2019 DBR Mock Draft - It's a Wrap!

[Edouble]

Plus Marques is still on the table...tsk tsk.

In my defense, Minnesota has Karl-Anthony Towns at center. Atlanta has Dewayne Dedmon.

Jason should be taking much more heat over this than me.

[JNort]

With the 12th Pick in the 2019 DBR Draft, the Charlotte Hornets select . . .

Rui Hachimura


Now the Hornets GM is gonna get some sleep and explain later because 3rd shift problems...

[JasonEvans]

With the 12th Pick in the 2019 DBR Draft, the Charlotte Hornets select . . .

Rui Hachimura

Now the Hornets GM is gonna get some sleep and explain later because 3rd shift problems...

When you wake up... please tell us if you would have taken White or Little if they were still on the board. We know what the real Hornets ownership would do, but I am interested in your opinion.

[JasonEvans]

Round 1

1. New Orleans Pelicans - Reddevil -----> Zion Williamson, Duke
2. Memphis Grizzlies - Dukehk -----> RJ Barrett, Duke
3. New York Knicks - Troublemaker -----> Ja Morant, Murray St.
4. Los Angeles Lakers - roywhite -----> Jarrett Culver, Texas Tech
5. Cleveland Cavaliers - jacone21 -----> De'Andre Hunter, Virginia
6. Phoenix Suns - brevity -----> Darius Garland, Vanderbilt Hospital
7. Chicago Bulls - CDu -----> Cameron Reddish, Duke
8. Atlanta Hawks - Jason Evans -----> Sekou Doumbouya, France
9. Washington Wizards - Truth & Justise -----> Brandon Clarke, Gonzaga
10. Atlanta Hawks - Jason Evans -----> Coby White, UNCheat
11. Minnesota Timberwolves - Edouble -----> Nassir Little, UNCheat
12. Charlotte Hornets - JNort -----> Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga
13. Miami Heat - subzero02 -----> Bol Bol, Oregon
14. Boston Celtics - FlyingDutchDevil -----> Jaxton Hayes, Texas
15. Detroit Pistons - FerryFor50 -----> PJ Washington, Texas
16. Orlando Magic -coldriver10 -----> Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Va Tech
17. Brooklyn Nets - NSDukeFan -----> Mfiondu Kabengele, Florida St.
18. Indiana Pacers - CoBlueDevils -----> Grant Williams, Tennessee
19. San Antonio Spurs - Billy Dat -----> Tyler Herro, Kentucky
20. Boston Celtics - FlyingDutchDevil
21. Oklahoma City Thunder - accfanfrom1970
22. Boston Celtics - FlyingDutchDevil
23. Utah Jazz - furniture
24. Philadelphia 76ers - BobGreen
25. Portland Trail Blazers - Gooch
26. Cleveland Cavaliers - jacone21
27. Brooklyn Nets - NSDukeFan
28. Golden State Warriors - awhom111
29. San Antonio Spurs - Billy Dat
30. Milwaukee Bucks - Turk
    
    Round 2
31. Brooklyn Nets - NSDukeFan
32. Phoenix Suns - brevity
33. Philadelphia 76ers - BobGreen
34. Philadelphia 76ers - BobGreen
35. Atlanta Hawks - Jason Evans
36. Charlotte Hornets - JNort
37. Dallas Mavericks - kAzE
38. Chicago Bulls - CDu
39. New Orleans Pelicans - Reddevil
40. Sacramento Kings - tfk53
41. Atlanta Hawks - Jason Evans
42. Philadelphia 76ers - BobGreen
43. Minnesota Timberwolves - Edouble
44. Atlanta Hawks - Jason Evans
45. Detroit Pistons - FerryFor50
46. Orlando Magic -coldriver10
47. Sacramento Kings - tfk53
48. Los Angeles Clippers - Jeff Evans (via JasonEvans)
49. San Antonio Spurs - Billy Dat
50. Indiana Pacers - CoBlueDevils
51. Boston Celtics - FlyingDutchDevil
52. Charlotte Hornets - JNort
53. Utah Jazz - furniture
54. Philadelphia 76ers - BobGreen
55. New York Knicks - Troublemaker
56. Los Angeles Clippers - Jeff Evans (via JasonEvans)
57. New Orleans Pelicans - Reddevil
58. Golden State Warriors - awhom111
59. Toronto Raptors - Mattman91
60. Sacramento Kings - tfk53

[subzero02]

With the 13th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Miami Heat select Bol Bol from the University of Oregon. Standing 7'2" with a 7'8" wingspan, Bol Bol possesses tremendous upside. He has a nice perimeter jumpshot and can also score with a variety of moves close to the basket. He runs the floor extremely for a player of his stature and is an effective scorer on the break. Largely due to his elite wingspan, Bol Bol is a highly valuable rim protector. As he adds muscle to his frail body frame, his defensive prowess should improve. Injury is a major area of concern when evaluating his long term NBA prospects. His lack of both body mass and muscle exasperate these concerns. It also doesn't help that his weight dropped from 235 to 210 after suffering a season ending injury to his left foot. Despite these glaring question marks, Bol Bol's talent and uniqueness as a player are impossible to overlook. He only played 9 games collegiately but in those games he put up some great statistics: 21.0 ppg, 9.6 rpg and 2.7 bpg. The Miami Heat aren't expecting him to have a major impact during his first 2 seasons but as his body matures, we anticipate that Bol Bol will become one of the more dominant players in the Eastern Conference.

[JasonEvans]

With the 13th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Miami Heat select Bol Bol from the University of Oregon. Standing 7'2" with a 7'8" wingspan, Bol Bol possesses tremendous upside. He has a nice perimeter jumpshot and can also score with a variety of moves close to the basket. He runs the floor extremely for a player of his stature and is an effective scorer on the break. Largely due to his elite wingspan, Bol Bol is a highly valuable rim protector. As he adds muscle to his frail body frame, his defensive prowess should improve. Injury is a major area of concern when evaluating his long term NBA prospects. His lack of both body mass and muscle exasperate these concerns. It also doesn't help that his weight dropped from 235 to 210 after suffering a season ending injury to his left foot. Despite these glaring question marks, Bol Bol's talent and uniqueness as a player are impossible to overlook. He only played 9 games collegiately but in those games he put up some great statistics: 21.0 ppg, 9.6 rpg and 2.7 bpg. The Miami Heat aren't expecting him to have a major impact during his first 2 seasons but as his body matures, we anticipate that Bol Bol will become one of the more dominant players in the Eastern Conference.

If he is able to overcome the major injury fears, this is a great pick as the kid has ridiculous size/length but he also has legit skills. We are talking about a kid who hit 52% of his threes in college... and he took almost 3 three-pointers per game. But, everyone seems to think he is going to be endlessly injured or something.

I seriously considered taking him at #10. I probably should have because if there is any team who can gamble on a pick and afford to have it not pan out, it is the pick-rich Hawks.

-Jason "take away the injury concerns and Bolx2 is a top 5 pick, easy" Evans

[Truth&Justise]

If he is able to overcome the major injury fears, this is a great pick as the kid has ridiculous size/length but he also has legit skills. We are talking about a kid who hit 52% of his threes in college... and he took almost 3 three-pointers per game. But, everyone seems to think he is going to be endlessly injured or something.

I seriously considered taking him at #10. I probably should have because if there is any team who can gamble on a pick and afford to have it not pan out, it is the pick-rich Hawks.

-Jason "take away the injury concerns and Bolx2 is a top 5 pick, easy" Evans

Also considered it -- if the Wizards pursue the "trade Beal for future prospects" strategy, then someone like Bol Bol is an appropriate home-run swing. Interesting pick for a capped-out Miami team that is perpetually stuck between win-now and build-for-the-future modes.

[flyingdutchdevil]

...wait...how did Garland, White, Clarke, Hachimura, and Bol Bol all get taken? Now the Celtics really have to dig deep.

Okay, so he's the state of the Celtics. We have a great coach. We have young talent. We have an aging but still effective Al Horford.

Kyrie will be gone. That's a foregone conclusion. We have Terry Rozier, but he's not a top tier PG (albiet still a good one). We have solid/good/potentially great players from the 2-4. Hence, the Celts need players are 1s or 5s. But we're also the Celts, so we look towards the best available player moreso than need. With this utterly mediocre draft outside of the top 5, it's a crap shoot.

So, we'll try to kill two birds with one stone. We'll draft the best player available and potentially fulfill a medium-term need.

And with the 14th pick of the draft, the Celtics select Jaxson Hayes from University of Texas. This is a risky pick, but Hayes could be a potential All-Star. He could also be a bust. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. This draft class is not ideal for a team with 3 1st round picks.

[FerryFor50]

Rather than hold everyone up, I’ll make my pick and do a write up later today.

With the 15th pick, the Detroit Pistons select PJ Washington, Kentucky.

[flyingdutchdevil]

The Kentucky prospects are interesting. I think they are medium floor, low ceiling type prospects. You kinda know what you're getting that there really isn't that much upside. As the Celtics GM, I'm trying to stay away from them.

[coldriver10]

With the 16th pick in the 2019 NBA draft, the Orlando Magic select Nickeil Alexander-Walker, SG, Virginia Tech. The GM would like to bold the player's name but is not sure how to do this on mobile. ((Jason- I did it for you))

The Magic need shooting and defense on the perimeter, and we feel Nickeil is a great fit for our team. We also considered Herro as well as Ty Jerome (the mock GM honestly would choose Jerome here, but she doesn't believe real GMs are quite as high on him). Regardless, Nickeil is a high floor prospect and a solid pick at this point in the draft.

[FerryFor50]

The Kentucky prospects are interesting. I think they are medium floor, low ceiling type prospects. You kinda know what you're getting that there really isn't that much upside. As the Celtics GM, I'm trying to stay away from them.

That’s pretty much the rest of the prospects left in this draft. 😁

[Truth&Justise]

The Kentucky prospects are interesting. I think they are medium floor, low ceiling type prospects. You kinda know what you're getting that there really isn't that much upside. As the Celtics GM, I'm trying to stay away from them.

That’s pretty much the rest of the prospects left in this draft. 😁

I think there's still a few high-upside high-risk players. Guys like Darius Bazley, Jontay Porter, Romeo Langford, Kevin Porter, and most of the international players (particularly Goga Bitadze).

[NSDukeFan]

The New Jersey, oops, Brooklyn, Nets made the playoffs this year with a fairly young squad. We have some good young pieces to build around. I may go into more detail in future picks as this one is going to Atlanta, as we traded it to them to dump Allan Crabbe’s salary. I was originally hoping one of the Gonzaga forwards, or the French forward would still be around at this spot, but when they were all gone, I figured I would go Canadian and take Alexander-Walker. Unfortunately, those plans were foiled. I might as well stick with a Canadian and pick the second ever player in the first round to have played in the NCAA and never started a game. With the 17th pick, the Brooklyn Nets select Mfiondu Kabengele. . I might add more later, but don’t want everyone waiting more than they already have.

[CoBlueDevil]

With the 18th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Indiana Pacers select Grant Williams, forward, University of Tennessee!

The Pacers 2018-2019 campaign would have to be considered a success, finishing with a 48-34 record and 4th place in the East! Yes they did get swept by a more talented Celtics team in the first round, but after losing their best player Oladipo in January, staying in the top four was pretty impressive! If Oladipo doesn't get hurt we might be talking about how the Pacers played the Bucks tough in a 5 or 6 game series.

Now to get to next year, the Pacers roster is definitely in flux. Oladipo's timetable to return is uncertain, Tyreke Evans has been dismissed from the team, 3 starters are unrestricted free agents (Thad Young, Bojan Bogdanovic and Darren Collison), and 2 solid contributors off the bench in Cory Joseph and Wesley Matthews are unrestricted free agents as well. So there is a lot that is up in the air! The good news is that you have an All Star in Oladipo when he is healthy, and two solid young centers in Turner and Sabonis.

The Pacers should set a priority on resigning Bojan Bogdanovic (18.0 PPG., 49.7 FG% and 42.5 3P%). He is going to be a hot commodity and if they want to stay competitive in the East they should do what they can to get him back! They can't afford to lose both of Darren Collison and Cory Joseph as they will be completely depleted at PG, so I would also try to resign both of these guys if possible, but put a priority on Collison. Looking at the other free agents at PG, keeping these two guys makes the most sense if the price is right for both.

Thad Young is the other UFA that is going to be on the radar of a lot of teams. By adding Grant Williams the Pacers can slide him into the starting role left by Young and hopefully retain about 75% of the offensive production that Young provided, and not lose much on the defensive end as Williams is a top notch defender.

Grant had a great season at Tennessee averaging 18.8 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 3.2 APG, 58% EFG and 32.6% 3PT% and was an early frontrunner for NPOT. He has a high basketball IQ on both ends of the floor, is tough and physical, and a hard working, unselfish player.Ultimately Grant has the skill set and mentality to be a great glue guy that can slide into a starting role and do all of the intangibles that the Pacers need! He reminds me a bit of Draymond or PJ Tucker, and we have seen a lot of success with players like these, especially in the playoffs!

[JasonEvans]

The New Jersey, oops, Brooklyn, Nets made the playoffs this year with a fairly young squad. We have some good young pieces to build around. I may go into more detail in future picks as this one is going to Atlanta, as we traded it to them to dump Allan Crabbe’s salary. I was originally hoping one of the Gonzaga forwards, or the French forward would still be around at this spot, but when they were all gone, I figured I would go Canadian and take Alexander-Walker. Unfortunately, those plans were foiled. I might as well stick with a Canadian and pick the second ever player in the first round to have played in the NCAA and never started a game. With the 17th pick, the Brooklyn Nets select Mfiondu Kabengele. . I might add more later, but don’t want everyone waiting more than they already have.

As the Atlanta GM, I will say that I gave NSDukeFan an idea of the kind of players the Hawks want as well as a few names of players I thought made sense and fit that profile. Kabangele was one of those and the Hawks are pleased the Nets helped us out with this pick.

[JasonEvans]

With the 18th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Indiana Pacers select Grant Williams, forward, University of Tennessee!

I'm not saying I hate this pick, but I think in the real draft Grant Williams will still be around well after the #18th pick (and probably after the 1st round is done). Williams doesn't have great length and does not appear to be a guy who is going to take and make a lot of NBA 3s (hit 32% of his 3s this season and only attempted about 1.2 2FGs per game, not a guy who is comfortable out there... though he is a good FT shooter). I feel like his game is not the kind of game the NBA is playing these days.

-Jason "I could be wrong... certainly would not be the first time" Evans

[Troublemaker]

What do people think about Morant's defense? Watching him in the NCAA Tournament, it seemed like he made no effort whatsoever. Didn't stay with his man, never raised his arms, etc. His rebond numbers were good for a PG only because he was usually closer to the basket than you'd expect. I love his motor an PG skills on O, but IMHO he will get abused on the defensive end.

No doubt, Morant's defense was awful. Because he carried such a huge offensive load for his team, it's possible he was just told to rest on the defensive end. Or maybe his D will just continue to be bad in the NBA and additionally he ends up not being able to shoot from the longer line -- that's the path to Morant being a bust. (But almost everyone has such a path).

[Billy Dat]

We in the San Antonio Spurs front office took a long time to make this pick because we were so depressed watching our former future, Kawhi Leonard, dominate Game 4 of the NBA Finals to put his Toronto Raptors within one game of the NBA Championship. How did it all go wrong? We'll be asking that question for a long time. We didn't want to make our pick in that horrendously foggy state of mind. But, a good night's sleep after a six pack of Kunstler Brewing's Verklemmt Pilsner (there were some tears shed during that 3rd Quarter blitz) has us now, in the cold light of day, prepared to move forward.

But do we move forward (youth movement) or try and make another run at the title? After all, Darryl Morey says if you even have a 5% chance at the title, you have to go for it.

LaMarcus Aldrige is 34 with two years owed. DeMar DeRozan is 30 with two years owed. Those are our "max" guys that combine to take $50MM of our cap. Patty Mills is the only other player above $10MM per, and he's 31, and he has two years left. Pau is owed only $6.7MM next year. Our cap situation is good.

The future of the team is with our guards, Derrick White and Dejounte Murray (and maybe Lonnie Walker, but we don't know).

We need 3 and D shooting at the wing spot (Rudy Gay is 33). We potentially need some bigs, but will we finally enter the modern age with modern bigs or will we still stick with traditional non-3-point-shooting dudes?

What we really need is The Claw, Board Men Get Paid, the braided wonder who is burnishing his legend in the North and...

Sorry...it's hard.

Everyone thinks of us as always drafting non-US players, which makes you think we might bite on Goga. But we've been going American lately, and that trend is going to continue. We are a little scared off by Romeo Langford's wrist, and while we really respect Cam Johnson and think he may be the best shooter in the draft, the guy typing has a very hard time picking a Tar Heel when there are other options available...not that a Wildcat is any better, but I want that shooting, so with the 19th pick in the DBR NBA Draft, the San Antonio Spurs select Tyler Herro from Kentucky.

[flyingdutchdevil]

...the Celtics select Ty Jerome from the University of Virginia. Underrated athlete, underrated defender, good shooter, tough guy.

A little surprised he’s still on the board. He fits the Celtics plan: get a solid PG back up.

We like this pick. No plans on trading him.