2017 DBR Mock Draft - it's a wrap!

[JasonEvans]

And we are off to the races!! [edit: we're done! if you weren't following along, feel free to see how it played out!]

The 2017 DBR Mock Draft has begun. As a reminder, here are the clock rules.
Mon-Fri between 8am and 8pm ET, the clock is 2 hours.
Sat and Sun, the clock is 5 hours between 8am and 8pm ET (to allow for people who have activities away from the computer on weekends).
If you fail to pick when the clock runs out, I will pick for you by selecting the best available player from NBADraft.net and DraftExpress.

As always, you are encouraged to post not only your pick, but your rationale for selecting that player as well as how he fits into your team's needs.

Here is the draft:

Round 1

1. Boston - flyingdutchdevil: Markelle Fultz, PG, Washington
2. LA Lakers - Troublemaker: Lonzo Ball, PG, UCLA
3. Philadelphia - Gooch: Josh Jackson, SF, Kansas
4. Phoenix - pfrduke: De'Aaron Fox, PG, Kentucky
5. Sacramento - gocanes0506: Jayson Tatum, F Duke
6. Orlando - NashvilleDevil: Malik Monk, SG, Kentucky
7. Minnesota - drummerdevil: Jonathan Isaac, F, FSU
8. New York - Ichabod Drain: Dennis Smith, PG, NC State
9. Dallas - brevity: Frank Ntilikina, PG, Belgium
10. Sacramento - gocanes0506: Lauri Markkanen, PF, Arizona
11. Charlotte - mattman91: Zach Collins, C, Gonzaga
12. Detroit - BD80: Luke Kennard, SG, Duke
13. Denver NSDukeFan: Harry Giles, PF, Duke
14. Miami - Newton 14: John Collins, PF/C, Wake Forest
15. Portland - Henderson: TJ Leaf, PF UCLA
16. Chicago - atoomer0881: Terrance Ferguson, SG, Australia
17. Milwaukee - kAzE: Donovan Mitchell, SG, Lousiville
18. Indiana - Edouble: Dwayne Bacon, SG/SF FSU
19. Atlanta - Jason Evans: OG Anunoby, SF Indiana
20. Portland - Henderson: Jonathan Jeanne, PF Guadaloupe
21. Oklahoma Cty - Dev11: Justin Jackson, SF, UNCheat
22. Brooklyn - Bob Green: Tyler Dorsey, SG, Oregon
23. Toronto - Nrrrrvous: Semi Ojeleye, SF/PF, SMU
24. Utah - Furniture: Bam Bam Adebayo, PF, Kentucky
25. Orlando - NashvilleDevil: Frank Jackson, PG, Duke
26. Portland - Henderson: Isaiah Hartenstein, PF/C, Germany
27. Brooklyn - Bob Green: Tyler Lydon, F, Syracuse
28. LA Lakers - Troublemaker: Justin Patton, C, Creighton
29. San Antonio - JNort: Josh Hart, SG, Villanova
30. Utah - Furniture: Jordan Bell, PF, Oregon

Round 2

1. Atlanta - Jason Evans: Jarrett Allen, C, Texas
2. Phoenix - pfrduke: Ike Anigbogu, C, UCLA
3. Orlando - NashvilleDevil: Tony Bradley, PF, UNCheat
4. Sacramento - gocanes0506: Frank Mason, PG, Kansas
5. Orlando - NashvilleDevil: Ivan Rabb, PF/C, Cal
6. Philadelphia - Gooch: Derrick White, SG, Colorado
7. Boston - flyingdutchdevil: Caleb Swanigan, PF, Purdue
8. Chicago - atoomer0881: Jonathan Motley, PF, Baylor
9. Philadelphia - Gooch: DJ Wilson, PF, Michigan
10. New Orleans - awhom111: Dillon Brooks, SF, Oregon
11. Charlotte - mattman91: Juwon Evans, PG, Oklahoma St
12. Utah - Furniture: Alec Peters, PF, Valparaiso
13. Houston - duketaylor: Thomas Bryant, PF/C, Indiana
14. New York - Ichabod Drain: Sindarius Thornwell, SF, South Carolina
15. Houston - duketaylor: Mattias Lessort, PF, France
16. Philadelphia - Gooch: Anzejs Pasecniks, C, Latvia
17. Indiana - Edouble: Jaron Blossomgame, SF, Clemson
18. Milwaukee - kAzE: Kyle Kuzma, PF, Utah
19. Denver - NSDukeFan: PJ Dozier, SG, South Carolina
20. Philadelphia - Gooch: LJ Peak, SG, Georgetown
21. Denver - NSDukeFan: Jonah Bolden, PF, Australia/UCLA
22. Washington - jjredickrules: Monte Morris, PG, Iowa State
23. Boston - flyingdutchdevil: Kobi Simmons, PG, Arizona
24. Phoenix - pfrduke: Cam Oliver, PF, Nevada
25. Utah - Furniture: Amile Jefferson, PF, Duke
26. Boston - flyingdutchdevil: London Perrantes, PG, Virginia
27. Brooklyn - Bob Green: Devin Robinson, SF, Florida
28. New York - Ichabod Drain: Vlatko Čančar, SF, Slovenia
29. San Antonio - JNort: Alpha Kaba, PF, France
30. Atlanta - Jason Evans: Edmond Sumner, PG, Xavier

-Jason "Th-th-that's all, folks" Evans

[drummerdevil]

The Fultz? The Tatum is in his court. Tatum should legitimately be the first pick, not just because he's a Dukie. The Celtics are in win now mode, and he's one of the only NBA ready prospects. Plus, they already have a point guard who needs the ball and is, dare I say, better.

[kAzE]

The Fultz? The Tatum is in his court. Tatum should legitimately be the first pick, not just because he's a Dukie. The Celtics are in get to the finals and get obliterated by the Warriors (but probably still not get to the finals because LeBron) mode, and he's one of the only NBA ready prospects. Plus, they already have a point guard who needs the ball and is, dare I say, better.

FIFY.

Also, if the Celtics really ask themselves "What would Belichick do?" this off season, they would trade Isaiah Thomas now.

[flyingdutchdevil]

And with the #1 pick in the 2017 NBA draft, the Celtics select...wait...let's think this through first.

Right now, the Celtics are considering 4 players:

Markelle Fultz: Highest ceiling in the draft. Can play the 1 or the 2. Great length, great athleticism. Leadership likely an issue, but that's more attributed to poor coaching than the player.
Lonzo Ball: Best passer in the draft. He makes everyone better. Okay shot, but huge question marks about his NBA 3pt shooting as he shot 67% from the line. Also plays horrific defense. Family is a nightmare.
Josh Jackson: Best defender in the draft. Better offensive player than advertised. Like Wiggins, but 3pt shot is a question mark. Huge maturity issues.
Jayson Tatum: Lowest floor in the draft. Pretty much guaranteed to be a 20ppg player. But questions remain about other facets of the game (rebounding, defense, intangibles). Will he be Rudy Gay or Paul Pierce?

The Celts are in an interesting position. They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. They have the best young coach in the business. They have some All-Stars and really good role players. They believe in one another. They are excellent defensively.

The question for the Celts isn't, "how do we get better?" It's "how do we compete with the Cavs and the Warriors?" Everyone on the Celts with the exception of Avery Bradley is expendable through trades. Ideally, we'd like to keep Horford, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder, Terry Rozier, and Amir Johnson (as a back-up PF). We would love to keep Isaiah Thomas as a Super 6th man, but he's going to demand a max salary (and someone will pay). Olynyk, Green, Young, Jerebko, and Tyler Zeller are all expendable.

So what does that leave us? A core of Bradley, Horford, Brown, Smart, Crowder, Rozier, and Johnson is small and defensively amazing. What's really missing is a dynamic scorer in the backcourt and a scoring PF. The problem with the latter is that he doesn't exist as a top 5 player in the draft (Jonathan Isaac is way too raw and too risky for a #1 pick). So ideally, we'd love a dynamic scorer on the wing or the backcourt. Jackson is great for D, but not the best for O. Jayson Tatum is perfect, but is he really a #1 pick? Seems like we could trade down, get additional assets, and still draft Tatum (thanks DBR for not allowing that...). Ball will make everyone better, but chemistry, scoring, and defense are all massive question marks.

For the #1 pick, there really is one obvious answer. A backcourt of Bradley, Smart, Rozier, and Fultz is arguably the best defensive backcourt in the country with incredible scoring potential (Bradley is underrated, Smart is overrated, Rozier is wild, and Fultz can become a 20+ ppg scorer). Not to mention, he's a good kid in need of good coaching, and Stevens is giving you that coaching.

So, with the #1 pick in the draft, the Boston Celtics select Markelle Fultz.

[Ichabod Drain]

Jayson Tatum: Lowest floor in the draft. Pretty much guaranteed to be a 20ppg player.

[Troublemaker]

My writeup will come this evening, but for now... in case anyone's waiting on me...

with the #2 pick in the draft, the Lakers select Lonzo Ball.

[flyingdutchdevil]

Christ. Highest floor in the draft.

[Gooch]

Much like the Celtics, the Sixers are in a bit of weird spot with the 3rd pick. What they really need is someone who can:

1. Complement Ben Simmons & Joel Embiid on offense—add some scoring without having the ball all the time since these two are the top options. Coach Brown has said Simmons will handle the ball a lot this coming season.
2. Play defense – defense at the guard and forward positions is more important than offense right now (see #1 above). And the Sixers have started to build a reputation on defense.
3. Shoot the ball – Sixers were one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league last year.

So the Sixers will draft a center. Just kidding.

These needs point to someone like Malik Monk, but he is probably not the slam dunk shooting guard prospect that a GM would take at #3 in this draft. Especially when can’t miss talents like Josh Jackson and Jayson Tatum are available. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a trade here, especially with multiple second round picks (and maybe they’ll look to move Jahlil Okafor?)

My heart says one thing but my head says take the guy who has more upside and has a chance to be a great defender, and then get the shooting that the Sixers need elsewhere. Also from reading the fan boards there might be a revolt if the team takes another Dukie. So…

With the third pick in the draft, the Sixers take Josh Jackson from Kansas.

[ChillinDuke]

Christ. Highest floor in the draft.

Oh man, you're in for a lot of Michael Jordan comparisons. And not the good kind.

I don't envy you...

- Chillin

[pfrduke]

Phoenix has a bit of a weird roster. Its players are either super young (8 are between 19-24) or super old (4 are 31 or older), with very few at their peak (Bledsoe and Knight, and Knight's not very good). The Suns have guys who can score, but the defense is atrocious (30th in the NBA). Most of the talent is in the backcourt, but there are some high upside guys in the frontcourt (including last year's two lottery picks - Bender and Chriss). So, in short, this is not a team that's 1-2 pieces away from competition - this is a team that just needs to accumulate talent.*

I was honestly hoping that this board's (understandable and appropriate) tendency toward Duke homerism would make Tatum a top 3 pick and let Jackson fall to the Suns. Jackson is the best fit with the roster as a defensive oriented wing, but he's off the board. The greatest "need" is probably a defensive forward, so we considered Jonathan Isaac, but I'm not convinced he's really going to thrive and he's also very much a work in progress. Tatum is enticing and is the most ready to contribute right away. But he's not going to do anything to help the defense and making him and Devin Booker cornerstones means that you're never really going to get a lot of stops. So we're taking a high upside guard who can lock people up and makes a good pairing with Booker as the long-term franchise guards. And we all know the Phoenix Suns love Kentucky guards.

So with the 4th pick, Phoenix takes De'Aaron Fox, G, Kentucky

*For this reason, I think the Suns are going to work hard to shop #4 - Sacramento may be willing to give 5 & 10 to come get Fox; Portland may be willing to give all three of its first round picks to come get Tatum.

[kAzE]

And we are off to the races!!

Round 1

1. Boston - flyingdutchdevil: Markell Fultz, PG Washington
2. LA Lakers - Troublemaker: Lonzon Ball, PG UCLA
   

I hate to be that guy, but we're off to a bad start in terms of spelling

It's Markelle and Lonzo

[English]

SNIP...
*For this reason, I think the Suns are going to work hard to shop #4 - Sacramento may be willing to give 5 & 10 to come get Fox; Portland may be willing to give all three of its first round picks to come get Tatum.

Say what?! Are you saying that of Sacto because they're run so poorly that they might be willing to make a colossally idiotic move like that just because...or is there actually a reasonable speculation that this move is on the table???

Seriously, they'd consider trading a top-10 pick to move up one spot (not even from 2 to 1...no, from 5 to 4?!) and draft a guy that is almost certain to be on the board that one spot later*? I call shenanigans.

*And even if he isn't, he's not exactly the one missing piece to a Sacto championship.

[Edouble]

And we are off to the races!!
[*]Phoenix - pfrduke: Da'Aaron Fox, PG Kentucky

I hate to be that guy, but we're off to a bad start in terms of spelling

It's Markelle and Lonzo

I'll be that guy too, if it makes you feel any better.

De'Aaron Fox

[gocanes0506]

Sacramento's turn:

We want fox as PFR stated ( and why in the duece would you say you would trade the 5 and 10 to move up 1-2 spots to get him? Just killing your ability to negotiate).

The Kings are in a crazy place, they are the Old CAVs of the west. Noone wants to come there and their drafting is suspect. They are losing Gay, 2 point guards, and Collision. Want to move McLemore because he sits behind Hield, and may release Affalo. We are looking at 50 million in cap space. If Vlade Divac is worth anything, he will get 2 more 1st rounders this year from cap strapped teams like OKC and Portland. Then move one of those with the 5th to move up to get Fox. But I digress.

With the 5th pick the Divac's select: Jayson Tatum, Duke. Debated between Tatum and Isaac.With Affalo more than likely being cut we need a starter and he is starter ready. Just needs to lock down his D effort and decision making. With the 2 rim protectors that we have, he'll be able to make some mistakes early. His driving ability will really draw some attention and allow to kick out passes to Hield.

Hopefully Tatum adapts right away and brings that star to the team. That way the Kings can sign a good FA or two in a year to make us a contender. If Divac doesn't suck as bad as has, they could start competing for the 5th spot in the west by 2019.

Proposed trades:
To Portland: Papagiannis
To Sac: Evan Turner, Ezeli, and the 20th pick (i'd ask for the 15th but I don't know that we would get it)

To OKC: McLemore
To Sac: Kanter and the 21st pick

Ezeli's contract isn't guaranteed so we'd cut him and eat his 1 million guaranteed money. Turner will hurt for a while but we'll need a backup to Hield. Portland saves 22 million in the deal.

Kanter has 2 years left but 1 is a player's option, which he would most likely use. In the end he doesn't hurt at all. OKC should save around 15-18 million in cap space after they re-sign RFA McLemore. The 21st is the one I would couple with the 5th to move up and get Fox.

[drummerdevil]

Was praying he would fall to seven. Ahh, well. There are others. Except the guy I want is about to go, because he's the logical fit.

[NashvilleDevil]

I will write my reasoning tonight.

With the 6th pick of the draft the Orlando Magic select Kentucky's Malik Monk.

[drummerdevil]

YES! HE'S STILL THERE!

Making my writeup now.

[Tripping William]

Christ. Highest floor in the draft.

Oh man, you're in for a lot of Michael Jordan comparisons. And not the good kind.

I don't envy you...

- Chillin

Eh, he might simply get off easy with a Dave Matthews lyric.

[JasonEvans]

I'll be that guy too, if it makes you feel any better.

De'Aaron Fox

Sorry, I'm editing on my phone and typos gonna happen.

[drummerdevil]

Over the course of the last two months, I have had several changes of heart as to who this pick should be.

Now, let's look at the Timberwolves. When you see them, you see great young scorers in Zach LaVine and Andrew Wiggins. You see an amazing player at center in Karl-Anthony Towns, IMO the best young player in the NBA. You see a great PG who passes the ball well and plays solid defense. That point guard, by the way, is consistently top five in steals and assists, and therefore I would not even consider drafting one of the many point guards in this draft, tempting though it is.

So when you look back at that list of players I just wrote, you see good, promising players at every position. Wait, no. Scratch that. You forgot the best position. Power Forward. At that position, we have... Gorgui Dieng? Yes, I know he's solid, but does any team hoping to contend (which they hopefully will next year) really want Gorgui Dieng as a starter? No. So we need to draft a power forward.

Ideally, we would have gotten Tatum. He fills that void nicely. However, when I really start thinking about it, I don't think he's perfect for that role. I don't think our offense would flourish with that many scorers on the floor, and I'm sure our defense wouldn't with those five players.

Now, we start looking at guys who can play power forward for us. We can consider Lauri Markannen, Jonathan Isaac, and to a certain extent Zach Collins. Those are the players you could actually plug into that role that are logical picks in this area of the draft.

Now, with this pick, we are getting a very solid defender who is not all that selfish (although he can score when need be.) He should fill the power forward role nicely in our small-ball lineup. He averaged 12 ppg, 1 apg, 8 rpg, 1.2 spg and 1.5 bpg with a 25.1 PER. However, I do think he will (with some coaching) be able to pass nicely and score when need be. He should also be able to help our defense, probably playing a Matt Jones type role and matching up against the best opposing player (because, let's face it, would you want Andrew Wiggins guarding LeBron?)

Hopefully with this write up you have guessed who it is by now.

With the seventh pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, the thrilled Minnesota Timberwolves select Jonathan Isaac from FSU.