If Johnny Furphy decides to stay in the 2024 NBA Draft pool, the Kansas shooting guard/small forward is expected to be drafted somewhere toward the end of the first round in June.
NBA.com’s latest mock draft has him heading to the Utah Jazz with the No. 29 overall pick. Furphy might still head back to the Jayhawks for one more season, but if he chooses to remain in the draft, he’ll join about a dozen other Australian-born players in the league, including Josh Giddey, Joe Ingles, and Ben Simmons.
Furphy told reports at the 2024 NBA Combine that he’s “not leaning either way right now.” It doesn’t sound like even the sportsbooks with the best payment options for the NBA and the NCAA could predict what he plans to do in the coming weeks.
So, will Furphy become the next noteworthy Australian player to jump from the college ranks to the NBA? Even he doesn’t seem to be sure. Despite already drawing comparisons to the likes of Cam Johnson,
If, however, Furphy opts to head to the NBA, it’ll mark the end of a long journey to the league. After growing up in Melbourne, Australia, he attended the Basketball Australia Centre for Excellence (CoE), which is located at the Australian Institute of Sport.
Furphy averaged just over 14 points and 5 rebounds per game during his final season at the school, eventually commanding attention on the U.S. college basketball scene and earning an invitation to attend Kansas by Jayhawks coach Bill Self.
The 6-foot-9 star didn’t get his college basketball career off to the strongest start, as he wasn’t inserted into the Jayhawks’ starting lineup until January. But once he began getting more opportunities to play, he made the most of them.
If you look at Johnny Furphy’s stats, you’ll see he scored double-digit points in 11 of the 12 games that followed his first start at Kansas. He would finish the season averaging 9.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game while shooting 46.6% from the field. He was also named to the Big 12 Conference All-Freshman team.
The late-season success Furphy enjoyed at Kansas earned him rave reviews from NBA scouts, who have all but locked him in as a first-round pick. But even still, Johnny Furphy and Kansas may not have seen the last of one another.
While he’s spending his spring gathering feedback from NBA scouts by attending events like the NBA Combine, he hasn’t ruled out a return to Lawrence, KS, where he could continue to improve next season and maybe transform himself into an NBA lottery pick.
Either way, this summer will play a key part in his development. The Australian National Team has apparently been keeping a close eye on Johnny Furphy and the NBA Draft and has asked him to participate in the team’s training camp in July for a chance to represent his home country at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
That should help him further his skills on the court before he makes his way to the NBA or gets back to business at Kansas, depending on which direction he decides to go in.
