NBA Draft updates: UK’s Cason Wallace taken in lottery; Chris Livingston is final pick

(Below is a running recap of the 2023 NBA Draft with breaking news, observations and commentary.)

1:15 a.m.: And that will put a bow on things for the 2023 NBA Draft.

Kentucky and head coach John Calipari add to their historic totals with Cason Wallace being selected No. 10 overall and Chris Livingston being selected with the 58th and final pick of the draft.

Wallace will begin his NBA career in Oklahoma City after a trade, and Livingston will start with the team that drafted him, the Milwaukee Bucks.

Oscar Tshiebwe and Jacob Toppin both go undrafted, as was widely expected, and both players will find NBA homes via undrafted free agent, two-way or Exhibit-10 deals. These will shake out over the next few days.

This also means it is more that past time to sign off from the Herald-Leader’s live updates page for this year’s draft.

It’s always one of the most fun and hectic nights of the year, where anything and everything feels possible, and I appreciate you taking the time to hang with me during it.

I’ve got a persimmon and chestnut candle lit and plan to decompress from this five-hour assault on the basketball senses with an episode of Our Planet II on Netflix and a few text messages to my beloved Pepcakes and Pulesus group chat.

And before I leave, a special shoutout to my friends Ben Ladner and Jon Sauber and their Read & React NBA podcast, which does a great job of covering the league year-round and especially previewing the NBA Draft. It was instrumental to my prep work this year as it always is.

That’s all from me, see everyone back here next year with the Dallas Mavericks picking 30th!

*I am being told the New York Knicks get the Mavs’ pick if it’s in the 11-30 range due to the Kristaps Porzingis trade*

How about that.

12:49 a.m.: It took forever, quite literally until the end of the 2023 NBA Draft, but Kentucky has its second draft selection.

Chris Livingston is selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the final pick of the 2023 draft, No. 58 overall.

Apparently this was the draft guarantee that Livingston and his representation received earlier this month, which led to him being shut down from other pre-draft workouts and compelled Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul to make calls tonight, telling teams to avoid taking Livingston.

Now, Livingston’s saga is over and he has an NBA home, and UK and John Calipari have yet another NBA Draft pick.

Livingston was on hand at the Barclays Center for the draft, and one of the final images broadcast by ESPN from the draft was on Livingston shaking the hand of Mark Tatum with a Milwaukee Bucks hat on his head.

12:41 a.m.: Two picks left for Livingston to be taken now.

Draft-and-stash guys based in Europe are now being selected.

12:35 a.m.: Well, now there’s only five spots left where Chris Livingston could be drafted.

A lot of potential landing spots, namely Portland at No. 43 and Minnesota at No. 53, have come and gone without a Livingston selection.

The potential strongly exists for an all-time self-own from the parties involved if Livingston goes undrafted.

12:22 a.m.: Emoni Bates’ time as a college basketball recruit, and player, didn’t go according to plan.

A former Michigan State commit who first ended up at Memphis, then at his hometown school of Eastern Michigan, Bates was at one time the top-ranked recruit in the class of 2021.

Despite finding himself in legal trouble during his only season at Eastern Michigan, Bates was projected as a second-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, and that’s exactly what he ended up as.

Bates was selected with the 49th overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

One pick after Bates, Keyontae Johnson — the former Florida player who collapsed on the court while with the Gators before returning last season with Kansas State — was selected 50th overall by Oklahoma City.

12:10 a.m.: A ninth SEC player has been selected in the 2023 NBA Draft, and it’s one of the most curious prospects in the whole draft pool.

South Carolina’s G.G. Jackson — who was the top recruit in the 2023 class before moving up a year to the 2022 class — is selected with the 45th overall pick by the Memphis Grizzlies.

South Carolina, who don’t you forget won at Kentucky last season, was otherwise a hot mess all season long, and Jackson was an inconsistent, if talented, presence on that Gamecocks team.

Credit to Jackson for staying home for school and attempting to lift USC men’s basketball up a level, although to no avail under first-year head coach Lamont Paris.

12:05 a.m.: We’ve now firmly crossed over into early Friday morning, and 15 selections still remain in the 2023 NBA Draft.

A thought to all the arena workers at Barclays Center simply waiting for this to all end so they can go home.

11:59 p.m.: It really does seem like Chris Livingston and his representation, Klutch Sports, know where Livingston will start his NBA journey.

Earlier this month, Livingston canceled all seven of his remaining pre-draft workouts. This led to the assumption Livingston had received a draft promise from a team.

Now, that only looks stronger.

NBA insider Shams Charania reported late Thursday night that Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul has called teams in the second round and asked them to not take Livingston.

Again, this fuels the idea that Livingston has an assured landing spot in the second round, but will teams listen?

The curious case of Chris Livingston continues.

And a potential landing spot for Livingston has now come and gone as the Portland Trail Blazers take French guard Rayan Rupert with the No. 43 overall pick. Rupert was the last player with a green room invite in the Barclays Center to be selected.

11:47 p.m.: Make it eight SEC players who have now been selected in this 2023 NBA Draft.

Arkansas’ third draft pick of the evening is Jordan Walsh, who was taken with the 38th overall pick by the Boston Celtics.

Walsh suffered the Nikola Jokic treatment during his draft selection: Jokic, a two-time MVP and current NBA champion (and perhaps best player in the world?), was selected in the second round by the Denver Nuggets in 2014 during a Taco Bell commercial. Walsh was selected tonight while a Deal Dash commercial played on ESPN.

The three draft picks tonight from Arkansas are the most for the school since four Razorbacks were taken in 1992.

11:36 p.m.: A seventh SEC player is off the board as Tennessee’s Julian Phillips goes with the No. 35 pick, which will eventually find its way to the Chicago Bulls.

A solid two-way wing, Phillips was a one-and-done forward with the Volunteers last season, although he was completely negated and found himself in foul trouble during his lone game against UK at Rupp Arena.

11:33 p.m.: Cason Wallace’s memorable draft night also featured a noticeable fashion statement.

Wallace’s black suit jacket was emblazoned with the phrase “HPT” in a pattern.

But what does “HPT” mean?

Wallace explained in a post-draft interview on ESPN that it’s a nod to his home neighborhood in North Dallas, known as Hamilton Park, Texas.

A very cool and personal gesture from Wallace, whose first NBA stop (Oklahoma City) is just a three-hour drive from Hamilton Park.

11:22 p.m.: We’re deep into the 2023 NBA Draft now.

NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum is announcing the picks.

The international presence in the draft is about to increase, although that’s less true in 2023 than in prior years.

The picks are suddenly being made quicker. I have re-heated a bowl of homemade mashed potatoes.

We soldier on into that good night.

11:15 p.m.: With the Los Angeles Clippers’ selection of Missouri’s Kobe Brown with the No. 30 overall pick, the first round of the NBA Draft has come to an end.

Six SEC players are drafted, with UK’s Cason Wallace going in the lottery at No. 10 to Dallas. The Mavericks are trading Wallace to the Oklahoma City Thunder, where Wallace will team up with another Ex-Cat, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

A total of 28 picks remain in the draft, with the UK-related intrigue now firmly focused on Chris Livingston and Oscar Tshiebwe.

11:07 p.m.: Snippets from media sessions at the Barclays Center are beginning to leak out, including from Cason Wallace’s press conference after his selection by the Dallas Mavericks and trade to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Among the clips is this gem, when a reporter asked Wallace about his comfort level with living in the small market of Oklahoma City.

11:00 pm.: Nick Smith Jr. — who missed 19 games last season at Arkansas with “right knee management” — goes to the Charlotte Hornets at No. 27 overall.

He becomes the fifth different SEC player to be selected in the draft, and the second Arkansas player to be taken.

While Smith didn’t do much of consequence at the college level, his high school tape spoke for itself: 247Sports had Smith as the top-ranked player in the 2022 recruiting class.

10:55 p.m.: The Dallas Mavericks — my BELOVED Dallas Mavericks — are continuing to crush tonight’s draft.

Using a traded player exception that was created during their earlier Thursday night trade that involved Cason Wallace, the Mavs have gotten Richaun Holmes and Olivier-Maxence Prosper from the Sacramento Kings.

Prosper was selected by Sacramento with the No. 24 overall pick.

Holmes is far from the player he was two or three years ago when every Mavericks fan Reddit page that I populated fawned over him, but the real get in this deal is Prosper.

A two-year player at Marquette who began his college career at Clemson and is originally from Montreal in Canada, the 6-8 forward averaged more than 12 points last season for the Golden Eagles and brings more of that wing size that Dallas desperately needs.

An improving shooter with a more than 7-foot wingspan who is viewed as having high defensive upside, Prosper is the kind of wing player that Dallas can’t have enough of given how porous its backcourt is defensively.

Propser is also a success story for the NBA Academy Latin America: He graduated from that setup, which is based in Mexico City.

10:37 p.m.: Another former SEC men’s basketball standout is now a first-round NBA Draft selection.

Alabama has its second selection of the draft with Noah Clowney going to Brooklyn with the No. 21 pick.

A one-and-done 6-10 forward, Clowney averaged nearly 10 points and 8 rebounds per game in his lone season with the Crimson Tide.

In total, four SEC players have now been selected: Brandon Miller (Alabama), Anthony Black (Arkansas), Cason Wallace (Kentucky) and Clowney.

Alabama is the only SEC school, so far, with multiple draft picks.

10:21 p.m.: As the tail end of the first round approaches, we’re getting some mid-major stars off the draft board.

A name Kentucky fans may remember is Brandin Podziemski, a former UK recruit whose path to college basketball was disrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

After a college career that initially sputtered at Illinois, Podziemski blossomed into a star at Santa Clara in the West Coast Conference last season.

He was selected No. 19 overall by the Golden State Warriors.

This is also the stage of the draft where highly-touted prospects who slide down the board for whatever reason become steals for teams who maybe didn’t expect to land them.

Case in point? Villanova’s Cam Whitmore, nearly a consensus top-10 prospect who has been selected 20th overall by Houston.

9:55 p.m.: Kentucky head coach John Calipari has tweeted his congratulations to Cason Wallace on his lottery selection in tonight’s NBA Draft.

Calipari was with Wallace and his family in Brooklyn for the draft.

“I’ve said it before, the draft is like graduation day for me and the minute my guy gets drafted, I’m out of the building! So happy for Cason and his family!!” part of Calipari’s message read.

9:50 p.m.: The grades are in for Cason Wallace’s selection in the 2023 NBA Draft, and it’s mostly universal praise.

Wallace was taken with the No. 10 overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks, and then swiftly traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

NBA Draft analysts seem to like the move for the Thunder, as OKC’s young, dynamic team adds a strong defensive presence on the perimeter that won’t be asked to carry too much of the offensive workload, while also pairing together two Ex-Cats.

“Wallace is a no-nonsense pick, one of the very best perimeter defenders in the draft... He’s an efficient, if unexciting, offensive prospect,” wrote The Ringer’s Danny Chau.

9:40 p.m.: Picks 1-14 have now been completed in the 2023 NBA Draft.

UConn’s Jordan Hawkins is the final lottery selection, with the sharpshooter and recent national champion going to the New Orleans Pelicans.

This means players like Villanova’s Cam Whitmore, Indiana’s Jalen Hood-Schifino and Michigan’s Kobe Bufkin are among the potential lottery selections that missed out on the lucrative pick range.

9:23 p.m.: Apologies to my neighbors in my Northside apartment in Lexington as I let out a hearty scream as the Oklahoma City Thunder take Dereck Lively II, a center out of Duke, with the No. 12 overall pick. Lively will be traded to the Mavericks as part of the Cason Wallace deal.

An elite rim protector and rim runner who averaged more than two blocks per game for the Blue Devils, Lively figures to pair very nicely with the passing ability of Luka Doncic and potentially Kyrie Irving (?).

The Mavs getting Lively addresses a massive offseason need in finding a defensive presence on the inside, as well as a player who can reliably finish around the rim.

Between picking up Lively and also shedding the albatross also known as the Davis Bertans contract, this has been a successful draft operation for Mark Cuban and company.

9:09 p.m.: The Cason Wallace selection by Oklahoma City makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons, specifically because Wallace is an elite point-of-attack defender who is probably limited as a secondary or tertiary creator offensively.

The offensive workload for Wallace won’t be as great in OKC as in other places, because of the presence of an elite passer in Josh Giddey, the aforementioned SGA and others.

Wallace goes as a lottery selection, despite sliding backwards in some of the more recent mock drafts.

Per ESPN, John Calipari now has had a first-round NBA Draft selection in 16 straight years.

For UK, this streak is now at 14 straight years.

This is the longest active streak since 1989, when the second round was created.

All-time, UK now has 58 first-round picks, 35 of which were drafted under Calipari.

9:06 p.m.: Decided to do things the old fashioned “don’t look at the phone and watch the pick live” for the Mavs selection.

Never made it to that point.

The Dallas Mavericks select Cason Wallace with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, but Wallace is heading to the Oklahoma City Thunder, along with the bad, no-good, bloated contract of Davis Bertans.

OKC sends the No. 12 pick to Dallas.

Wallace joins up in OKC with another former UK guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and the Thunder continue to be a must-watch NBA League Pass team.

8:55 p.m.: As we near the Dallas Mavericks’ selection at No. 10, I have texted several group chats about how the Mavericks “can’t mess this up.”

I can’t wait to be proven wrong.

8:51 p.m.: We’ve got our first draft night trade.

Balil Coulibaly, a teammate of Victor Wembanyama’s in France, is selected with the No. 7 overall pick by the Indiana Pacers.

But he won’t be staying there.

Coulibaly will be traded to the Washington Wizards, as new Washington President Michael Winger continues to completely remake the Wizards’ roster.

This means that Indiana will get Washington’s No. 8 pick.

8:45 p.m.: Another former SEC basketball player has gone in the top six of the 2023 NBA Draft.

6-7 Arkansas guard Anthony Black is heading to the Orlando Magic with the No. 6 pick.

A one-and-done player with the Razorbacks, Black had 19 points, 5 assists and 5 steals in Arkansas’ win in Lexington last season, which offered a look at his strong passing ability and defensive chops.

When UK repaid the favor with a road win in Fayetteville to close the regular season, Black had 14 points and 8 rebounds, but went 3-for-10 from the field, which falls in line with his NBA evaluation as a below-average shooter.

8:38 p.m.: Not only are the Thompson twins now the first pair of twins to ever both be selected in the lottery in the same NBA Draft, but they’ve gone back-to-back.

Detroit takes Ausar Thompson at No. 5.

Re-read everything written about the importance of this pick hitting for the future of the Overtime Elite league.

Ausar and Amen aren’t the same player, though.

A strong athlete, Ausar is also not a great shooter, but has the ability to play off the ball and can be a lob finisher at the rim.

8:32 p.m.: The hodgepodge of talent in Houston, now guided by former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka, has a new member.

Amen Thompson of the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite pro basketball league has been selected by the Houston Rockets with the fourth overall pick.

The Rockets have had the second, third and fourth picks in the last three drafts with Jalen Green in 2021, Jabari Smith. Jr. in 2022 and now Thompson.

While massive concerns exist with Thompson as a potential non-shooter at the NBA level, Thompson is an elite athlete, which at times can reign supreme in the Association.

A data point to revisit down the road will be what this selection means for the future of the upstart Overtime Elite league.

Amen, along with his twin brother Ausar, are both expected to be lottery picks tonight, and a lot of stock in the OTE enterprise (which I’ve spent extensive time at covering Rob Dillingham and other UK basketball recruits) will hinge on the NBA success, or lack thereof, of the Thompson twins.

Not only will this affect how NBA team scout Overtime Elite, but it will also impact the decisions of high schoolers to join the league.

8:25 p.m.: Now the draft really begins.

With Wembanyama off the board, the Charlotte Hornets take former Alabama star Brandon Miller with the second overall pick.

It was between Miller and the G League Ignite’s Scoot Henderson for Charlotte, but Miller probably represents a better fit with LaMelo Ball already in place for the Hornets.

Miller is likely the best wing-type prospect in the draft. While he wasn’t a good mid-range shooter at Alabama, he has secondary creator potential as a passer, and adding strength should help him on the defensive end.

Miller only faced UK once during his lone college season, scoring 19 points and grabbing seven rebounds in a blowout ‘Bama win in Tuscaloosa. He was largely held in check that game, by his lofty college standards, but that January game represented one of the nadirs of Kentucky’s 2022-23 season.

It should also be noted that the ABC broadcast of the NBA Draft was pretty upfront when discussing the off-court issues Miller experienced while at Alabama.

With Miller off the board, Scoot Henderson goes to the Portland Trail Blazers with the No. 3 pick.

He’s now paired with an aging Damian Lillard in Portland.

Henderson really shined last year in some showcase matchups against Wembanyama’s French league team, and Henderson has multiple years as part of the G-League Ignite to his name.

That being said, it will be very curious to see what Portland does with Henderson, a lead ball handler who is considered a true point guard, and Lillard, another ball dominant player and scorer.

8:13 p.m.: To the surprise of literally nobody on Planet Earth, the San Antonio Spurs select 7-5 Victor Wembanyama with the top pick in this year’s draft.

Wembanyama, who has the ceiling to become a generational NBA talent, is the first man from France to be drafted with the top pick in the NBA Draft.

With the shooting ability and dribble package of a much smaller player, as well as the massive wingspan (eight feet) and length to be a defensive nightmare, Wembanyama was the consensus choice at this spot.

Injury concerns with Wembanyama are only natural given his massive size and the way players like Yao Ming had their careers cut short due to medical issues. That being said, Wembanyama has followed a meticulous stretching routine to help ease these concerns, and is coming off a healthy, full season with his former team, Metropolitans 92, in the French league.

San Antonio also represents an ideal place for Wembanyama to begin his NBA career. The Spurs will likely take it nice and slow with Wembanyama next season, given how far away the team is from serious contention in the Western Conference.

Legendary 74-year-old head coach Gregg Popovich has another uber-talented Frenchman to work with in Texas.

8:05 p.m.: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has officially opened the draft.

The San Antonio Spurs are now on the clock, and soon they will have the most coveted draft prospect since LeBron James on their roster.

8:02 p.m.: A sure sign that we’re getting close to draft time? The green room invitees have been introduced at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Here’s Cason Wallace with friends and family, and Kentucky head coach John Calipari.

7:45 p.m.: For those concerned about my dinner, Caroline crushed the Italian beef sandwich. Excellent flavor and tenderness with the beef. The perfect amount of peppers. I added some extra giardiniera and a small line of Yellowbird habanero sauce (which should be a staple of your life if it isn’t already).

A solid 8/10 from me, just could have used a bit more au jus to soften the bread a tad more. This is another reminder to watch The Bear streaming now on Hulu.

Elsewhere, we inch closer toward the start of the draft.

Outfit wise, Kansas’ Gradey Dick — a potential lottery selection — has stolen the show with a sparkly, ruby red number that is apparently a callback to Dorothy from the “Wizard of Oz.”

7:35 p.m.: ESPN’s final mock draft has been released ahead of tonight’s festivities.

Cason Wallace is mocked to go No. 15 overall to Atlanta, the first draft selection outside of the lottery.

Chris Livingston is mocked to go No. 52 overall to the Washington Wizards, with a pick that originally belonged to the Phoenix Suns.

Oscar Tshiebwe is mocked to go No. 54 overall to the Sacramento Kings. This is one of the few mock drafts that has Tshiebwe being selected.

7:18 p.m.: Before draft night proceedings get truly underway, a shoutout to fellow Herald-Leader sports reporter Caroline Makauskas, who has just delivered me draft night sustenance in the form of an Italian beef sandwich in honor of season two of “The Bear” dropping today on Hulu.

You can watch season two of “The Bear” streaming now on Hulu. A sandwich review will come shortly.

7:14 p.m.: Kentucky’s Cason Wallace is one of the select few NBA Draft prospects who received a green room invite to tonight’s draft, which means Wallace is in Brooklyn to attend the draft in person with his family.

Earlier Thursday, Kentucky head coach John Calipari tweeted that he would be spending the draft with Wallace and Wallace’s family.

Here’s what Wallace is wearing to the draft:

7 p.m.: Welcome to the Herald-Leader’s annual live updates page for the NBA Draft!

At the keyboard tonight is me, Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting reporter Cam Drummond, fresh off one of the most disappointing seasons in my lifetime for my beloved Dallas Mavericks.

Like last year, it projects to be a relatively quiet night for my Mavs: Dallas only has the No. 10 pick in the draft after shamefully tanking its final two games of the regular season to preserve that lottery selection.

But it’s been anything but quiet in the NBA landscape in the lead-up to tonight’s draft: Trades involving Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis and Chris Paul (twice!) have already shaken up the NBA world before free agency begins.

Now, draft night offers another chance for teams to take some big swings at changing their future.

From a Kentucky perspective, it’s likely that a pair of former Wildcats will hear their names called tonight.

Guard Cason Wallace is projected as a late lottery selection (picks 1-14) while wing Chris Livingston is pointing toward being a second-round pick.

The outlook is more bleak for UK legend Oscar Tshiebwe and Jacob Toppin: Neither forward is expected to be drafted.

Kentucky leads all colleges with 57 first-round selections since the draft first occurred in 1947, and that number will increase to 58 when Wallace is picked.

But that — and the selection of generational prospect Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 overall pick by San Antonio — are the only things promised to occur tonight.

I’ll have you covered from now until the end of the draft (which will stretch into early Friday morning) with all the breaking news and updates that your heart desires.

NBA-ready? Here’s how every John Calipari-coached draft pick has fared in the league.