Cody Williams has yet to play his first college game – heck, he hasn’t even finished his high school career yet – but the Colorado signee is already being linked to the NBA in a hard-to-ignore way.

The 6-foot-8 Williams appeared on a 2024 NBA mock draft released Wednesday by ESPN’s Jonathan Givony as the No. 2 overall pick, behind only future G-League Ignite forward Matas Buzelis.

Should Williams ultimately be selected there, he would be the highest-drafted Buffs player ever, surpassing program legend Chauncey Billups, who was taken with the No. 3 overall pick by the Boston Celtics before embarking on a 17-year NBA career in which he was a five-time all-star and an NBA Finals MVP.

When assessing Williams and his appeal to NBA teams, Givony noted that he “brings great positional size (6-8), length and versatility, showing impressive fluidity changing speeds out of pick-and-rolls to either find teammates unselfishly or finish creatively around the basket.”

Though Williams made just 18 of his 93 3-pointers (19%) last year on the Nike EYBL circuit, Givony wrote that the four-star forward has “has shown improvement this season in terms of his range and versatility shooting off the dribble and off movement” while adding that it’s still unknown where exactly Williams will fit in the league positionally, but “we'll ascertain more about at Colorado next season, which is not a traditional hot spot for one-and-done prospects.”

Williams is rated as the No. 24 prospect in the most recent 2023 Rivals150, having risen 18 spots from his previous ranking. It provides one of many snapshots of how quickly Williams has ascended in the basketball world.

Earlier this month, Williams was one of 14 amateur boys’ basketball players in the United States picked to take part in the Nike Hoop Summit. In late January, the Arizona native and younger brother of Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jalen Williams was named a McDonald’s All-American.

At Colorado, he’ll be part of a class currently ranked 24th in Rivals’ team rankings, a group that includes fellow four-star prospect Assane Diop.

If Williams lives up to the immense hype following him to Boulder, he’d be the 10th NBA first-round draft pick in Colorado history and the fourth since 2011, a notable accomplishment for a program that isn’t widely viewed as an consistent incubator of next-level talent.

The full mock draft is only available to ESPN+ subscribers, but you can find it here.