NBA Combine Results 2024: Wednesday Scrimmage Highlights and Top Prospects

Wednesday marked another big day for the top prospects in the 2024 NBA draft, as they got to participate in a scrimmage to test their abilities against each other in a game-style setting.

Much of the focus was on Bronny James, in part because LeBron James and Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka were in the stands to watch him play.

Bronny's actual performance on the court was pretty solid. He finished with a team-high 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting in 23 minutes.

The 19-year-old said after the game he welcomes comparisons to defense-first players like Davion Mitchell and Jrue Holiday because it shows the effort he plays with on that end of the court.

In the same game that James showed out, Connecticut forward Alex Karaban boosted his stock. He had 12 points and was a team-high plus-seven in 20 minutes.

B/R's Jonathan Wasserman has Karaban as a borderline first-round prospect at No. 27 overall on his most recent big board:

"He shot 41.0 percent on spot-up jumpers. He'll be one of the draft's most productive and efficient cutters. He may be the best in the class at reading defenses and getting himself open for easy baskets with surprise slips or backdoor actions. His outstanding 70.8 percent finishing wasn't because of explosive hops."

In the first scrimmage of the day, Coleman Hawkins put on a show for his team. He scored 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting (3-of-4 from three-point range) with five rebounds and three assists to earn Player of the Game honors.

Hawkins, who played last season at Illinois and has kept his college eligibility open after entering the transfer portal, told reporters on Tuesday he's "90-10" leaning toward staying in the draft, but his decision could be impacted by what kind of guaranteed deal he could get from an NBA team:

"I would really love to hear from a team that I can at least get a minimum contract— something guaranteed. I'd feel really comfortable with that because I honestly really don't want to go back to school. I just feel like I've kind of outgrown college basketball. I'm ready to kind of give my life to basketball. Signing that contract, it becomes real life. It's not college and you can get away with not going hard in practice or taking plays off. You can get mad at me for saying that, but not everybody is going 100 percent like that."

The minimum salary for a rookie in 2024-25 is $1.16 million. Coleman has until May 29 to decide if he's going to remain in the draft or return to college.

While Harrison Ingram didn't have a great showing with five points on 2-of-9 shooting in 26 minutes, one of his two made baskets was an And-1 fadeaway with James guarding him in the second quarter.

Even though this wasn't the best day for Ingram, he made a strong impression on Tuesday with 14 points, four rebounds and three steals in his first scrimmage.

Serbian guard Nikola Djurišić is having a very good week in Chicago. The 20-year-old scored 16 points on an efficient 7-of-12 shooting from the field in 21 minutes in the same game that Hawkins dominated.

In a class that doesn't have a clear standout at the top and a lot of players trying to establish themselves, there will be plenty of opportunities over the next five weeks for under-the-radar talents like Djurišić to go much higher than anticipated.

The combine continues through Sunday at Wintrust Arena and the Marriott Marquis in Chicago.