The 2024 NBA Draft is inching ever closer, and this season’s class of Next Stars are preparing to spread their wings and fly out of the nest. Only Ariel Hukporti remains in contention for this season’s title of the eight players in this season’s class – and it’s been a historically strong and productive campaign for players to be involved in the Next Stars program.

Alexandre Sarr has stolen headlines all season and has risen to become a near-consensus top-three selection, while Bobi Klintman has established himself as a strong first round prospect who not only has the ambition – but the potential – to rise further into the lottery selections.

The Athletic’s latest mock draft, produced by respected NBA Draft analyst Sam Vecenie, has Sarr currently being selected with the second overall pick, while Klintman is slated to be taken off the board at pick 17.

Sarr and Klintman have been the leading on-court lights of this season’s exceptional class, and the pair have pulled together two of the most all-around productive seasons in the history of the Next Stars program.

Klintman’s ability as a multi-level scorer is almost unparalleled in the history of the Next Stars. Of those to have played in the program prior to entering the NBA Draft he ranks seventh in field goal percentage (44.3), fourth in three-point percentage (35.7) and second in free throw percentage (79.3), and is overall tied third in points per game (9.7) with Sarr, where they sit behind only Josh Giddey (10.9) and LaMelo Ball (17.0), who were both top 10 NBA Draft selections.

Klintman’s two-way potential can also be seen in his status as the only Next Stars player ever to average at least 0.8 steals and 0.5 blocks per game.

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Sarr flashed his potential as a new-age NBA center with his own ability to both finish at the rim and create his own shot from distance. He’s one of four Next Stars in history to shoot over 50 per cent from the field, and he made just below 30 per cent of his makes from beyond the three-point line.

The next most highly touted prospect likely to be drafted this year is Illawarra’s AJ Johnson (pick 40, per Vecenie’s mock) who, despite enduring fluctuating minutes over the course of the campaign, has established himself as a player with enormous potential and a rare level of natural and innate athleticism. Should he be successful in his bid to reach the NBA next season, he’ll likely be one of the youngest players in the competition.

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Ariel Hukporti (pick 54) bounced back from his season-ending Achilles injury in NBL23 in dramatic fashion and became one of the most efficient rim-running bigs in the NBL. He’s still fighting for the title with United and has shot a whopping 59.6 per cent from the field while averaging 1.5 blocks per game heading into Game 2 of the Championship Series. The imposing seven-footer also ranks as one of the league leaders in defensive efficiency, alongside Tasmania’s veteran centers, Will Magnay and Marcus Lee.

The only Next Star to ever shoot at a higher clip than Hukporti is Rocco Zikarsky, who is already firming as a first round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. After debuting in the NBL as a 17-year-old, Zikarsky is already showing the potential to be one of the deadliest shot-blockers in the history of Australian basketball.

New Zealand’s Mantas Rubstavicius overcame early injury issues to establish himself as one of the NBL’s premier sharpshooters, and was a crucial point of difference in New Zealand’s late-season run to the Play-In tournament. He is just one of two Next Stars in history to make over 40 per cent of their three-point attempts across the season and shot the highest ever at 43.3 per cent. The only other? Adelaide’s Trentyn Flowers, who impressed when given the opportunity early in the season but had the back end of his campaign impacted by injury. Flowers turned heads with his record-breaking performance in Round 3 when he fired his team to victory with 18 fourth-quarter points.

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Finally, Sydney’s Alex Toohey saw himself catapulted into 2024 draft calculations for the stellar role he was playing when the Kings were rolling early in the season – especially in the varied absences of import DJ Hogg and recent Milwaukee signing Jaylin Galloway.

The trust shown in Toohey by former Kings head coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah was palpable, and Toohey played 21.4 minutes per game over NBL24. Klintman sits just behind the Centre of Excellence graduate at 21.3 minutes per game in third all-time, while LaMelo Ball leads the pack as the only Next Star to have played over 30 minutes per game across a season, however he only played 12 games across his Next Star season.

The eight Next Stars to feature in NBL24 is a record for the program since its inception in 2018, and that historically productive impact by this wider class has been shown not only through individual metrics and game-changing performances, but through their importance on winning sides.

Six Next Stars averaged double-digit minutes per game across the seasons, and five of the six teams who qualified for Finals had a Next Star on their roster.

Of those five Finals teams whose roster contained a Next Star, four of them played that Next Star for 17 minutes per game or more.

The official declarations for this season’s draft are still yet to roll in thick and fast, but who knows just how high this group can fly as they continue to forge their paths to the NBA.