2015 NBA Mock Draft 1.0

The 2015 NBA Draft is two weeks from tonight, and because I needed something to entertain myself the other day I decided to write up my own short little mock draft. This isn't a comprehensive, full first round mock draft though. Because I only really care about who the Detroit Pistons can and will be drafting with the 8th overall selection, I've only mocked the first eight picks.

I should preface this post with the obvious and state that I have no first-hand knowledge of who will be drafting whom. What I've done is scoured the interwebs and read about as many mock drafts as I could by people who have done them and done them well for a long time, as well as read up on the rumors and rumblings from around the league by people in the know, and then included my own intuition to make my final picks. This is not scientific by any means.

I will also be updating this mock draft two times before the real draft - the first update will be one week from today and the second will be the day of the draft. So there may be some changes.

I should also note that I have not mocked any trades that have not yet been made. I hate it when other mock drafts do this, so I refuse to do it myself. So without further ado, here are some Keck Thoughts on the NBA Draft.

KECK THOUGHTS NBA Mock Draft 1.0


1.) MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES: Karl-Anthony Towns, C/PF, Kentucky 

There’s lot of chatter about Timberwolves President/Head Coach Flip Saunders preferring Duke’s Jahlil Okafor over Towns, but Towns is the player with the higher ceiling. He’s the better defender and he has more range than Okafor, which makes him a better fit alongside Nikola Pekovic, Gorgui Dieng and Ricky Rubio.

2.) LOS ANGELES LAKERS: Jahlil Okafor, C, Duke 

Los Angeles is praying that Towns falls to them, but Okafor is a great consolation prize. He’s the most pro-ready post player in the draft to come out of the draft in a long time, and he’ll make a really nice building block alongside 2014 first-round pick Julius Randle in the frontcourt.

3.) PHILADELPHIA 76ERS: D’Angelo Russell, PG, Ohio State 

Russell is being compared favorably to 2015 MVP runner-up James Harden, so former Houston Rockets exec/current 76ers General Manager Sam Hinkie should be elated to get Russell to run point for his young, rebuilding team.

4.) NEW YORK KNICKS: Kristaps Porzingis, C/PF, Latvia 

The Knicks are the true wild card of the draft. They could go in any number of directions, and whichever player they eventually draft will have a direct effect on the rest of the Top 10 and beyond. They could even end up trading the pick if it nets them a veteran player.

If they do stay at 4, I think they go with the player being hailed as possibly the best overall prospect in the entire draft. Porzingis is a 7-footer with true NBA range, he's been playing in one of the best non-NBA pro leagues in the world as a teenager, and can play the 4 while Carmelo Anthony stays at the 3, or Porzingis can play the 5 with Melo at the 4.

5.) ORLANDO MAGIC: Willie Cauley-Stein, C, Kentucky 

Apparently the Magic covet Porzingis, but he’s not available in this mock now. So instead of him, I’ll mock Orlando to draft the best all-around defender in the draft to help shore up a defense that was among the worst in the league in 2014-15, particularly in the paint.

6.) SACRAMENTO KINGS: Emmanuel Mudiay, PG, Congo 

If Sacramento can’t get Cauley-Stein to pair with DeMarcus Cousins in the frontcourt, I think they’ll be more than happy to take Mudiay. Mudiay may not be the shooter or passer that D’Angelo Russell is, but he’s supposedly more of a bruising PG in the mold of Russell Westbrook. That should be enough for Mudiay to supplant Darren Collison in the starting lineup.

7.) DENVER NUGGETS: Justise Winslow, SF, Duke 

Perhaps the most critical pick of the draft for the Detroit Pistons that doesn’t actually belong to the Pistons is the Nuggets at 7. Both teams should be looking for a wing or a frontcourt player, and Detroit could simply be left taking whomever Denver doesn’t.  

With that in mind and seeing how this mock has gone so far, I have Denver looking at the best remaining wing players (Justise Winslow, Mario Hezonja, Stanley Johnson, Kelly Oubre) and ultimately drafting Duke SF Justise Winslow because of the possibility he’ll become an elite defender in the pros.

8.) DETROIT PISTONS: Mario Hezonja, SF, Croatia 

It’s no secret that Pistons President/Head Coach Stan Van Gundy and General Manager Jeff Bower would love to trade this pick to acquire up a veteran player that can help them make the playoffs in 2016. But for now, if they stay put at 8, they’ll go one of two ways: draft a wing player to replace Tayshaun Prince/Kyle Singler or draft a “playmaking 4” (formerly called a “stretch 4” in basketball parlance) to replace Greg Monroe should he leave in free agency.

At this point in this mock all the top tier frontcourt players are gone while a few of the top wings are still available. I’m giving Detroit the Croatian sharpshooter, Mario Hezonja, precisely because of his 3-point shooting ability. Van Gundy loves to have shooters for his style of offense, and it's conceivable Hezonja would be a Day 1 starter. It doesn’t hurt that he’s also supposedly very athletic and has a bit of cockiness/nastiness in him that – if kept in check – could serve him well in the pros.

As it stands right now, that's how I think the first eight picks of the 2015 NBA Draft will go down, barring any trades. As I said before, this is subject to change during either of the two updates I will do in the next two weeks before the actual draft.

Do you have any agreements or disagreements? If so, feel free to share your thoughts and maybe your own mock in the comments. I'd love to discuss the draft with anyone who would like to.