NBA draft predictions: Three player props to bet Thursday night

Draft night is here and we have 2023 NBA draft odds and picks, including our three best prop bet picks for Thursday’s event.

Betting on the NBA Draft is a fun, entertaining endeavor. Sportsbooks — in states where betting on drafts is regulated (Pennsylvania is not one of them) — drop all sorts of prop bet markets.

Here are the three best prop bet picks across three markets, all available at FanDuel Sportsbook:

Cason Wallace is a monster on defense. He was arguably the best on-ball defender among power-five teams last season. He averaged two steals per game while working relentlessly off the ball, jumping passing lanes and chasing down easy transition buckets.

He’s 6-foot-4 with a 6-foot-9 wingspan, so he could develop into a devastating point-of-attack defender at the next level.

Wallace is also a knockdown spot-up shooter that profiles well in the modern NBA.

» READ MORE: NBA Draft 2023: How to bet on the second overall pick after Victor Wembanyama

But Wallace is a shaky ball-handler and playmaker, and he lacks burst and shot creation off the dribble. He needs to play off the ball alongside an elite playmaking point guard.

I highly doubt teams will want to take a complimentary player with a lottery pick.

The mock draft market agrees with me. The Action Network’s Vegas Refund has tracked 17 mock drafts from around the media world, and 65% of them have Wallace going beyond the 15th pick.

The Action Network’s Brandon Anderson wrote early Thursday that “current intel appears to have him falling out of the lottery.”

The Action Network’s Matt Moore has reported all week that Dereck Lively’s draft stock is rising quickly.

The Mavericks sit with pick No. 10 and are very interested in the big man from Duke, but plenty of other teams have called Dallas inquiring about the pick to trade up and take Lively.

Lively could develop into a solid NBA big man.

He’s a mobile defender for his side and is a great rim protector, using his 7-foot-8 wingspan to his advantage. He finished third among all college players last year in block rate (12.7%) — he also altered a lot of shots.

He’s very bouncy. Lively is an elite lob finisher who loves running the floor in transition — theoretically, he’d be a great roll-man in ball screens.

The next step will be developing a decent shot so he can start scoring from the high post in the pick-and-pop. That’s a long way away, however.

In short, Lively is the type of prospect NBA teams trade up for.

The Athletic’s big board has Lively as the 10th-best prospect in this draft.

Among the 17 mock drafts tracked by The Action Network’s Vegas Refund, eight have Lively going among the top-10 picks. That gives us a 47% implied probability.

The +150 odds provided by FanDuel imply a 40% probability, so there’s value in this number.

» READ MORE: The Eagles are a popular pick among bettors to win the Super Bowl in 2024

Jaime Jaquez is a guy I’ve always been extremely high on. I thought he was one of the best players in college basketball over the past few years.

He’s a dangerous three-level shot-maker with some of the smoothest footwork I’ve ever seen at the college level. He’s got good size and length, and he leverages that alongside his wide array of moves to bully any defender.

Whatever Jaquez lacks in athleticism, he makes up for in basketball IQ. He’s not the best on-ball defender, but he’s an elite off-ball defender on rotations and closeouts. He also never stops hustling.

The Action Network’s Matt Moore reported that Jaquez performed excellently in every workout he’s been in, and the rumors are circling he’ll end up in the mid-to-late teens. The Athletic’s mock has him heading to Miami (the Heat could use some size on the wing), but I could see him ending up with the Lakers, Warriors, or others.

» READ MORE: Full sports betting coverage from The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Inquirer is not an online gambling operator, or a gambling site. We provide this information about sports betting for entertainment purposes only.