UK's Justin Edwards is the No. 1 pick in a new 2024 NBA Mock Draft

The preseason hype surrounding Kentucky’s Justin Edwards is big time as Edwards enters his freshman season in Lexington as the No. 2 overall prospect from the 2023 high school recruiting class. Edwards is widely regarded as a lottery projection in next summer’s NBA Draft, but his stock is nowhere higher than at USA Today’s “For The Win” sports blog, where a new mock draft predicts the young Kentucky Wildcat will go first overall to the Washington Wizards.

“We are going in a different direction and crowning Kentucky’s Justin Edwards with the pole position,” writes Bryan Kalbrosky, a man against the consensus. “He was one of the best players at the 2022 Nike EYBL Orlando circuit, averaging 19.3 points per game while shooting 55.3 percent from beyond the arc.”

The author quotes one NBA scout who called Edwards the safest pick of the draft at this way-too-early-stage in the process.

“I know what I’m getting: Good positional size, can make open 3-pointers, aggressive downhill attacker and athletic above the rim.”

Other Kentucky Wildcats in the “For The Win” mock draft

After Edwards, DJ Wagner is the next Kentucky prospect out of the draft’s green room at sixth overall to Orlando. He and Edwards are John Calipari’s only two lottery picks in this exercise for the 2024 draft.

But later in the first round, Rob Dillingham is slotted at No. 18 to New Orleans, calling him “arguably the toughest player to guard at the high school level.”

Aaron Bradshaw makes it four Wildcats in the first round of the mock draft at No. 20 to Cleveland.

You can see the entire “For The Win” mock draft here to find who Edwards beat out for first.

Multiple first-round picks are widely expected

Though “For The Win” is alone in projecting Edwards at first overall, it is commonplace to expect that at least three members of John Calipari’s next UK team will be first-round draft picks next summer, and in a lot of cases, up to four.

Earlier this week, ESPN listed Bradshaw and Dillingham as second-rounders but named sophomore Ugonna Onyenso with Edwards and Wagner in the first. Onyenso was at No. 23 to the Miami Heat after top-10 projects for Edwards (No. 5) and Wagner (No. 7).

Here’s a round-up of other 2024 mock drafts.