NBA Mock Draft 2016: Round 1 Projections, Prospects' Post-Lottery Landing Spots

Now that all 30 teams know where they will be picking in the 2016 NBA draft on June 23 after Tuesday night's lottery, they have a much better understanding of what their futures are going to look like.

LSU's Ben Simmons and Duke's Brandon Ingram have been the consensus top two players for months, taking some drama out of the equation. There will certainly be some misdirection from the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers with the top two picks, but everyone knows what they are going to do.

Beyond Simmons and Ingram, there is talent available, but this is not the kind of class that is going to easily churn out stars. It's a good crop of players—some with incredibly high ceilings—but teams and fans will have to be patient while the development process takes shape.

The draft is all about providing optimism for the future. Let's look at where that will come from with a new mock draft:

Position	Team	Pick
1	Philadelphia 76ers	Ben Simmons, F, LSU
2	Los Angeles Lakers	Brandon Ingram, F, Duke
3	Boston Celtics (via Brooklyn Nets)	Dragan Bender, F/C, Croatia
4	Phoenix Suns	Jaylen Brown, F, California
5	Minnesota Timberwolves	Jamal Murray, G, Kentucky
6	New Orleans Pelicans	Buddy Hield, G, Oklahoma
7	Denver Nuggets (via New York Knicks)	Henry Ellenson, F, Marquette
8	Sacramento Kings	Kris Dunn, G, Providence
9	Toronto Raptors (from Denver Nuggets via New York Knicks)	Jakob Poeltl, C, Utah
10	Milwaukee Bucks	Marquese Chriss, F, Washington
11	Orlando Magic	Skal Labissiere, C/F, Kentucky
12	Utah Jazz	Timothe Luwawu, G/F, Serbia
13	Phoenix Suns (via Washington Wizards)	Furkan Korkmaz, G, Turkey
14	Chicago Bulls	Deyonta Davis, F, Michigan State
15	Denver Nuggets (via Houston Rockets)	Domantas Sabonis, F, Gonzaga
16	Boston Celtics (via Dallas Mavericks)	Ante Zizic, C, Croatia
17	Memphis Grizzlies	Malachi Richardson, G, Syracuse
18	Detroit Pistons	Denzel Valentine, G, Michigan State
19	Denver Nuggets (via Portland Trail Blazers)	Tyler Ulis, G, Kentucky
20	Indiana Pacers	Demetrius Jackson, G, Notre Dame
21	Atlanta Hawks	Diamond Stone, C, Maryland
22	Charlotte Hornets	Malik Beasley, G, Florida State
23	Boston Celtics	Thon Maker, F, Australia
24	Philadelphia 76ers (from Miami Heat via Cleveland Cavaliers)	Dejounte Murray, G, Washington
25	Los Angeles Clippers	Wade Baldwin IV, G, Vanderbilt
26	Philadelphia 76ers (via Oklahoma City Thunder)	DeAndre' Bembry, G/F, St. Joseph's
27	Toronto Raptors	Taurean Prince, F, Baylor
28	Phoenix Suns (from Cleveland Cavaliers via Boston Celtics)	Ivica Zubac, C, Bosnia
29	San Antonio Spurs	Chinanu Onuaku, C, Louisville
30	Golden State Warriors	Stephen Zimmerman, C, UNLV

Lottery Winner: Los Angeles Lakers

There is little doubt Ingram will be the second player taken in the draft. The big question before the lottery was whether he'd be going to the Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers or Boston Celtics.

The Celtics are obviously the best team among that trio, having made the playoffs each of the last two years and winning 48 games last season.

But when Boston's logo came up for the No. 3 pick, Ingram was either going to be the face of the Sixers' or Lakers' future. Both are storied franchises with rich traditions that have fallen on hard times of late and have front offices seemingly out of sorts on a daily basis.

Yet the Lakers are more likely to move forward successfully now that they are out of the huge shadow cast by Kobe Bryant's salary and retirement tour. They have young talent to build around, such as D'Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle.

What the Lakers don't have is a true face-of-the-franchise player who will carry them into the future. Simmons is the star of this draft class because he's been hyped since his high school days, but as Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ Advance Media pointed out, Ingram bears a striking physical resemblance to a former MVP:

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During his college days at Texas, [Kevin] Durant measured in at 6-foot-9, 215 pounds, with a 7-foot-4 wingspan. Ingram has a nearly identical body, coming in at 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan. The one difference is weight, as Ingram weights just 195 pounds, but with his broad shoulders, it is expected he will be able to put on muscle rather easily.

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It's unfair to say right now that Ingram will be another Kevin Durant. But it's not out of the question given the way the two are built—DraftExpress lists Ingram at 6'9", 196 pounds—and both players showed the ability to make shots from anywhere on the floor by hitting over 40 percent from three-point range in college.

The Lakers need a superstar player they can build everything else around. Simmons may end up being the better player in the long run, but Ingram looks like a more NBA-ready prospect who will fall into Los Angeles' lap with the second pick.

Lottery Loser: New York Knicks

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

Tuesday was a bad night for all NBA teams in the state of New York. The Brooklyn Nets are still paying the price for that awful deal to acquire Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from the Celtics, losing out on the No. 3 pick because of that 2013 trade.

But the Knicks have more reasons to be upset about how the lottery played out than the Nets. Brooklyn has known for a long time it was stuck in this mess of its own making.

The Knicks, on the other hand, finally got a taste of what having a high lottery pick can do last year when they selected Kristaps Porzingis with the fourth overall pick. He had some ups and downs in his debut season but looks like a valuable building block after averaging 14.3 points and 7.3 rebounds in 72 games.

This year, the Knicks are stuck without a first-round pick because the Denver Nuggets were allowed to swap their selection if New York had the higher choice as a result of the Carmelo Anthony trade.

The Nuggets' pick slated to go to the Knicks, which wound up being No. 9 overall, goes to the Toronto Raptors thanks to the failed Andrea Bargnani trade in 2013.

Per Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv, both the Knicks and the Nets will be working the phones to try to get a pick on draft night:

A potential late-first-round or early-second-round selection is a far cry from having a top-10 pick, where there would still be quality starting options on the board. By the time teams get into the mid-20s in a draft, they are going to be lucky to find a bench player. Anything better than that is a nice bonus.

The Knicks made a lot of mistakes in the past that have left them in their current hole. This year's lottery failure isn't team president Phil Jackson's fault because the Knicks brought Anthony to New York three years before hiring him.

Jackson is the one tasked with picking up the pieces from those previous errors, which has proved to be a greater task than he may have realized.

Best Value Pick: Kris Dunn to Sacramento Kings

It's been a long time since anything went right for the Sacramento Kings. General manager Vlade Divac botched the situation with former head coach George Karl, choosing not to fire him in February after the two sides had a meeting, per ESPN.com's Marc Stein, only to dismiss him after the season ended.

The Kings did get a solid replacement head coach in Dave Joerger, who made the playoffs in each of his three seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies. He's not walking into a situation nearly as good, but he did show the ability to stave off adversity when the number of injured players he had to work with at the end of last season was far greater than what he had in the postseason.

So all of that is a preamble to say the Kings could use some good news from this draft. Fortunately, they do in this particular mock, with Providence star Kris Dunn joining the team next season.

Sam Vecenie of CBS Sports actually listed Dunn among his losers because of how far he could end up falling relative to his talent:

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At No. 3, the Celtics have Marcus Smart and Isaiah Thomas. At No. 4, it's Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight. No. 5 sees the fast-developing Ricky Rubio there. No. 6 is really the first spot that makes any modicum of sense, and even the Pelicans have a couple of options there in Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans, although both are free agents at the end of the season. Then if he falls past that, No. 7 is Denver, who took its point guard of the future last year in Emmanuel Mudiay.

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The Kings don't necessarily have an opening at point guard next season, even with Rajon Rondo scheduled to become a free agent. Darren Collison has a team-friendly $5.2 million deal in 2016-17, per Spotrac.

Yet Collison is no one's idea of a top-tier point guard. He's a good shooter, hitting over 40 percent of his attempts from three-point range last season, but not a good defender. Basketball-Reference.com showed he cost the Kings 2.2 points in defensive box plus-minus.

ESPN.com's Chad Ford noted teams who like Dunn highlight that "his defensive abilities and the way he sees the floor make him a better true point guard" than Kentucky's Jamal Murray, who is the other top guard in this class.

The first job of a point guard is to see the floor and make snap decisions. Dunn has that kind of ability right now, making him a potential starter at one of the most valuable positions.

The Kings need something to be optimistic about, which makes Dunn more valuable to them than any other team picking in the top 10.