NBA Draft expert Sam Vecenie will be keeping his eye on Cairns in NBL24, and has labelled the combination of Next Star Bobi Klintman and local talent Taran Armstrong as an “interesting” prospect.

Former Wake Forest forward Klintman is currently projected as a first-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, with NBADraft.net considering him a lottery-level selection.

Armstrong has returned to Australia following one season with California Baptist University and firms as one of the nation’s most exciting emerging talents.

“There are a lot of ways Cairns could work itself out this year, but Bobi playing the three and the four, I think, is really, really interesting,” Vecenie said on The Game Theory Podcast.

“Bobi being able to be that hybrid three/four floor spacer who grabs and goes on the break and showcases some of those skills we see at the youth national level for Sweden, I have him as a first-rounder right now, I think it’s really interesting.

“You bring up the idea of him being a guard that is 6’10”, the reason he has that is because that’s how he was brought

“Look at the Swedish national team, the youth level teams he plays on, he plays with a point guard but he’s grabbing and going on the break, he’s leading the offence at times. He’s making passing reads, trying to collapse defenders and trying to kick out a lot of the time.

“The other player that is with Cairns that I’m excited to watch is Taran Armstrong. He is a really good passer and playmaker … honestly, playing him next to Tahj McCall and Patrick Miller could be an interesting feel because he’s such a good pick and roll playmaker, slicer on offence being able to create and process the game at a really high level at 6’5”.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">There’s a new Taipan in town ?? <a href="https://t.co/A7WcRiI6ac">pic.twitter.com/A7WcRiI6ac</a></p>&mdash; Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans/status/1689535978892054528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 10, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

While Klintman is firming as a high-level selection in the 2024 NBA Draft – and a high-level player during NBL24 – Vecenie has earmarked the area the 20-year-old needs to dial in on to increase his draft stock.

“He’s a very fluid athlete but he’s not all that explosive as an athlete,” Vecenie continued. “Typically, those guys that are disruptive tend to have that little bit of pop, and that’s where he needs to improve. There are ways for him to do that, he could get better training over here than maybe he was doing at Wake [Forest], there are a number of different factors I’m not going to pretend to know.

“He needs to get into the best shape of his life and just add that little bit of real pop as an athlete. If he does that he’ll definitely go in the first round.”

Head to NBLNextStars.com.au for everything you need to know about the upcoming class of Next Stars.