2009 NBA Consensus Mock Draft (6/25)
Posted by John Paulsen (06/25/2009 @ 4:17 pm)
The draft kicks off (or is it “tips off”?) in less than three hours, so I thought it would be fun to publish one last edition of the consensus mock draft. I pulled in mocks from SI.com and ProBasketballNews since they are current and are well respected enough for NBA.com to use in their consensus.
If three or more mocks made a pick, then it’s considered majority rules and that pick is listed in bold with the number of votes next to it in parenthesis. For those picks that have two or fewer mocks agreeing on a pick, I make the pick for them. For example, the five mocks have five different players going to the Knicks, so I made my best guess — Jrue Holiday. I went with Jennings over Flynn for the Bucks at #10 because Chad Ford reported that the Bucks are in love with Jennings’ upside. Et cetera.
A few random thoughts…
– Even though the #5 and #6 picks aren’t true consensus picks, three mocks had the T-Wolves using one of those back-to-back picks on Stephen Curry, while three mocks had the T-Wolves using the other pick on James Harden — who cares who is picked first? (Besides the players, of course. Their salary depends on it!)
– I’d be a little surprised if the Thunder drafted Rubio and kept him. Although I don’t think it would be a bad move, as Russell Westbrook is too much of a shoot-first point guard in my opinion, Westbrook’s camp has been pretty adamant that he doesn’t want to move off the ball. If OKC sees Westbrook as a point guard, then the best fit appears to be James Harden.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: NBA, NBA Draft, Rumors & Gossip
Tags: 2009 NBA consensus mock draft, B.J. Mullens, consensus mock draft, DeJuan Blair, James Harden, James Johnson, Jordan Hill, Julian Wright, Marcus Thornton, Ricky Rubio, Russell Westbrook, Tyler Hansbrough, Tyreke Evans, Wayne Ellington
2009 NBA Consensus Mock Draft (6/24)
Posted by John Paulsen (06/24/2009 @ 1:01 pm)
Chad Ford, DraftExpress and NBADraft.net all updated their mocks today, so it’s a good time to come up with another consensus. NBA.com has their own consensus, but it’s only updated through yesterday. (I expect they’ll update it today.) They’re using some old mocks and since I’m unfamiliar with a few of those sites, I can’t speak to their quality.
(To see my most recent mock draft, click here.)
A few random thoughts:
– DraftExpress backed off their prediction that Harden would go #2. He’s a great fit in OKC and Russell Westbrook didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea of moving off the ball. I don’t think the Thunder will take a point guard.
– Ford has Jennings going #19 to the Hawks. Atlanta would have to be thrilled to get him there, but I don’t think he lasts that long. On the whole, his workouts have reportedly been very good. Maybe he’s not polished but everyone seems to be saying that he has a ton of upside, maybe the most of any player in this draft. How does a guy like that slip into the late teens? In Ford’s defense, DE has him going #17 to the Sixers. Again, Philly would have to be thrilled to get him there.
– DE has James Johnson going #9 to Toronto, which is a bit of a surprise. The Raptors and DeMar DeRozan have been linked for weeks now, but Jrue Holiday has impressed the franchise as well. Toronto already has Jose Calderon, so I doubt a point guard is high on their list of priorities, but that’s definitely the position of strength in this draft.
– NBADraft.net has Holiday going #18. They’ve been down on him for this entire process, but considering that he’s working out for mainly lottery teams, I don’t see him falling that far. He was rumored to be a Sacramento favorite at #4 early on, but he has had some inconsistent workouts since then. I think he’ll probably go to the Knicks at #8 or the Bucks at #10 unless players slip that those teams can’t pass up (i.e. Curry for the Knicks and Hill for the Bucks).
– There is a lot of fluidity in picks #4 through #8, which makes sense considering there are so many point guards jockeying for position. Rubio is the biggest unknown and has only worked out for Sacramento, Curry really saw his stock climb after the season and appears to be a favorite of Minnesota, Golden State and New York, Evans reportedly dominated in the Minnesota and Sacramento workouts, and Jennings has turned in a couple of great workouts for Golden State and New York.
NBA consensus mock draft (6/16)
Posted by John Paulsen (06/16/2009 @ 5:07 pm)
Chad Ford and Draft Express updated their mocks, so it’s a good time to take another look at the consensus. I also added Rotoworld’s most recent mock to the equation, and added a column (“consensus”) that makes a pick if two or more of the mocks agree on a player.
A few random thoughts…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: NBA, NBA Draft, Rumors & Gossip
Tags: 2009 NBA consensus mock draft, 2009 NBA Draft, Brandon Jennings draft, consensus mock draft, GM Steve Kerr, James Harden draft, Jordan Hill draft, Kevin Pritchard, NBA Draft, NBA Draft rumors, NBA rumors, Ricky Rubio draft, Steve Kerr
Consensus NBA Mock Draft (6/10)
Posted by John Paulsen (06/10/2009 @ 12:57 pm)
Both ESPN (Chad Ford) and NBADraft.net updated their mock drafts today, so it’s a good time to update our consensus mock draft. (Come on, DraftExpress and DIME, your mocks are getting stale!)
A few things to note:
– Whether or not Jordan Hill slips might depend on what happens with James Harden. If he’s there at #5, the Wizards could very well take him, and the teams picking #6 through #9 will probably pass on Hill, leaving him for the Bucks at #10. As a Bucks fan, I’d be happy if the team got Hill in the draft and re-signed Ramon Sessions.
– It doesn’t look like Ricky Rubio is too keen on going to Memphis, but he probably won’t slip past the Kings at #4. If the Thunder see Russell Westbrook as their point guard of the future (which is what Chad Ford is reporting), then it wouldn’t make sense for OKC to draft him, though they could try to trade down and pick up a good player in the process. They could trade down to #5 and grab Hill, but the Wizards aren’t looking to trade up.
– Brandon Jennings’ range in this consensus is #7 to #14. Expect that to change as he does a few individual workouts. He was considered the top talent in his class by many coming out of high school, but his stock has slipped some since he played (inconsistently) over in Italy this season.
– The four mocks have the Warriors taking four different point guards. It just goes to show what kind of depth there is at the position this year.
– Of these four mocks, the one I trust least is DIME. From Earl Clark going #6 to the Jazz passing on Hansbrough at #20, there are a few headscratchers. I’d like to see an updated mock from DIME.
Posted in: NBA, NBA Draft, News, Rumors & Gossip
Tags: 2009 NBA consensus mock draft, 2009 NBA Draft, Brandon Jennings draft, consensus mock draft, Jordan Hill draft, NBA Draft, NBA Draft rumors, Ricky Rubio draft