An Early Look At An NBA Mock Draft

It’s a bit early to worry about this stuff and a lot will change between now and next June, including trades, but we thought it would be fun to take an early look at a mock NBA draft, in this case from NBADraft.net.

The good folks over there have Paolo Banchero going at #3 to the Orlando Magic, where he’d join fellow former Blue Devil Wendell Carter. Various other people see him going at #1 but it’s all speculation - and that’s the fun of it.

They have AJ Griffin going at #13 to the Indiana Pacers. We could easily see him moving up, given his athleticism and passion for the game. Plus of course his dad is an NBA coach so Griffin will have a great idea of how to be prepared.

Finally, this draft sees Mark Williams going to the Chicago Bulls at #23. If he has a dominant year there’s really not much question that he’ll move up.

It might be a skimpy draft for the rest of the ACC: only FSU’s Matthew Cleveland is listed as a first-round pick.

And this sort of underscores how much things have changed at UNC and how much work Hubert Davis has to do: only Caleb Love is listed as a UNC draft prospect.

Of course, as we said, a lot can change by now and someone, possibly Armando Bacot, could move up. But like seeing Florida State beat UNC for an in-state recruit, seeing NBA drafts without a major UNC prospect is still kind of weird.