Picks 15-11
Harry Giles is a monster when healthy. He just hasn’t been healthy. You would think that Portland might look at their history of injured bigs and run for the hills…but to date, they’ve been nothing if not consistent. They don’t need backcourt help, they need frontcourt help. Giles is the best player available and they should take the risk here.
I still think T.J. Leaf would be a good fit here, but everything being reported about his performance lately makes me think he’s due to slide. Mitchell on the other hand is turning heads with his wingspan and skill set. The Heat know a few things about shooting guards with long wing spans. This is a team that will demand Mitchell get into elite conditioning and that could raise his game to heights that make him one of the surprise players of the draft. Which is usually how Pat Riley operates.
The Nuggets have a lot of talented and interesting pieces. It’s not entirely clear how/if they come together. It seems likely that Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari are not long-term fits with this young core and they’ll need a compliment to Nikola Jokic. Willy Hernangomez could be that player, but Collins might be a better fit given his superior rebounding skills. They could go for a point guard, but Ferguson is probably the best option and he’s a dubious fit as well as a reach here. This isn’t a clean fit, but Denver doesn’t really have obvious needs, just a lot of talented players in very different stages of development. Collins seems like a low-risk, high yield option that allows them to trade older post players without taking a big hit in performance.
If Nitilikina falls this far, Stan Van Gundy is going to lose his mind. There’s no more combative player/coach relationship in the league right now than the one he has with Reggie Jackson. He values defense and he wants a new point guard. Sometimes, things just make sense. It’s hard to imagine that someone won’t trade up to take Frank if he slides past eight or nine, but if he makes it to Detroit (or they are the team to trade up), this will be a happy basketball marriage.
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If the draft shakes out the way this mock does, I think Charlotte walks away perhaps the most frustrated because they just missed out on the elite talents in the draft. As a result, I think they’ll take a risk and go for O.G. Anunoby. They really value versatile defenders and Anunoby fits the mold of players they like. He’s a good compliment to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Nicolas Batum, and Marvin Williams. He’s not going to put them over the edge, but he’s a risk who fits their system.
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