NBA Mock Drafts And Duke’s Starters

Let’s get this out up front: NBA mock drafts are a joke. It’s even stupider before the lottery because no one has any idea who is even picking where. And since you really need to have some idea about that it’s kind of pointless.

But it’s undeniably fun to speculate, which is why we all do it. It’s the other end of recruiting rankings which people also take far too seriously.

It’s better to look back really and cluck your tongue: Michael Jordan went third? Behind Sam Bowie? Donovan Mitchell went 13th? Boston conned Philly into trading the #3 pick for the #1 pick? And picked Jayson Tatum, who they were going to take anyway?

In fairness, the jury is still out on #1 pick Markelle Fultz, who was injured most of the season, but Boston got what they wanted and two more first round picks besides. They really smoked Philly on that trade.

In the greatest draft trade of all time, the Celtics traded Easy Ed McCauley to St. Louis (the Hawks were there before moving to Atlanta) for the #1 pick and Bill Russell, who brought 11 titles back to Boston.

Still, it’s fun to wonder what can happen. And with potentially five first-round picks, Duke fans have a lot of speculating to do. So here’s five early takes on the draft.

Keep two things in mind: 1) as we said above, the horse trading has to wait for the lottery, and 2) Boston has a ridiculous amount of draft picks and young players to work with. He has so much in fact that there are are only a handful of players who are absolutely off limits. With LeBron on the verge of free agency, it might just be Steph Curry and the Greek Freak. Maybe Karl-Anthony Towns, who is still so young. But not much more.

And as we’ve said before, he can’t possibly keep all the players and picks he has, so at some point, the assets will begin to diminish.

As long as Ainge is in Boston, drafts may be highly unpredictable.

And, therefore, fun.

So here’s where Duke’s guys are projected by several different mock drafts. Keep in mind that Wendell Carter has not made his final decision yet.