After Tuesday’s 2018 NBA draft lottery, we’ll know which teams will be in line to pick in which spots come June’s 2018 NBA draft, and we’ll start projecting and prognosticating about which prospects would be the best fits for which NBA teams. As we teams conduct workouts and interviews, and as we engage in mock after mock after mock, there’ll be another set of sprints going on, as agents and brand representatives look to ink top prospects to the “footwear and apparel endorsement” deals in an increasingly competitive arms race that has produced some lucrative business opportunities over the years.

In most years, the most highly sought-after signee is the player considered most likely to go No. 1 overall, with top brands vying for the signatures of touted talents like Markelle Fultz, Ben Simmons, Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and John Wall. Things might unfold a little differently this year, though.

Trae Young led the NCAA in points and assists per game as a freshman at Oklahoma before declaring for the 2018 NBA draft. (Getty) More

According to plugged-in sneaker reporter Nick DePaula of ESPN, “a handful of sneaker brands” view former Oklahoma guard Trae Young — a very likely lottery pick, but one most frequently slotted somewhere between the fifth and eighth overall selections in most mock drafts — as “the most marketable player in the NBA draft class of 2018” … to the point that one sneaker brand that’s been out of the hoops game for almost 20 years and is now looking to get back into the business wants Young to be its signature star.

Why Trae Young?

Well, for one thing, dudes who can do cool stuff generate attention, and Young — a 6-foot-2, 180-pound whisper of a thing with a ratchet and boundless confidence — can do cool stuff:

It’s not just that Young led the nation in scoring (27.4 points per game) and assists (8.7 dimes a night) as a freshman. It’s that he did it with a brand of audacity — pulling up from miles behind the 3-point line, using the threat of his jumper to dust opponents off the bounce, shaking defenders with his dribble, throwing stylish passes to cutting teammates in the half-court and in transition — that gets fans talking and gets them running back all those highlights. The more they do that, the more likely they are to notice what’s on his feet.

“There’s a magic to certain players. There’s an ‘it factor’ that’s hard to quantify, and I believe he has that,” Omar Wilkes, one of Young’s agents at Octagon Sports, told DePaula.

And while some might worry how the smaller, slighter Young will fare when tasked with creating against NBA defense and athleticism every night, it’s also possible that the skills that made him so tough to handle at Oklahoma will play up at the next level, only increasing his value as a generator of on-court offense and off-court interest.

“Get him in the open floor of an NBA game and he will excel in a way the restrictive nature of college never afforded him,” our Jordan Schultz wrote last month.

Context is everything

Several other members of the 2018 class have been considered higher-end on-court prospects than Young to this point in the draft evaluation cycle. But most of them are big men — centers Deandre Ayton, Mo Bamba and Wendell Carter, four/five combos Marvin Bagley III and Jaren Jackson Jr. — who rarely profile as major unit-movers in the sneaker game.

Potential No. 1 overall pick Luka Doncic has plenty of flash to his game, but he’s also a Slovenian point forward coming to the U.S. after playing professionally in Spain, so how marketable a commodity he’ll be to stateside audiences remains to be seen. Michael Porter Jr., last year’s top prep recruit and an exciting scoring prospect, barely played in college after back surgery scuttled nearly all of his lone season at Missouri, negatively impacting his visibility on the national stage.