Utah Jazz Mailbag: Where Would Kyle Filipowski Be Re-Drafted?

SALT LAKE CITY – Welcome to the Utah Jazz mailbag where this week we look at where Kyle Filipowski would be selected in if the 2024 draft were held today.

Each week we will send out a prompt on X and BlueSky asking for the questions you have about the Jazz.

Then, we’ll respond to as many as we can in that week’s Jazz mailbag.

Jazz Mailbag: Where Does Kyle Filipowski Land In A 2024 Re-Draft?

Currently, How many first round draft picks is Kyle Filipowski better than?

— Jake The Lynx (@jakethelynx.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 12:36 PM

Question: Currently, How many first-round draft picks is Kyle Filipowski better than?

Answer: Kyle Filipowski has had a terrific rookie season, and considering he was a second-round pick, he has to be considered one of the steals of the 2024 NBA Draft.

Less than one year removed from the draft, however, still means it’s extremely premature to predict who will be the best player from this class several years down the road.

But, your question did specifically ask who Filipowski is better than currently, which is an easy question to tackle, before we get into making projections about his future.

To this point, Flip is the 11th leading scorer among rookies, ranks sixth in rebounds per game, and 11th in assists per game.

putting the 𝗣𝗢𝗪 in Filipowski 💥 pic.twitter.com/TqYWFVGM80

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 13, 2025

He’s also ranks eighth in field goal percentage, and more impressively, has the third-highest three-point percentage among all rookies.

If you combine his statistical profile, Filipowski has pretty clearly had one of the 10 best rookie seasons in the NBA this year and will be a strong candidate for the All-Rookie team.

Right now, the first-round picks who have had better seasons than Flip are Jared McCain, Stephon Castle, Yves Missi, Kel’el Ware, Zach Edey, and Alex Sarr.

Filipowski then falls into the next group of rookies like Zaccharie Risacher, Donovan Clingan, Matas Buzelis, Bub Carrington, Dalton Knecht, and Isaiah Collier among the league’s most prolific first-year players.

So, to this point in his career, Filipowski has outplayed somewhere between 18-23 players selected in front of him in the first round.

Kyle Filipowski on where he’s improved most as a rookie.#TakeNote | @kslsports pic.twitter.com/uARTBEtscU

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) March 23, 2025

But, the bigger question is how likely will Filipowski continue to outplay his 2024 draft counterparts, and whether he’s likely to move up this list, or move down it.

First, let’s be clear that Flip was one of the most NBA-ready prospects in last year’s draft. Standing 6-foot-11, with two years of college basketball under his belt, he was more prepared to compete from day one than many of his fellow draftees.

In that sense, what Filipowski is doing shouldn’t be considered a huge surprise.

However, it’s important to revisit (one of) the reasons he fell to the second round during the draft process, and why that wouldn’t happen again in any re-draft moving forward.

and he’ll do it again!

Flip’s leading the team with 18 and counting 👀 pic.twitter.com/zMSQAi98X6

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 15, 2025

Though Filipowski’s strengths (height, passing, coordination) were readily apparent at Duke, their ability to translate to the NBA hinged largely on his hypothetical shooting prowess.

While Filipowski did knock down nearly 35 percent of his threes as a college sophomore, he was only a 67 percent free-throw shooter, which hurt his credibility as a long-term floor-spacer.

As a freshman, Flip knocked down just 28 percent of his three-pointers, which also raised concerns about his shooting.

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Now, having knocked down 39 percent of his 167 threes in the NBA, and 37 percent of his last 279 attempts since the end of his freshman season, there’s a large enough sample size to assume that Filipowski will at least be a tacit threat as a floor-spacer, even if his shooting percentages ebb and flow, which unlocks the rest of his game on the offensive end.

With that in mind, a 21-year-old, 6-foot-11, 35 percent three-point shooter, who can also dribble and pass is a very common profile for a lottery pick in today’s NBA, and where Filipowski would likely be taken in a 2024 re-draft.

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Ben Anderson is the Utah Jazz insider for KSL Sports, the co-host of Jake and Ben from 10-12p with Jake Scott on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone, and the author of the Jazz Mailbag. Find Ben on Twitter at @BensHoops, on Instagram @BensHoops, or on BlueSky. 

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