A terrible NBA Draft looks exactly like a brilliant one. Of course, the fashions change from year to year. What was fly in 1998, when Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzki and Paul Pierce were available, would not be drippin’ in 2024, when it will take a sharp scout’s keen eye to find anyone who’ll one day wear an All-Star uniform.

In the green room, though, each player is delighted when his name is called, so long as it’s called close enough to the beginning of the show. The lottery picks will all make significant money; No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher will earn about $12.6 million in his first season, even if he turns out to be more like 2013 top pick Anthony Bennett than 2012 top pick Anthony Davis.

You could put a bunch of crummy actors into the same wardrobe worn by Aaron Paul, Giancarlo Esposito and the great Bryan Cranston and call it “Breaking Bad,” but it wouldn’t be the same show. The NBA Draft never changes its look, even though the characters do. It can fool you that way.

In opening the network’s coverage, ESPN’s Malika Andrews noted the draft was “wide open.

Certainly, it’s possible we all could turn out to be off the mark regarding the 2024 NBA Draft. The entire league once was wrong about Manu Ginobili, Draymond Green and, goodness sakes, Nikola Jokic, each of whom was selected in the second round. So it’s conceivable Risacher, whom the Atlanta Hawks chose at the top of the draft, could become the next Anthony Edwards.

It’s hard to get really excited, though, when the No. 1 overall pick played for France in the gold medal game of the FIBA U19 World Cup last July and scored … no points. He played 23 minutes. He attempted one shot, grabbed two rebounds and committed five turnovers. And the No. 2 overall pick, Alex Sarr, was on the same team and scored just eight points in that loss to Spain.