Former Wildcats Forward Carter Bryant Looking Like Consensus Lottery Pick

Two former Arizona Wildcats basketball players will have diametrically opposed experiences in the NBA Draft which starts Wednesday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The two-round selection meeting will finish Thursday evening.

There will be 59 players drafted over the two nights. Chances are very good that forward Carter Bryant will be Arizona's first lottery selection since Bennedict Mathurin in 2022.

Bryant's teammate Caleb Love will more than likely not be drafted, but should get a summer camp invitation after the draft is completed, according to Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd.

“Caleb is going to be in the NBA next year, 100 percent,” Lloyd said last week, according to Arizona basketball writer Brian J. Peterson.

Lloyd is very comfortable with Love going somewhere as an undrafted free agent and performing well in camp and in a summer league.

“When eventually these decisions get worked up to coaches and the top front office guys, they might think a little differently than the scouts,” Lloyd said. “I think the right person is going to kind of get outside of maybe some of the things that you’re reading, and they’re going to make a well-informed basketball decision from a basketball expert, and they’re going to be like, Caleb Love is really talented.”

Bryant, meanwhile, did not shoot the lights out last season as a freshman. He averaged 6.5 points and 4.1 rebounds off the bench. However, he is very athletic and has impressed scouts with his long wingspan. He projects as either a small forward or power forward at the next level. He is 6-foot-5 which is a little small for a power forward, so more than likely he will see work at the small forward position.

According to many mock drafts and published reports, the Portland Trail Blazers have been pegged to draft Bryant with the 11th selection of the first round. Portland has a history of selecting Wildcats in the draft. The Trail Blazers selected Rondae Hollis-Jefferson with the 23rd selection in 2015. Two years prior to that, Portalnd drafted Grant Jarrett in the second round.

Hollis-Jefferson never played for the Trail Blazers as he was traded on draft night to the Brooklyn Nets.

Further, former WIldcats star and top-pick Deandre Ayton currently plays for the Trail Blazers. He is entering the final year of a $132.9 million contract he signed in 2022.

Some mock drafts have Bryant going to either the Phoenix Suns at No, 10 or to the Chicago Bulls at No. 12. It appears as though there is a general consensus among the mock drafts Bryant will go between No. 10 and No. 12.

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