Many things factor into NBA teams’ decisions on draft day: players’ strengths and weaknesses, teams’ needs, injury histories, and age, to name a few. Age is something teams have focused on especially lately. Most teams prefer to pick young players with plenty of upside and untapped potential in the first round of the draft rather than older players who spent more time in college.
According to HoopsHype, the average age of first-round picks in the 2024 NBA Draft was 20 years and 229 days—a similar number to what we have seen in most recent drafts. The first round of the 2024 NBA Draft featured only a handful of players over the age of 21: Zach Edey, Devin Carter, Dalton Knecht, Tristan da Silva, Dillon Jones, Terrence Shannon Jr., and Baylor Scheierman. Most of them were picked outside of the lottery.
For the Magic, picking an older player in the first round has worked out fine so far, though. When the Magic picked 18th overall, they were not looking for another youngster to potentially develop into a star. They already had plenty of those. What they needed was someone who could space the floor and fill a role right away. After playing four seasons of college basketball, Tristan da Silva fit that description, and he has not disappointed.
Tristan da Silva has been solid for the Magic
Despite being only a rookie, da Silva is older than several more veteran Magic players, including Paolo Banchero, and has currently started the fourth-most games for the team. Injuries to Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, as well as other rotational players, pushed da Silva into a bigger role than expected.
His experience and maturity certainly helped him navigate that. Taking on a new role as a rookie is never easy, but it is even more difficult when you are expected to fill in for your team’s best players. Of course, no one expected da Silva to put up numbers similar to what Banchero and Wagner produce, but he still had a lot of responsibilities to carry. Despite the difficulties, da Silva has done his best to help the Magic stay afloat and rose to the challenge on several occasions. He was, for example, the Magic’s leading scorer in wins over the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, and Toronto Raptors.
For the season, da Silva is averaging 8.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists, doing a little bit of everything for the Magic. Those numbers may not jump off the page, but he has been one of the success stories of the Magic’s season. All the injuries were unfortunate, but at least they revealed da Silva’s talent and readiness to step up. That could be crucial knowledge for a team hoping to still make noise in the playoffs, and the minutes da Silva is playing now will help him perform when it matters the most.
Da Silva is still a rookie, though, and not everything has gone smoothly all season long. Like every rookie, the 23-year-old has had his ups and downs. He did, for example, go 0-6 from the field in a 105-96 loss against the Detroit Pistons and then responded with 25 points to help the Magic secure a win over the Toronto Raptors in the next game.
Drafting older players in the first round may not be the norm anymore, but it has paid off for the Magic. It also worked out well for the Memphis Grizzlies, who drafted 22-year-old Zach Edey and are now watching him almost average a double-double. Likewise, Dalton Knecht is a rotational player for the Los Angeles Lakers