Biggest takeaways from the 2023 NBA Draft

For once in what feels like a lifetime, this year's NBA Draft was not full of tremendous surprises, with many players getting picked where they were projected to.

It wasn't to say there was no drama, though; players at the top of the draft were picked in a different order, and some franchises sorted their wage bill crisis.

The 2023 draft class has been compared to Shaquille O'Neal's 1992 or LeBron James' 2003 draft classes, having a generational talent to go at number one (Victor Wembanyama).

Here are the biggest takeaways from this year's NBA Draft.

The first significant pick of the draft came at number two, with the Charlotte Hornets drafting Brandon Miller over Scoot Henderson.

On paper, this looks like the right call by The Hornets, who already have an established point guard in LaMelo Ball on their roster. Miller can play at guard or small forward, offering an elite shooting presence to play off Ball.

No one expected Dallas to make huge strides in this year's draft, but with the dumping of Davis Bertans contract, moving up places in the draft, and selecting Dereck Lively 2nd, they may have won the draft.

Lively offers rim protection and an elite option for the alley-oop, perfect for Luka Doncic and potentially Kyrie Irving. Signing Lively to a rookie deal and losing Bertans makes the Dallas cap sheet look fantastic.

Cam Whitmore was projected to go in the top ten of many people's mock drafts, but he was selected 20^th by the Houston Rockets, meaning they got two young stars to play in starting roles from one draft (Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore).

Whitmore started as high as fourth on the projected ladder, but with questions over the durability of his knee and an underwhelming draft process, no team took a chance till the 20^th pick.

Amen, and Auser Thompson were the first brothers to be drafted back-to-back in NBA Draft history, with Amen selected fourth by Houston and Auser fifth by the Detroit Pistons.

Amen was born one minute before his brother and a similar sequence happened at the draft, with Amen being drafted five minutes before Auser.

Perhaps the player who fluctuated the most in the draft was four-year college veteran Jaime Jaquez, who was selected 18^th overall by the Miami Heat after expectations of him going in the second round.

Jaquez was a projected second-round pick after many NBA scouts believed he lacked the athleticism to play in the league. However, after impressing at the draft combine and team workouts, he was selected as the 18^th overall pick.

The biggest takeaway and most obvious one is that generational talent Victor Wembanyama is now officially an NBA player, selected first by the San Antonio Spurs.

According to nba.com, Wembanyama said: "The road for me is going to be very long to reach the top, but I'm ready for it."