting. In a post this week, ESPN analyst Jeremy Woo named Sheppard the best spot-up shooter in the 2024 draft class following a freshman season in which he hit 52.1% from 3-point range and 51.4% on catch-and-shoot attempts.

“His release is compact and consistent, with minimal dip and wasted motion, and his lower-body balance and shot-prep habits are excellent, giving him a high-level skill that should translate to NBA range,” Woo said.

If Sheppard does go in the top five, he would be the first former UK player from Kentucky to be drafted that high in the history of the NBA draft. The late Melvin Turpin — a Bryan Station grad — currently holds that honor as the No. 6 pick in the 1984 draft.

Rob Dillingham

It’s possible — though seemingly not likely — that some NBA team infatuated with Rob Dillingham’s dynamic offensive game might take a chance on him before Sheppard goes off the board. Either way, Dillingham shouldn’t have to wait long to hear his name on draft night.

The shifty, electric freshman — like Sheppard, primarily a bench player in John Calipari’s final season as UK’s head coach — is projected as a lottery pick, with ESPN’s mock draft sending him to the Charlotte Hornets at No. 6 overall, and The Athletic slotting him at No. 9 to the Memphis Grizzlies.

ESPN’s Jonathan Givony named Dillingham the best ball handler in the 2024 draft class earlier this week, noting his “jittery handle, burst and explosive change of gear” that makes it difficult for defenders to stay in front of him.

Givony ranks Dillingham as the No. 7 overall prospect in his personal draft rankings and sees Charlotte, which is expected to pick a perimeter player, as an “attractive fit” for the ex-Cat, who could join up with LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller there. Dillingham, it’s worth noting, is also from North Carolina, making this projection a homecoming for him.

Dillingham is one of the more polarizing players in the lottery range of this draft. CBS Sports has him at No. 2 (to the Wizards) in its latest mock draft, while Fox Sports sends him to the Spurs at No. 4, and USA Today has him dropping all the way to the Chicago Bulls at No. 11 overall.

Justin Edwards

Once projected as the possible No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NBA draft, Justin Edwards might not even hear his name called on the first day of the event following a relatively disappointing freshman season at Kentucky.

ESPN still has Edwards in the first round — going to the Utah Jazz at No. 29 overall, the next-to-last pick on opening night — while The Athletic has him falling to the Sacramento Kings at No. 45.

“The Jazz have multiple picks at their disposal and can afford to take a swing on a player many considered a top-10 candidate entering the season,” Givony said of the rationale to keep him in the first round. Utah has the Nos. 10, 29 and 32 picks.

Neither CBS Sports, Fox Sports nor USA Today has Edwards among the top 30 picks.

Antonio Reeves

Following a spring in which Antonio Reeves was often absent from NBA mock drafts, the leading scorer from last season’s Kentucky team now finds himself on both lists from The Athletic (No. 44 overall to the Rockets) and ESPN (the 58th and final pick of the draft, which belongs to the Dallas Mavericks).

Reeves, who averaged 20.2 points per game this past season — the most by a player in 15 years of the John Calipari era — seemingly has the outside shooting ability and overall scoring package to stick in the NBA, and the Herald-Leader has been told in recent days that he’s widely expected to be selected at some point in this year’s draft, despite the fluctuating outside projections over the past few months.

Other NBA draft notes

A few other NBA draft notes with two weeks to go until the big night:

▪ Tre Mitchell is the other draft-eligible player from last season’s UK basketball team, and while he’s not expected to be picked, ESPN does rank him as the No. 82 overall prospect in this year’s pool. If Mitchell is not selected, he will be eligible to sign with an NBA team as an undrafted free agent, like Oscar Tshiebwe (Indiana Pacers) and Jacob Toppin (New York Knicks) did last year. Both Toppin (nine games) and Tshiebwe (eight) played in the NBA during the 2023-24 season.

▪ ESPN reported Tuesday night that Reed Sheppard is among the first 12 players to be invited to sit in the green room on NBA draft night, joining the select group that will be in attendance at the event itself. Rob Dillingham is also expected to be there, though an ankle injury has kept him from fulfilling all of his predraft requirements. Dillingham is planning to complete those tasks by the end of the week.

▪ John Calipari, who left Kentucky to become the head coach at Arkansas in April, should hit a milestone with his final Wildcats draft class. He had 47 total picks (counting Enes Freedom and Shaedon Sharpe) in his first 14 seasons as head coach and needs just three more later this month to make it to 50 for his UK tenure.

▪ ESPN has Zaccharie Risacher going to the Atlanta Hawks with the No. 1 pick, while The Athletic projects Alex Sarr to be selected first overall. Both players are 19-year-olds from France (and Sarr is the younger brother of former UK player Olivier Sarr). The latest projections from Fox Sports and USA Today have Risacher at No. 1, while CBS projects Sarr in the top spot.

▪ Other than Sheppard and Dillingham, the top SEC player in this year’s draft class is Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, who’s projected to go No. 9 to the Grizzlies on the ESPN board and No. 6 to the Hornets on The Athletic’s list. Somewhat surprisingly, other than Edwards and Reeves, no additional SEC players are included in either of those mock drafts.

▪ Of course, there will be plenty of national headlines on Bronny James — son of Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James — during the two-day draft. ESPN currently projects Bronny to the Golden State Warriors at No. 52 overall, while The Athletic sends him to the Lakers at No. 55.

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After a year of ‘adversity’ with UK basketball, Justin Edwards feels more prepared for NBA

Rob Dillingham talks about his shortcomings. And why he thinks he’ll be better in the NBA.

Reed Sheppard reflects on his decision to leave Kentucky. ‘It’s not what I was expecting.’

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