NBA Mock Draft 2016: Latest 1st-Round Projections for Best Prospects
The NBA draft is fun for all hoops fans.
If your team is already good, it can get better.
If your team is horrible, it can pick up a franchise savior.
If your team is devoid of picks, like the New York Knicks or Brooklyn Nets, cross your fingers and hope it can buy a second-round selection (which is common).
Sunday signaled the end of the NBA Draft Combine, which saw a handful of players garner some momentum. We’ll talk about two of them below, but first here's a mock draft:
| 1 | Brandon Ingram (Duke) | 76ers |
| 2 | Ben Simmons (LSU) | Lakers |
| 3 | Buddy Hield (Oklahoma) | Celtics |
| 4 | Dragan Bender (International) | Suns |
| 5 | Kris Dunn (Providence) | Timberwolves |
| 6 | Jamal Murray (Kentucky) | Pelicans |
| 7 | Jaylen Brown (Cal) | Nuggets |
| 8 | Wade Baldwin IV (Vanderbilt) | Kings |
| 9 | Jakob Poeltl (Utah) | Raptors |
| 10 | Skal Labissiere (Kentucky) | Bucks |
| 11 | Henry Ellenson (Marquette) | Magic |
| 12 | Demetrius Jackson (Notre Dame) | Jazz |
| 13 | Timothe Luwawu (International) | Suns |
| 14 | Tyler Ulis (Kentucky) | Bulls |
| 15 | Deyonta Davis (Michigan State) | Nuggets |
| 16 | Domantas Sabonis (Gonzaga) | Celtics |
| 17 | Marquese Chriss (Washington) | Grizzlies |
| 18 | Cheick Diallo (Kansas) | Pistons |
| 19 | Furkan Korkmaz (International) | Nuggets |
| 20 | Taurean Prince (Baylor) | Pacers |
| 21 | Damian Jones (Vanderbilt) | Hawks |
| 22 | Denzel Valentine (Michigan State) | Hornets |
| 23 | Ivica Zubac (International) | Celtics |
| 24 | Isaiah Whitehead (Seton Hall) | 76ers |
| 25 | Stephen Zimmerman (UNLV) | Clippers |
| 26 | Malik Beasley (Florida State) | 76ers |
| 27 | Zhou Qi (International) | Raptors |
| 28 | Juan Hernangomez (International) | Suns |
| 29 | Diamond Stone (Maryland) | Spurs |
| 30 | DeAndre' Bembry (Saint Joseph's) | Warriors |
Intriguing Prospects
Wade Baldwin IV
Vanderbilt point guard Wade Baldwin IV is a freak athlete.
Yeah, yeah, yeah—that term gets thrown around a lot. But Baldwin has a special build. His 6'11 ¼" wingspan, in particular, seemed to drop some jaws, including those of CBS Sports' Sam Vecenie, Basketball Insiders' Alex Kennedy and Cole Zwicker of CapStrategist.com:
According to NBA.com, Baldwin also finished second in the lane-agility drill (10.45 seconds), which measures a player’s speed around the key using “using forward sprinting, side-to-side shuffling and backpedaling to navigate cones.”
Baldwin, who starred alongside Karl-Anthony Towns at St. Joseph High School (Metuchen, New Jersey), talked about what his length can immediately bring at the next level, per Derek Bodner of USA Today:
"I've been advised that I could possibly guard the 1-through-3 positions, because of my length. I think that's what makes me unique in this draft
[...]
Using that size, if there's another good guard that's playing, say I'm on a team with a Russell Westbrook, maybe I'm not starting, but maybe I can play alongside of him being that combination guard.
"
Baldwin averaged 14.1 points, 5.2 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game while shooting 42.7 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from three-point range this year.
DraftExpress had Baldwin going 15th overall to the Denver Nuggets in its latest mock draft, but a top-10 team such as the Sacramento Kings (No. 8) could pounce on him. The Milwaukee Bucks (No. 10) could be another option—they love lanky players.
It wasn't difficult to see how athletic Baldwin was throughout the 2015-16 campaign, but the numbers the combine revealed add a new element. The more he's seen, the more he'll climb up the board.
Isaiah Whitehead
DraftExpress pegged Seton Hall guard Isaiah Whitehead as a late second-round pick—but don’t tell him that.
According to SNY.tv’s Adam Zagoria, the Brooklyn native has higher hopes heading into June.
"Definitely, I definitely want to be a first-round pick," he said. "But it depends on how I play in these workouts, to tell you the truth. If I play bad, I can't expect anything. So I really gotta just keep grinding, keep getting better so when I get to these workouts, I can knock them out the park."
Whitehead also told Zagoria that he’s “100 percent” staying in the draft if he receives a first-round guarantee.
For much of the season, the point guard looked like he could flirt with the lottery. But his dreadful NCAA tournament performance—10 points on 4-of-24 shooting, 0-of-10 from three-point land—put a damper on things.
ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla took notice of Whitehead at the combine, though:
As Seton Hall's Twitter account relayed, Whitehead shot 6-of-8 from the field for 13 points with three assists in Thursday’s scrimmage:
Whitehead plans on announcing his decision to either stay in South Orange, New Jersey, or make a leap to the NBA on Thursday:
Before then, he has workouts scheduled with the Philadelphia 76ers and Indiana Pacers. Philly is the more interesting of the two.
The Sixers have a minimum of three first-rounders, which allows them to play with house money. Whitehead is raw, but that environment would let him play through his mistakes and potentially emerge as a polished floor general in a season or two.
Expect Fraschilla’s prediction to ring true: If he remains in the draft, Whitehead should be a first-round pick.
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