NBA Lottery Mock Draft

Tuesday 5/16, marked the NBA Draft Lottery, and for one team to potentially change the course of their future as all teams in attendance had eyes on one thing and one thing only. The rights to the 1st pick and rights to draft storied prospect, Victor Wembanyama. I personally loved seeing the energy that the San Antonio representative and managing partner, Peter Holt, brought to the lottery as the NBA deputy commissioner, Mark Tatum, announced the Charlotte Hornets to receive the 2nd pick, leaving the Spurs with the 1st overall pick for the 2023 NBA Draft taking place June 22nd, 2023 in Brooklyn, New York.

To celebrate this historical event, I've made my list to show my take on the upcoming top 5 pics in the draft.

1. San Antonio Spurs - Victor Wembanyama

Age: 19 | Height: 7'4" | Weight: 230 lb | Position: Center

Skill Sets: Scoring, rebounding, interior defense, all-rounder

Team Fit: He fits well with any team as he is all-around a great player with his skill set and his size. Coach Popovich is still one of the elite coaches in the NBA, and he should be good for Wembanyama's development.

Player Comparison: I make the player comparison to combination of AD and KD. Of course Wembanyama doesn't have the shooting ability of KD, but he shows a lot of potential be a knockdown shooter once he develop further in the NBA. His stature and skill set compares to AD especially when he came out of college but of course, much taller.

Personal Comments: There's not really much to talk about as Wembanyama is clear first pick of this year. He is truly a player that can do it all but specifically excels at finishing in the paint with ~42% of his shot selections coming from that area. Spurs have a relatively young team with the team having the 3rd youngest squad last year, so I'm looking forward to see how they will develop their young players and add pieces around Wembanyama to be competitive in the next few years.

2. Charlotte Hornets - Brandon Miller

Age: 20 | Height: 6'9" | Weight: 200 lb | Position: Forward

Skill Sets: Scoring, 3-and-D

Team Fit: Charlotte has a good lineup of guards including their still-developing star guard, LaMelo Ball. Brandon Miller will bring size and spacing that Charlotte needs to be successful few years down the road if he's able to develop as a co-star to LaMelo Ball.

Player Comparison: I compare him to Paul George with his size and ability to score from everywhere on the court as well as his ability to do everything on the court.

Personal Comments: I think Charlotte's window for championship is few years down the road as LaMelo is still 21 years of age. The most important thing to do during this draft is to capitalize on getting a talent that they can continue to build on in the long-term.

3. Portland Trail Blazers - Scoot Henderson

Age: | Height: 6'2" | Weight: 195 lb | Position: Point Guard

Skill Sets: Scoring, passing, athleticism

Team Fit: I foresee Portland will look to trade this pick as Henderson is an exceptional talent with many upsides, and teams that are looking to find their star point guard will potentially look to move up in the draft to pickup this prospect.

Player Comparison: I make the comparison with Westbrook as Henderson has the athleticism to do everything that Westbrook does on the court. Depending on his usage rate, he could be Russell Westbrook 2.0 with his ability to score, pass, and rebound well for his size.

Personal Comments: He seems very quick and strong playing in the G-League that I see him fitting right into NBA play. My only concern is his inefficiency from beyond the arc shooting at 27.5%, and he tends to have higher turnover and fouls than other top prospects with 4.1 and 3.8 per 36 minutes of play respectively playing for the G League Ignite.

4. Houston Rockets - Amen Thompson

Age: 20 | Height: 6'7" | Weight: 202 lb | Position: Point Guard/Forward

Skill Sets: Passing, scoring

Team Fit: With abundance of young talent, the Rockets still lacks a proper point guard that can facilitate their offense. Amen with his ability not only score but pass as well may be the answer that the Rockets are looking for. Amen will get plenty of play time with this developing team and will fit right into the composition of the team.

Player Comparison: A taller Donavan Mitchell comes to mind when I see Amen play due to his ability to finish at the rim and ability to pass the ball off to open shooters.

Personal Comments: I'm very skeptical of Amen as he comes from a fairly new program, Overtime Elite founded in 2021. Statistically, I don't think I can compare him to anyone else in the NBA as the program he's in puts a lot of young talents against each other. However, he has many upsides with great mentors in the program that my skepticism could be proven false very quickly. Only other things that comes to mind is that he's not a great 3 point or free throw shooter, but that is something that could easily improve as he develops in the NBA.

5. Detroit Pistons - Gradey Dick

Age: 19 | Height: 6'8" | Weight: 205 lb | Position: SF

Skill Sets: 3PT/Mid-range shooting, 3-and-D

Team Fit: Detroit has many young talent, but something that they could use more of is outside shooting. Dick has potential to play very well with his efficient shooting along side potential future star Cade Cunningham coming off of lower leg injury.

Player Comparison: I make the comparison of his teammate Bogdanovic as he has similar stature and skill set. Going back to the team fit, Bogdanovic could act as a great mentor for Dick as well coming into the NBA.

Personal Comments: I may be rating Gradey much higher than other mock draft I've read, but I have firm belief that his efficiency in college will translate very well into the NBA. He has shown in college that he can finish well around the rim as well. His 3PT shooting is an impressive 40.3%, which is the highest out of the lottery picks, and also shoots from the line very well shooting at 85.9% in his latest season playing in Kansas. The only concern that arise is his athleticism as he's not as athletic as some of the top picks in this draft class.

I appreciate the read on my first blog post, and I hope for many more in the future.