Mojave King gets NBA combine invite as draft stock increases

Coming off an attention-grabbing rookie season with the NBA G League Ignite, Mojave King has made the official guest list for the 2023 NBA draft combine.

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The NBA has announced the official invite list for the 2023 NBA Draft Combine. pic.twitter.com/po4c33ixrJ

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 9, 2023

The 2023 combine takes place in Chicago, May 16-18 and will allow those considered as top prospects to show off their skills in front of NBA scouts and execs. King will be joined by three of his G-League Ignite teammates, expected lottery pick Scoot Henderson, French standout Sidy Cissoko, and Canadian talent Leonard Miller as well as New Zealand Breakers talent Rayan Rupert also among those invited to the Combine.

Launched in 2020, the G League Ignite is an exhibition team specifically designed to incubate elite NBA prospects. The organization is well prepared this year to add to its standing legacy of fostering 6 successful draftees, including three top-10 picks.

This season, during the Ignite’s first few games in October, the team faced off against Victor Wembanyama and Metropolitans 92. The two exhibition games gained massive attention from scouts, executives and media across the globe as everyone got their first good look at this year’s top two draft prospects, Wembanyama and Henderson.

King played just under 28 minutes in game two, logging 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 15 points on an impressive 86% shooting. He also threw in a block for good measure.

Fellow Aussie Dyson Daniels followed a similar path to King, developing as a junior with the NBA Global Academy in Canberra before playing a season with the Ignite before nominating for the draft. Daniels went to the Pelicans at #8 in the 2022 draft and hopefully, King, who shares an agent with Daniels, can see himself going down a similar path.

King’s career so far

While a season with the Ignite has done well to boost Mojave King’s draft potential, the path to the NBA is still on a steep incline for King, who’s had a rollercoaster of a career so far.

A standout in youth leagues, King was invited in 2019 to join an impressive vintage of recruits at the NBA Global Academy. Coming through the basketball ranks in Australia, King looked every bit as good, if not a stronger talent than the likes of Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels, both of whom have gone on to NBA careers (picks #6 and #8 in the 2022 NBA draft, respectively).

The impacts of Covid-19 during 2019 saw King decide to play with the Cairns Taipans via the NBL’s Next Stars program instead of playing college basketball. He struggled for playing time his rookie season, averaging only 16.3 minutes and with rumours of him being unhappy with the situation in Cairns we saw the first Next Star to jump from one team to another when he moved to Adelaide for the 2021/22 season. Despite the 36ers offering increased opportunities, his playing time actually dropped to ten minutes per game, leaving many to wonder what had happened to his NBA potential.

Mojave didn’t let the NBL experience stand in the way of his NBA goals and thanks to a connection with former NBL coach of the year Rob Beveridge at the helm of the Southside Sharks who play in the NZNBL, he spend the offseason in New Zealand a promising young NBL hooper to do when starved for minutes? Why, skip the offseason of course. Mojave signed with the Southland Sharks of the NZNBL, effectively cramming two full seasons of basketball into one ride around the sun. There, he saw his minutes jump to 18 per game, averaged 18 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists and earnt a place in the team’s starting line-up by the end of the year.

In fine basketball form, in September of 2022, King then moved to the USA, signed with the NBA G League Ignite and aimed to catch the attention of NBA scouts across the nine months prior to the NBA draft.

King’s NBA chances

That very much depends. King has claimed strong minutes on a star-studded team. A year with the Ignite has certainly upped his draft potential. For the right team, a player with this kind of development path is certainly compelling. At the age of 20, he’s managed to play what amounts to 3 seasons of professional basketball on an upward trend.

King is sometimes touted as a “3 & D” guy. This adds to his attractiveness as a prospect. The core defensive skills are promising. NBA distance shooting is still a stretch, but he seems to be managing the adjustment. His 31.5% accuracy from depth with the Ignite doesn’t speak to his game-to-game streakiness.

The mock draft boards’ across the interweb have varying opinions on King’s chances with most seeing him as a late second-round pick. SI is pulling for him as a late second-round pick. Hoop-Social is one of the more optimistic, placing him at 46 and ESPN has him ranked 91, in terms of player rankings, which would see him undrafted, but potentially a free agent pick up after summer league or the recipient of a two-way player deal.

If we take the past as an indicator, an interesting comparison is Hugo Besson who happens to have been King’s main matchup in the Metropolitans 92 exhibition. Hugo went to the Bucks at pick #58 last year and Besson had similar stats with the Breakers as King delivered with the Ignite.

If King does make the cut, he’s probably going to be stashed to the G League, perhaps the NBL, as seen with 2022 late second-rounder Luke Travers. And if King doesn’t make the cut, he’s almost certainly going to end up in the G League or perhaps back in the NBL, but without the NBA handcuffs and hopefully with some more willingness from the team that scores his contract to dish out some good minutes.